The village of Allouez holds a roundtable discussion at the state capitol in Madison to discuss the closure of Green Bay Correctional Institution, April 23, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
MADISON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The village of Allouez held a roundtable discussion at the state capitol to discuss the proposed closure of Green Bay Correctional Institution.
Tuesday’s panel included Allouez village president, Jim Rafter, Rep. David Steffen (R-Green Bay), Brown County executive, Troy Streckenbach and Brown County Sheriff, Todd Delain.
Family members of inmates, reform advocates, and former guards also spoke.
Allouez president Jim Rafter called it a meeting of the minds, bringing together a diverse group of people, from different backgrounds, but with one goal in mind — closing Green Bay Correctional.
He held the discussion in Madison, because while GBCI is located in Allouez, it’s not just a local, Brown County issue, it’s a state problem.
Rafter is calling on Governor Tony Evers to include the closure of GBCI in the next budget, adding the prison has outlived its lifespan creating inhumane conditions for those who live and work there.
He said, “Green Bay Correctional Institution must be closed for the good of Wisconsin. We call upon the Governor and the lawmakers in Wisconsin to immediately commit to closure and start the process toward a sustainable solution.”
Rep. Steffen told the panel he’s been working for eight years to address the issue.
According to Rep. Steffen, “GBCI is unstable. It is unhealthy. It is unsafe and it’s unsustainable. We can’t be continuing this path.”
A report released in 2020 concluded the prison has reached the end of its useful life.
Rep. Steffen says the 126-year-old prison needs $275 million of repairs and it costs about $45-$50 million per year to operate.
Designed to house only about 7-hundred inmates, close to a thousand men are living at GBCI, in what some call inhumane conditions.
“I intimately understand the crushing feeling of confinement that the brothers are enduring in there, right now at this second. How it attacks and chips away at their mind, at their heart, at their hopes,” added Dante Cottingham, a former GBCI inmate.
The understaffing, deteriorating conditions, and overcrowding are leading to issues on the inside.
Those advocating for the prison’s closure concerned with what could happen on the outside if nothing changes.
“What it’s producing is an agitated, unstable environment that is a timebomb, pardon my use of that language, but it is. It’s waiting to have the bubble burst,” said David Robillard, an architect who helps to design prisons.
No one at the roundtable wants that happen and they believe their voices are being heard.
Jim Rafter added, “I surely hope the governor and legislature can start to talk to each other because it’s not a republican thing, it’s not a democratic thing, it’s dealing with human lives and as the state government they have to deal with that.”
And those at the roundtable want it to be dealt with in the next budget, with a plan put in place to close GBCI for the good of those who work and live inside, as well as those who live and work on the outside.
Comments