Keep Waupun Prison open and move DOC headquarters here

The problems at Waupun Correctional Institution are not due to the building's age. It's because successive governors and most state legislators have ignored the growing crisis in the corrections system. They have refused to listen to correctional staff, Waupun's elected officials or the inmates, all of whom have been vocal over the past decade — and to the deteriorating conditions at many state facilities.

And this is a bipartisan issue. Corrections officers have not had governors who supported them since the era of Tommy Thompson and Scott McCallum. In fact, Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, who represents Waupun and chairs the Assembly Corrections Committee, had to convince skeptical members of the both Parties to support a salary increase for prison staff.

Blaming the building for the problems at Waupun Correctional Institution is like saying domestic violence only happens in old houses.

Yes, staffing in our state's maximum security prisons is a problem. But there are two main reasons for this: the shrinking workforce and the fact that working as a correctional officer in a maximum security prison can be a really crappy job. For too long, correctional officers have been underpaid for the conditions in which they work.

Add to that a liberal media that loves to publish sentimental stories about the worst people in our society while being overly critical of the police who are just doing their job and keeping us safe by keeping the most dangerous people behind bars.

Why do we see news stories about the death of an inmate or abuse, but rarely or never about a police officer being attacked? Because such attacks are common, unlike the frequency with which an inmate dies or is genuinely abused.

Don't get me wrong, nobody wants prisoners to be mistreated. But staff also have a right to safety, because if staff are not safe, nobody is safe.

When you drive past Waupun on Highway 151, you see Waupun and think, “There are the prisons.” But for those of us who live here in Waupun, the prisons are part of our community. Most, if not all, churches in Waupun offer prison outreach. We pray in church for both the police and the inmates. We see inmates mowing the lawn and think nothing of it.

Why? Because Waupun residents are used to it. We understand that some inmates deserve to never be released, but others have made a huge mistake and we hope they learn from this and join the community as engaged citizens. Waupun even employs inmates in local businesses to help them adjust to life outside. Many of these inmates are seen daily in our community and no one knows they are on work release.

Solving the problems in our state's prisons is not that complicated. The first step has been taken — big pay raises and generous government benefits. Next is protecting the officers who work in the prisons. If the staff isn't safe, no one is safe. Let's stop coddling the inmates. Let's stop giving them tablets. Let's stop giving them the second-largest law library in the state or passing regulations that protect an inmate at the expense of an officer's safety.

Move the Department of Corrections headquarters to Waupun. Maybe then a Department of Corrections bureaucrat can actually meet a real corrections officer and see an inmate.

Finally, on improving conditions at the Wisconsin Correctional Institution specifically, the State Journal rightly pointed out that the Green Bay facility is valuable land. It is close to a highway and the Fox River, which is why local politicians want to close it.

Waupun is different. Corrections are part of our economy and our heritage.

My recommendation would be to close the Green Bay Correctional Institution and sell this valuable property. At the same time, Waupun should be modernized. Parts of the building are only 25 years old thanks to the Thompson administration's upgrades. The prison could remodel cell halls, and the prison's footprint actually allows for more cell halls.

Send some Green Bay inmates and police to Waupun. We'll take them!

The community of Waupun is proud of its correctional history. Waupun Correctional is the oldest prison in Wisconsin and the third oldest operating prison in the country. The Waupun Heritage Museum houses the only permanent exhibit on correctional history in the entire state.

So I'm asking that the state's elected officials and media representatives tour the Wisconsin Correction Institution and meet with the citizens of Waupun, rather than reacting knee-jerk to the growing crisis that has developed in Wisconsin's DOC. Those of us who live in the prisons 24/7 understand, and we knew what was happening, and we know Madison knew it too.