Newspaper article about the Chippewa Falls Prison

State outlines prison plans

April 24, 1999

BY MARK GUNDERMAN

THE CHIPPEWA HERALD

A geriatric prison facility at the Northern Center's Highview building would house 300 inmates of three different types and provide jobs for 312 local people, according to plans drawn up by the Department of Corrections.

Plans are not yet final, State Representative Tom Sykora (D-Chippewa Falls) said on Friday, but the state is providing more specifics on the proposal in anticipation of reconstruction of the Highview building beginning as early as this fall.

Sykora said the facility will be designed to serve an all-male, medium security population aged 50 and above in three categories:

  • Fragile, non-ambulatory elderly requiring 24 hours of nursing care;
  • Inmates with limited mobility requiring assistance with some daily living activities; and
  • Able-bodied inmates with few medical or nursing needs who would serve as workers for the institution.
"Typically, what they want to do is have services provided by some inmates who are able to do these activities," Sykora said.

The state now has 1,124 inmates that would fit into the categories eligible for the geriatric prison here. "They're going to pick 300 to come here," Sykora said. "They'll pick the ones who most need care first."

Sykora anticipates that the state will use common sense in selecting the able-bodied inmates to be used as workers.

"They're not going to pick violent inmates to come here because of the fragile nature of the other inmates," Sykora said. "The idea is to get the fragile population away from the violent criminals."

The idea is also to create more prison beds at low cost, and to save threatened jobs at the Northern Center, which has been downsizing.

It is uncertain how many of the 600 jobs at Northern Center can be saved by the geriatric prison, which is expected to employ 312.

"About 140 will end up as prison guards and prison personnel. The balance will be health care and maintenance," Sykora said.

Some Northern Center workers are already applying for retraining to become geriatric prison workers, he added. It appears that the Northern Center will provide the food and laundry service.

"It looks like it's firmed up enough to say that," Sykora said.

Some health care workers will likely be able to make the prison transfer, as well as some maintenance and grounds people.

Nevertheless, there should be no illusions that the geriatric prison will provide jobs for all 600 current Northern Center workers as that facility winds down as a center for the developmentally disabled, Sykora suggested.

Some former Northern Center workers who have been laid off have been contacted about training to be recalled as prison workers, Sykora said.

All of this depends on the Highview building being converted for a geriatric prison, and that is up to the current budget process.

The cost is estimated at $6 million, including $3.5 million for construction and $1.1 million for movable equipment, according to the Department of Corrections.

Moving $300 prisoners there would open up 300 beds at regular prison facilities.

Sykora expects it to pass through the budget process.

So is it a "done deal"?

"In my mind it is," Sykora said. "But the Department of Administration can still kill it," Sykora said.

One reason that might happen is in case of significant local opposition. Sykora has heard some opposition, particularly from a vocal group in the town of LaFayette. But he describes the support as "20-to-1" over the opposition.

He does expect that there will be the promised public hearings, and perhaps a referendum in Chippewa Falls and other parts of the county.

The Department of Corrections has tentatively planned for moving prisoners to Highview in 2002, Sykora said.


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