AB 188

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