Gov. Walker: ‘No value’ to visiting state prisons

As the number of prisoners grow, Wisconsin will grow facilities to accommodate them.

That appears to be the stance of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, as he outlined his resistance this week to calls from some Democratic candidates for governor for prison reform.

Too dangerous, aiming to decrease prison populations, Walker says. He insists the state will make room for the growing prison numbers.

The state spends about a billion dollars a year on prisons. The state population of 23,519 in 2017, is more than double the 10,000 or so locked up in Minnesota.

As for the dangers of the prisons themselves, Walker says he’s not interested in seeing that first hand with a visit to any one of the state’s facilities.

“No. To me there’s no value to the … to me visiting,” Walker said. “I’ve talked to plenty of folks have been involved in the programs.

“So, I have talked to offenders and been involved in some of the program that we provide in terms of employment but, the prisons themselves, to me, there’s people that we hired to run the corrections system and certainly we allow them to do their job.”

The plan from Democrats to reduce the prison population includes releasing ill and aging inmates, legalizing marijuana and releasing inmates early for good behavior.