ALLOUEZ, WI — Governor Tony Evers is proposing some changes to the corrections system in the next two-year budget that would include closing the nearly 135-year-old Green Bay Correctional Institution. That would fulfill a long awaiting goal by area lawmakers and local officials.
Under Governor Evers proposal, $500-million would be spent between 2025 and 2027 to overhaul some state prison operations. That includes the first steps toward closing the Green Bay Correctional Institution in Allouez by 2029. That’s been a goal of some community groups and state lawmakers who’ve called GBCI unsafe for prisoners and staff and too expensive to maintain. Allouez Village President Jim Rafter welcomed the governor’s proposal.
Rafter also hopes that lawmakers will commit themselves to getting the long-desire prison closure done.
Rafter also says that allows the village to look forward to making the site a community destination.
Rafter says any final plan will include preserving the oldest planted oak trees in Wisconsin on the site and the original blue granite structure built from the 1800s. Rafter says that’s been done in other communities worldwide.
In addition to closing GBCI, Governor Evers $500-millon corrections overhaul would spend $245-million to rebuild the living quarters at Waupun Correctional Institution, just over $56-million to remodel the Sanger B. Powers Corrections Center in Hobart for medium security detention and $9-million to transform the Lincoln Hills Youth Prison to house medium security inmates.
