Red flags raised to Walker, others but abuses continued

by Patrick Marley
December 19, 2016

… The crisis at Lincoln Hills is rooted in systematic breakdowns, lax management, confusion over policies, a lack of communication and chronic staff shortages, a review of more than 1,000 pages of records and dozens of interviews by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found.

… As juvenile justice experts around the nation were recommending smaller, more localized facilities, Wisconsin went in the opposite direction, consolidating operations in a remote setting. “This is a 19th century or early 20th century model, where you have a large state-operated facility hours away from the urban centers,” said Jeffrey Butts, director of a research center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “It is profoundly ineffective and wasteful.”

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