Ahead of the 2026 elections with campaigns ramping up, Here & Now senior political reporter Zac Schultz asked Assembly leadership – Republican Speaker Robin Vos and Democratic Minority Leader Greta Neubauer – about their priorities for the remainder of the session. In Racine, a violent incident at a new secure residential care center for juveniles has assistant state public defender Eileen Fredericks asking questions about best practices inside the facilities.

Speaker Robin Vos
R-Rochester

• The Wisconsin Assembly’s official business in 2026 is limited in time, with its calendar showing active legislative work for only a few months before members turn their attention to voters in an election year. In a year-end interview with Here & Now, one question for Vos was where voter focus will be in the fall elections and what the Republican majority in the Assembly seeks to pursue in the spring.
• Vos: “Well it’s one of the rare times where the only race on the ballot are state races, besides our congressional seats which are up every two years. A lot of times, you’ll have a congressional race, a senate race and a gubernatorial at the same time — so, federal issues really overwhelm us. This time around, we get to talk about more of Wisconsin issues, and I think we have done a really good job of addressing issues that people in Wisconsin care about. We had a bipartisan housing package. We are going to be bringing up some issues dealing with utility costs in the spring, which I know are a big hassle for people. We’re going to focus on property taxes. We’ve dealt with crime in many ways. So, I think we’ve done a good job, but there’s always more work to do.”

State Rep. Greta Neubauer
D-Racine

• In the 2026 elections, Democrats are seeking to gain control of at least one chamber of the Wisconsin Legislature. As Minority Leader in the Assembly, Neubauer was asked the most important thing she’d like to get done in the few remaining months of session.
• Neubauer: “It’s going to be affordability. As I said, this is what we hear about from our constituents. Assembly Democrats are continuing to do listening sessions and knock on doors. We, of course, run into our constituents at parades and holiday festivals, and we hear over and over that people are struggling with the cost of groceries, again, prescription drugs and health care and housing. There’s been a little bit of progress on housing in a bipartisan fashion in the last two sessions. That’s good to see, but we have not done enough, and so we’re really going to be continuing to push on those issues and making sure that the state keeps its commitment to our kids in our public schools and gets some funding into the general aids so that we don’t see property taxes go up for people across the state to support their schools.”

Eileen Fredericks
Assistant state public defender, Wisconsin State Public Defenders Office

• Nine years after a lawsuit over abuse of juveniles at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth prisons in northern Wisconsin, these facilities still operate. A 2021 state-mandated deadline to close them has long since passed and been extended. They’re to be replaced with a new youth prison in Milwaukee — set to open in 2026 — and county-based secure residential care centers. Just after the first such care center opened in Racine County in May 2025, the State Public Defenders Office learned of an incident there. A 15-year old housed at the Jonathan Delagrave Youth Development and Care Center was punched repeatedly by adult security workers. Staff was asking the boy to return to his room and he can be heard saying “don’t touch me.” The youth offender was placed at the center for retail theft. Fredericks is the youth defense practice coordinator in the State Public Defenders Office, and said national research suggests such incidents are not a rarity behind the doors of these types of facilities.
• Fredericks: “That’s the punitive nature of these correctional facilities and how the power dynamic and these vulnerable youth, that abuse is a major issue in these facilities. And I do think that the culture obviously isn’t what we need it to be. It’s not seen as a treatment facility. It’s a jail, essentially, for kids. And with that attitude, I think the staff thinks of it that way. They’re not necessarily trained in a treatment mindset. They’re not trained to kind of deescalate situations. They’re are not trained to recognize themselves when they’re becoming, you know, dysregulated and struggling — obviously seemed to be the case in this situation.”

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