Following Tuesday's correctional officer protest at a state penitentiary, state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the problem of prison overcrowding is a ticking time bomb,\ according to a statement released Wednesday.
Prison guards at Kettle Morraine Correctional Institution channeled frustrations over their increasingly violent work environment, much of which is due to over capacity of inmates. The Kettle Morraine facility is 50 percent over capacity, followed by 30 percent overcapacity in statewide adult correction facilities, Fitzgerald's statement said.
Last May, Gov. Jim Doyle announced plans to return all out-of-state inmates to Wisconsin.
""A few years ago, Wisconsin led the nation in housing prisoners out of state,"" said Doyle Spokesperson Anne Lupardus. ""That's not a very proud statistic, because it was costing taxpayers millions and it makes it much harder to rehabilitate prisoners so far away from their families.""
However, the prison guards' rally for on-the-job safety at Kettle Morraine has Fitzgerald calling for action.
""There are other facilities in the system that we fear are in similar situations and this really might just be the tip of the iceberg, unless the Department of Corrections and the Doyle administration start pro-actively working to fix this thing,"" said Fitzgerald Spokesperson Mike Prentiss.
Prentiss added the solution is to first review the prison population, something that has not been done in 10 years, and then consider either building new prisons or sending inmates back out of state.
The review of the prison population would show whether there is a need for a new minimum-security prison, medium-security prison or maximum-security prison through finding what area is the most overcrowded, Prentiss said.
Yet, Lupardus said the Governor believes the answer to overcrowded prisons will be more prevention and drug treatment—not an increase in the number of prisons.
Captain Mike Plumer, Dane County jail administrator, said he believes rehabilitation works but only to a certain extent.
""You can treat some people and stop them from ascending, but you can't treat all of them, at least historically that has been the case,"" Plumer said.
Plumer said because the Dane County Jail has been overcrowded since 1998, the jail is forced to put mattresses on the floor to make room for inmate living space.
""If someone is walking through your living space everyday it tends to generate interpersonal conflict, plus our clients tend to have diminished self-control mechanisms in the first place,"" Plumer said.
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