• COVID-19 Resources
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Promotions
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • January 24, 2021

Milwaukee Courier Weekly Newspaper

"THE NEWSPAPER YOU CAN TRUST SINCE 1964"

  • News
  • Editorials
  • Education
  • Urban Business
  • Health
  • Religion
  • Upcoming Events
  • Classifieds

Senator Taylor calls for special session on juvenile corrections and more funding

April 30, 2016

Lena C. Taylor

Lena C. Taylor

MADISON – State Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) called on Governor Scott Walker to call a special session to address Wisconsin’s juvenile corrections crisis, which spurred an ongoing FBI investigation.

In a letter dated today, Senator Taylor urged Governor Walker to call a special session of the Legislature to take up Senate Bills 803 and 804. The first would eliminate the use of punitive solitary confinement for juveniles. The second would transfer the Division of Juvenile Corrections from the Department of Corrections to the Department of Children and Families.

“Just like adults, when kids make mistakes, they need to pay their debt to society too,” Taylor wrote in her letter to Walker. “However, we must remember that at the end of the day, they are kids. Their brains haven’t fully developed… Maybe if we treated them a little more like troubled teens and a little less like hardened criminals, we would get better results.”

Additionally, Taylor called for emergency funding to alleviate the overcrowding at the Milwaukee County Juvenile Detention Center. The overcrowding is a direct result of Wisconsin’s failure to properly care for the kids at the state’s juvenile facility, which has caused Milwaukee County judges to sentence more kids to the county facility rather than the state facility. Kids are being forced to sleep on the floor and employees are being forced to work long hours.

“We don’t need our own Lincoln Hills scandal at home in Milwaukee,” said Taylor. “Our state’s failure to address this problem caused this overcrowding and it’s time Governor Walker stepped up with some emergency funds to solve this problem before it becomes another scandal.”

Taylor is a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a current member of the same committee. She and Senator Fred Risser issued a letter to the committee calling for a public hearing into the Lincoln Hills scandal on December 16, 2015. She has organized multiple trips to Lincoln Hills to show the kids and workers support during this crisis and his been in communication with local Milwaukee County officials about the juvenile corrections crisis as well.

Share:

  • Facebook
  • Tweet
  • Print

Popular Interests In This Article: Juvenile Detention Centers, Lena Taylor, Lincoln Hills School for Boys, Milwaukee County Juvenile Detention Center, Senate Bill 803, Senate Bill 804

Read More - Related Articles

  • The Real Work Begins
  • A Day of Reckoning
  • Capitol Chaos: A Tale of Two Americas
  • A Year for the Books
  • Whether The Table or The Lab: We Need A Seat

View COVID-19 Resources

Connect With Us

Become Our Fan On Facebook
Find Us On Facebook


Follow Us On Twitter
Follow Us On Twitter

Editorials

Lena Taylor
Lakeshia Myers
Rev Jesse Jackson Sr Ashanti Hamilton

Journalists

Mrinal Gokhale
Dylan Deprey
Karen Stokes
Hayley Crandall
Ana Martinez-Ortiz

Topics

Health Care & Wellness
Climate Change
Upcoming Events
Obituaries
Milwaukee NAACP

Politicians

Pres. Barack Obama
Gwen Moore
Tom Barrett
Milele A. Coggs
Spencer Coggs

Classifieds

Job Openings
Bid Requests
Req Proposals
Req Quotations
Apts For Rent

Contact Us

Milwaukee Courier
2003 W. Capitol Dr.
Milwaukee, WI 53206
Ph: 414.449.4860
Fax: 414.906.5383

Copyright © 2021 · Courier Communications | View Privacy Policy | Site built and maintained by Farrell Marketing Technology LLC
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.