DOC overhaul costs rise in efforts to close GBCI

WISCONSIN – After Gov. Tony Evers’ corrections reform plan was rejected, Wisconsin taxpayers are expected to see increased time and expenses before improvements to the system are realized.

Evers’ reform plan, unveiled in February 2025 as part of his 2025-27 Executive Budget, was billed as the “safest, fastest and cheapest” option to overhaul the state’s correctional system through a “domino series” of projects at several Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities.

When Gov. Evers unveiled the sweeping corrections reform plan as part of his 2025-27 Executive Budget in February 2025, he billed it as the “safest, fastest, and cheapest” option to overhaul the state’s dated correctional system.

“Wisconsin is decades behind other states in reforming our corrections and justice systems, including bringing corrections into the 21st century, because republicans who’ve controlled the Legislature for years refuse to take this issue seriously — and Wisconsin taxpayers are paying the price…” Evers said. “Red and blue states alike across our country have recognized that we can improve community safety, stabilize population rates, support corrections staff and reduce the likelihood that people will reoffend when they are released, all while saving taxpayer dollars at the same time. The longer Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin refuse to be willing to try to do the same, the more Wisconsinites will continue to pay, and our state’s criminal justice system will continue to fall even further behind.”

The proposal included a complex “domino series” of projects at several Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities that, coupled with necessary reforms to help stabilize the state’s skyrocketing prison population, were designed to ultimately close the 128-year-old Green Bay Correctional Institution, revamp Waupun Correctional Institution into a state-of-the-art “vocational village,” and convert Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools to advance 2017 Wisconsin Act 185 and utilize a regional approach to youth populations at smaller facilities, among other key projects.

The first step in the plan, opening the Southeast Regional Care Center for Youth (SERC) in Milwaukee, was completed this week with the first youth expected to move in next month in preparation for the existing Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake school facilities to transition into adult facilities.

But without the full plan approved in the biennial budget, the cost for the next steps have risen significantly.
Estimated to cost $325 million and expected to be completed in 2030 had it been approved in the biennial budget process, the plan now carries a price tag of $585 million and will not be completed until 2032 at the earliest.

“While the realignment project remains less expensive than building a new prison, I’m disappointed that legislative inaction has driven up the costs of this much-needed reform,” said Senator Jamie Wall. “Taxpayers will pay the price for this delay. We need to move forward with this project to ensure public safety and avoid still-higher costs.”

With the SERC open, next steps include converting Lincoln Hills School and Copper Lake School to a 500-bed medium- or minimum-custody institution for men; converting Stanley Correctional Institution to a maximum-security institution with the ability to “flex” as a medium-custody institution; converting John Burke Correctional Center in Waupun to a female institution; expanding capacity at Sanger B. POwers Correctional Center in Hobart to increase bed space by 200 minimum-security beds along with a kitchen remodel; converting Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI) into a state-of-the-art, medium-security institution that would be designated as the state’s first vocational village; and closing GBCI with its residents moved to other maximum-security facilities.