Milwaukee, WI: Banners Dropped Against New Youth Jail

The following report and photo was anonymously sent to It’s Going Down.

Last week in Milwaukee, we received word of an emergency meeting re: Act 185, a law to expand the juvenile justice system, in particular, through the mandated closure and replacement of Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth prisons. The announcement that the Department of Corrections bypassed community input sessions went out just two days prior to the scheduled meeting. If you’re thinking “oh, I know how this is going to play out…” well, you’re probably right.

The proposed plan of action to close down the abhorrent and traumatizing youth facility that is Lincoln Hills/Copper Lake includes the building of two new facilities in Southeastern Wisconsin – one, a Type 1 facility to be run by the State, and the other, a Type 2 facility, to be run by Milwaukee County. After several self-botched attempts at delivering his prepared statements, DOC Secretary Kevin Carr admitted to the already uneasy crowd that both of these facilities would be built within the same North Milwaukee district – the district containing the 53206 zip code from which the largest percentage of the youth prisoner population originate. Not only this, but the originally proposed site of the State facility at 6101 W Mill Rd had been turned down in favor of second site, at 6600 W Teutonia Ave – right next to the Milwaukee Safety Academy. Comments from all directions came flying from the crowd and the evening quickly digressed out of a community listening session and into a community shit-talking session.

We agree with the shit-talkers. We don’t want any of this bullshit. No new youth jails! Save the kids from Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake. Let them come home. The DOC is full of child abusers!

These banners were hung on the fence around the proposed site, where, if we and the affected community have any say, no new prison will be built! There or anywhere!