Governor Scott Walker says he thinks there's a possibility that the jobs currently at Lincoln Hills correctional facility in Lincoln county will stay there during the upcoming transition of facilities, and possibly increase.
Walker made a recent campaign stop in Rhinelander. After Democrats criticized an earlier proposal to take more than a year to reform juvenile corrections, Walker announced last month he was moving up the timetable. The state proposal is to close Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake as a juvenile correctional facility, and making six facilities around the state to house juvenile offenders.
He integrated an earlier proposal by Democrat Evan Goyke to make the Lincoln Hills facility into a medium-security adult correction facility with an emphasis on substance abuse rehabilitation Walker said the issue is about long-term reform, ending the concept of larger facilities toward a different model used in other states....
"....people who work there today will either have a choice to stay there as an adult facility or go to any of the the other sites out there. We believe, because of the population of the adult population in corrections that we will see an increase of jobs within this region for that site because it will probably be a much higher capacity than what we currently have out there. Which is good. There will be no negative economic impact, in fact, we arguably will see more people working in the area because of it...."
As of late last week, the legislature has yet to take up the Walker Administration proposals with the legislative session scheduled to end in March.
