GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – One state representative is saying he’s encouraged about potential change coming to an aging facility.
Representative David Steffen, R-Howard, isn’t mincing words when speaking about the 121-year-old Green Bay Correctional Institution.
“Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI) is the most dangerous place in Wisconsin,” says Steffen.
He highlighted a couple of different statistics to showcase the facilities apparent danger, for both inmates and staff.
First, out of thirty-six Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities, GBCI has the second highest structure age.
Secondly, GBCI ranks first in the number of most frequent inmate-on-staff assaults. The number of those incidents equates to around twenty-percent of all DOC assaults.
Steffen has stated that these statistics represent a very real physical danger, while other components present a danger to the budget.
“GBCI continues to cost the state of Wisconsin a million dollars a month more than a new facility,” he explains.
He adds that around fifty-percent of the DOC’s budget is currently going to repairs at GBCI.
Perhaps most frustrating for Steffen, is the potential economic value of the property that the facility sits on.
“That acreage, which exists right along the Fox River, has an opportunity to provide over $100 million to the Village of Allouez,” explains Steffen.
That figure comes from a St. Norbert College study, which was tasked with measuring the economic impact that moving the prison and re-developing the current site would have.
With dollar figures that high floating around, Steffen believes this is a no-brainer decision.
“This could be one of the more transformative pieces of public policy that could occur here in Brown County,” he says.
And Governor Tony Evers apparently agrees with this viewpoint.
Evers was quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel saying it “seemingly needs to be replaced.”
Comments like this coming from Madison give Steffen a sense of optimism moving forward.
“The election in November had probably the greatest consequence for any community in the Village of Allouez,” he says.
Steffen adds he believes Governor Scott Walker would have included plans to replace the facility and redevelop the site had he won the November election.
