By Anne Jungen
La Crosse Tribune
LA CROSSE, Wis. — Wisconsin Democratic lawmakers are proposing reforms designed to increase safety at the state’s prisons and calling for swift legislative action.
Corrections officers have raised concerns about unsafe working conditions caused by state budget cuts, inadequate staffing, equipment shortages and poor leadership, said state Sen. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, whose district includes the Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution.
Legislation drafted by Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, and circulated Wednesday for co-sponsors calls for increased training for new correctional officers, limits forced consecutive overtime shifts and would allow the officers to collectively bargain workplace safety issues.
Proposals also require that prisons staff at least five first responders, guard towers and perimeters 24 hours a day.
“No one wants to see a death or a riot to spur the kind of action that I think we need to have in our corrections department,” Erpenbach said. “It’s not a situation where institutions are just in Republican districts or Democratic districts. They’re across the board, so we should be working together on this.”
Efforts to address prison staffing shortages by Gov. Scott Walker’s administration and the state Department of Corrections have failed, said Erpenbach, who called on the governor and DOC Secretary Ed Wall to meet with corrections officers to find ways to recruit and retain employees.
“We have people with a lot of experience who are just saying, ‘The hell with this,’ and they’re walking out the door,” Erpenbach said. “Corrections is that last place that can afford to lose somebody because it’s a bad workplace.”
The governor’s office and DOC did not respond to requests for comment.
In January 2015, the state Department of Justice launched an investigation into Lincoln Hills School for Boys, a juvenile prison in Irma, Wis. The FBI is looking into potential crimes, including sexual assault, child abuse and intimidation of victims and witnesses, while there have been other reports of assaults on correctional officers and inmates, Shilling said.
“You talk to any officer in any institution around this state — it is very difficult to justify getting out of bed and going to work that morning knowing you might not be going home that night,” Erpenbach said. “There may be an incident where you’re beaten up, which seems to be happening weekly now. You may be ordered to a second shift.”
Erpenbach expects to introduce the legislation next week.
Copyright 2016 the La Crosse Tribune