Tough-on-Crime Narratives Uphold Wasteful Spending and a Developmentally Inappropriate Juvenile Justice System

Every young person in Wisconsin deserves the opportunity to get an education, grow up in safe communities, and realize their potential. However, Wisconsin relies far too much on incarceration while blaming children for system-wide disinvestment in basic needs. In Wisconsin, protecting children means advocating against reliance on youth incarceration, pushing decision makers to address the root causes of inequity, and removing barriers for justice-involved youth.

As many states move toward decarceration, Wisconsin is heading in the wrong direction by failing to invest in support systems necessary for youth to thrive.

Inaccurate tough-on-crime narratives about youth uphold wasteful spending and punitive policies, such as automatically processing 17-year-olds as adults. Wisconsin legislators have used these narratives to justify not pursuing meaningful policy change, like requiring courts and agencies to treat our children like children. Tough-on-crime narratives ignore these facts:

• Nationally and in Wisconsin, youth crime is down substantially over the past 20 years.
• According to the American Psychological Association, youth brains are not as capable as adult brains to process the consequences of their actions, but they are more receptive to redirection. 
• Incarcerating youth does not decrease crime. In fact, it propels and heightens crime, undermining public safety.
• The federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems acknowledges that most justice-involved youth have also been in the child welfare system or have a parent/sibling who has been justice-involved.
• Severe disinvestment in youth, over-policing in Black and Brown communities, and racial bias in our legal system has led to youth of color being over-represented within the criminal legal system.

“Our children deserve their childhoods.”

Last fall, Kids Forward hosted “Radical Listening for Youth Justice” listening sessions where we invited Wisconsin residents to share their vision for a reimagined youth justice system not rooted in youth incarceration and upheld by tough-on-crime narratives. The overwhelming message from these sessions can be summed up by one participant: “Our children deserve their childhoods.”

Governor Evers’ Proposed 2025-27 Budget Pursues Youth Justice System Reform

The Governor’s proposed 2025-27 budget doubles down on his attempts to snowball juvenile justice system reform. This ‘snowball strategy’ means that we continue to ignore the needs of our state’s most vulnerable children. While we support many of the measures outlined below, these reforms should not be contingent upon adult criminal justice changes.

Research and implement evidence-based solutions to reduce youth incarceration 

Governor Evers proposes several common-sense, evidence-based changes. These proposals would help reduce youth incarceration and increase the likelihood that youth receive the care they need in their own communities:

• By “Raising the Age” at which youth are automatically treated as adults in the criminal legal system from 17 to 18, Wisconsin would join 46 other states in treating children as children. The proposed budget would provide $10m to offset increased costs of care for counties.
• Allowing more flexibility in allocating Youth Aids funding would help counties to provide diversion, early intervention, and community-based care for justice-involved youth. This is particularly beneficial for youth involved in both juvenile justice and child welfare systems. The proposed budget would provide $8.4m in additional funding for youth services.
• Modifying eligibility requirements to ensure justice-involved youth are eligible for guardian and kinship care would allow youth to be cared for in familial environments. The proposed budget provides $5.2m for these modifications.
• Creating a Juvenile Justice Reform Review Committee at the Department of Children and Families (DCF) will allow a team to study and provide recommendations to DCF and the Department of Corrections (DOC) on best practices to reform the juvenile justice system.

“Kids are new here, and they’re picking up on everything. Words have so much power, and our systems should (in my opinion) be about helping them grow – helping them heal – guiding them – not putting them in a box.”

– Listening session participant

Invest in smaller facilities focused on youth rehabilitation

For youth with more serious needs, the Governor’s proposed budget invests in smaller youth facilities that prioritize rehabilitation and bring youth closer to their homes.

• Expanding in-patient mental health support at the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center will help address Wisconsin’s youth mental health crisis and provide treatment for justice-involved youth with complex needs. The proposal provides $23.2m over the biennium.
• Currently, Wisconsin only has two Type 1 facilities for youth accused of serious crimes: Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls. Act 185 ordered the closure of these facilities in 2021. The Wisconsin legislature has repeatedly denied funding for smaller regional facilities, preventing the timely closure of Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake. These facilities have also experienced substantial reduction in population, reports of violence and harm to both youth and staff, as well as ballooning costs to incarcerate youth. The Governor’s proposal would close Lincoln Hills & Copper Lake and fund a Type 1 juvenile detention facility in Milwaukee. This new Type 1 facility in Milwaukee has the potential to bring youth closer to their families and provide rehabilitation services. The proposal would provide $27.3m over the biennium.
• As a part of a series of snowball-like reforms to transform both youth and adult incarceration, the Governor’s budget would remove youth from Lincoln Hills & Copper Lake facilities and convert them into a medium-security adult facility by 2029. The total proposal for both the youth and adult justice system reforms would allocate around $500m. Notably, these reforms require buy-in from legislators and communities, action from multiple state agencies, and labor from the private sector to be successful. This snowball-like method may present substantial challenges. 

“I am imagining a system that supports youth healing and supports healing for the harm they have caused.”

– Listening session participant

Cap daily cost to incarcerate youth at state-run juvenile prisons

Despite consistently decreasing enrollment, rampant violence, and an overdue closure mandate, the Department of Corrections requested more than double the daily cost to incarcerate youth at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake in their 2025-2027 budget request. DOC requested to increase the daily rate from $1,246 to $2,361 over the biennium. Governor Ever’s proposal maintains the juvenile daily rate at the current statutory level, costing $28.1 million GPR in fiscal year 2025-26. Capping the daily rate at its current level would allow the state to close Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, invest in two smaller Type 1 facilities in Milwaukee and Racine, and fund the expansion of the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center. 

“Hold children accountable for their mistakes while maintaining their dignity and opportunities.”

– Listening session participant

Provide ongoing funding for the new statewide Office of Violence Prevention

Created through Executive Order #254, the new statewide Office of Violence Prevention would take a comprehensive approach to violence prevention by providing funding for local efforts, developing public education campaigns, and improving statewide regulations. The goals of the office are to reduce crime and enhance community safety through strategies like:

• funding crime reduction initiatives;
• supporting safe spaces for youth through school-based mentoring programming (potential for Credible Messengers) and after-school programs; 
• providing domestic violence training; and
• reforming firearm laws and encouraging safe gun storage by providing tax exemptions for gun safes, barrel locks, and trigger locks.

The Governor’s proposal provides $12 million for the Office of Violence Prevention over the biennium.

“Nurture positive behavior with consistent positive representation.”

– Listening session participant

Cops in Milwaukee Public Schools

To ensure compliance with 2023 Wisconsin Act 12, the Governor recommended a cost sharing agreement between the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) to fund the return of 25 police officers in schools. While School Resource Officers (SROs) may be able to detect unsafe behaviors in school, research is clear that the presence of police in schools increases school pushout, gender and racial disparities in school disciplinary action, and incarceration of students with disabilities. His recommendation would require MPS to pay the city of Milwaukee for SRO costs associated with 25 percent of school days during the school year.