2019 - 2020 LEGISLATURE

2019 Senate BILL 168

April 18, 2019 - Introduced by Senators Wanggaard, L. Taylor, Darling, Feyen, Johnson, Jacque and Tiffany, cosponsored by Representatives Schraa, Goyke, Bowen, Billings, Born, Brooks, Considine, Crowley, Edming, Emerson, Felzkowski, Hesselbein, James, Kitchens, Knodl, Krug, Kulp, Milroy, Mursau, Myers, Novak, Ohnstad, Pope, Ramthun, Rohrkaste, Sargent, Sinicki, Spiros, Steffen, Stubbs, Subeck, Tauchen, Vining and Zimmerman. Referred to Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.

SB168,2,6 An Act to repeal 46.22 (1) (b) 5m. d., 46.22 (2g) (d) 4., 46.23 (5) (n) 3. and 301.031; to amend 13.94 (1) (v), 46.011 (1p), 46.21 (2) (j), 46.215 (3), 46.23 (5) (c) 3., 46.23 (5m) (c), 48.023 (4), 48.527, 48.66 (1) (b), 49.11 (1c), 49.45 (25) (bj), 101.123 (1) (ac) 2., 301.01 (1n), 301.027, 301.373, 938.02 (4), 938.02 (15g), 938.22 (1) (a), 938.22 (2) (d) 2., 938.33 (1) (c), 938.33 (3r), 938.34 (4m) (intro.), 938.34 (4n) (intro.), 938.355 (2) (b) 1., 938.355 (2) (b) 2., 938.355 (2) (b) 6m., 938.357 (3) (b) (intro.) and (c), 938.357 (4g) (a), 938.48 (3), 938.48 (4), 938.48 (4m) (b), 938.48 (5), 938.48 (6), 938.48 (14), 938.505 (1), 938.52 (2) (a) and (c), 938.53, 938.533 (2) (intro.), 938.54, 938.57 (4) and 938.78 (3); to repeal and recreate 938.34 (4m) (intro.); to create 46.057 (1m), 938.33 (6), 938.355 (2) (b) 2m., 938.355 (2) (b) 6n., 938.357 (3) (e) and (f) and 938.357 (4) (as) of the statutes; and to affect 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 38, 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 70, 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 110 (1) (a), 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 110 (2) (a), 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 110 (3) (c), 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 110 (4) (a) 1. c., 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 110 (4) (d), 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 110 (4) (e), 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 110 (4) (f), 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 110 (6) (e), 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 110 (7), 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 110 (7m) (b), 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 111 (3) and 2017 Wisconsin Act 185, section 112 (1); relating to: facilities for holding juveniles in secure custody.

Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau

This bill does all of the following:

1. Makes certain changes to the grant program for the design and construction of new secured residential care centers for children and youth (SRCCCYs) under 2017 Wisconsin Act 185.

2. Changes the closure date for the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools.

3. Modifies how juveniles who are transferred between an SRCCCY or a Type 1 juvenile correctional facility and the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center (MJTC) are supervised and released.

4. Changes the provisions for grandfathering current juvenile detention programs and allows the temporary transfer of juveniles from Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools into certain juvenile detention centers without a change-in-placement order.

5. Changes the requirements for the purchase of services between counties and the Department of Corrections.

6. Makes other changes to clarify the intent of Act 185.

Changes to the juvenile corrections grant program

Act 185 created a grant program for counties to construct new SRCCCYs for the purpose of holding in secure custody juveniles who are adjudicated delinquent and given a correctional placement. Under Act 185, grant applications are due to the juvenile corrections grant committee by March 31, 2019, and the committee is responsible for submitting a plan to the Joint Committee on Finance for which applications to fund no later than July 1, 2019. This bill provides a three-month extension to the timeline for submitting grant applications to the grant committee and for the grant committee to submit the plan for funding grant applications to JCF.

Under Act 185, a grant to construct a new SRCCCY covers 95 percent of the county's cost for design and construction, except that the grant covers 100 percent of the county's cost for design and construction for a girls-only facility. Act 185 also provided that DOC will reimburse a girls-only facility any net operating loss, as determined by the Legislative Audit Bureau. This bill changes the grant program so that 100 percent of the portion of any facility that is designed and constructed to hold female juveniles is paid for by the grant program, and that the net operating loss reimbursement applies to any portion of a facility that houses female juveniles or any portion of services provided to female juveniles at the facility.

Closure of Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools

Act 185 also requires the current juvenile correctional facility owned and operated by DOC (Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools) to be closed no later than January 1, 2021, or when all of the juveniles that are held there are transferred to the new county-run SRCCCYs or a new state-run juvenile correctional facility, also funded by and required to be established by DOC under Act 185. This bill extends the timeline for closing Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools and for constructing the new SRCCCYs and new state-run juvenile correctional facility by six months, to July 1, 2021.

Act 185 also provides a youth aids bonus of 15 percent of the county's annual youth aids payment or $750,000, whichever is less, to any county that agrees to operate a joint SRCCCY for two or more counties. This bill provides the youth aids bonus to any county that operates an SRCCCY that serves juveniles from more than one county.

Transfer and supervision of juveniles between facilities

This bill specifies that when a juvenile is placed at MJTC under a change-in-placement order, the Department of Health Services is responsible for determining the date of the transfer and is responsible for determining whether to release a juvenile who has been placed there back to the county.

Existing juvenile detention programs

Under Act 185, existing programs to hold juveniles in a juvenile detention facility for up to one year will be grandfathered in and allowed to hold a number of juveniles equal to the facility's population on January 1, 2021. This bill changes the cap for the grandfathered juvenile detention programs under Act 185 to a number of juveniles equal to the three-year average daily population of the facility between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2021. This bill also allows DOC to transfer juveniles from Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools to the existing programs without a change-in-placement order. Under the bill, juveniles who are so transferred must be placed in an SRCCCY or Type 1 juvenile correctional facility by July 1, 2021.

County budgets

This bill repeals the current law requirement for counties to submit an annual budget to DOC for the purchase of juvenile correctional services and the requirements for contracts between counties and DOC for the purchase of juvenile correctional services.