ALLOUEZ, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A local lawmaker is giving the Wisconsin Department of Corrections 30 days to release the results of a 2017 study on Wisconsin prisons.
State Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, says it’s been more than three years since the DOC was required by law to produce a comprehensive structural and operational review of the 122-year-old Green Bay Correctional Institution in Allouez, as well as other prisons in Wisconsin.
The $600,000 report was funded through state budget allocation in July 2017.
“The bottom line: The taxpayers funded this report three years ago, and they have the legal right to a transparent, legal and immediate release of this final report,” Steffen’s office wrote.
In a letter released Monday, Steffen said his office formally requested to see the results of the study last December.
After multiple attempts to get the DOA and DOC to release the results, Steffen filed an open records request in August.
“If a satisfactory response is not received or the ORR is not fulfilled within 30 days after the date of this letter, then my office will be forced to consider legal action against the administration for withholding access to the ORR submitted on August, 10, 2020.”
FOX 11 has reached out to the DOC for comment and have not heard back.
Steffen introduced a bill in 2017 to replace the overcrowded Green Bay Correctional Institution with a privately built, state-run prison.
Steffen believes the results of the study of all the correctional facilities in the state will show Green Bay Correctional has the greatest need for improvements, the same as what a similar study from 2009 showed.
He has said the three main benefits to a new prison are $150 million in state taxpayer savings over 10 years, a safer facility for inmates and workers, and an $80 million economic impact for Allouez.
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