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The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production. You’re watching “Here & Now” 2024 election coverage.

Frederica Freyberg:
Plagued by lockdowns, a local official renews calls to shutter the century-old Green Bay Correctional Institution, and privacy advocates want to protect consumers from companies buying and selling private data from cell phones.
I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” the Allouez village president on why it’s time to close the Green Bay prison in his community. Republican Representative Shannon Zimmerman on the realities of our lack of data privacy coming from our cell phones. A literacy specialist shares the latest on overhauling the state’s early reading curriculum. And growing food insecurity across the state, including on college campuses. It’s “Here & Now” for March 8.

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Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:
Shut it down. That’s what the village of Allouez is saying about the maximum-security Green Bay Correctional Institution. The more than 100-year-old prison is more than 200 inmates over capacity and had been on extended lockdown due to staff shortages. The crumbling condition of the facility is described as deplorable. Village President Jim Rafter says the time is now with the search on for a new corrections secretary, to deal with the closure. He says, Anything short of that step would be nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. He joins us now. Thanks very much for being here.

Jim Rafter:
Thanks for having me, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:
So why close the prison altogether rather than fix it?

Jim Rafter:
Great question. First of all, it’s 125 years old and in — there have been two studies in the corrections system, specifically GBCI. In 2009, a Mead & Hunt study went through the facility and recommended its closure because it needed hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades just to get up to code. It’s surely not designed by today’s standards for prison to help with reform and to provide the services and programs needed to help these folks get back onto the street. In 2020 — in 2018, the state commissioned another study and that was by BWBR. It was published in 2020. It said the exact same thing except there was a lot more money needed because of the dollars.

Frederica Freyberg:
So describe what you know conditions to be like inside because of the nature of this prison and its age.

Jim Rafter:
Well, according to the design — well, with the design, today, you’re supposed to have sunlight. You’re supposed to be able to live in pods where the — those who are incarcerated can get to the outside to get to school, get to the library, and live more in a communal environment versus a cell. The cells at GBCI — the prison was designed for approximately 750 inmates and today it houses almost a thousand. They are in cells that were designed for one person but now there are two people in them, and the cells — you can reach across and lay down and touch all the walls. So it’s not designed for the people that are there. It is dark and dingy. It has mice infestations, which the state has been dealing with for over a year. The attitude or the anxiety level within the facility due to being on lockdown, as you mentioned, since June of 2023, it’s creating an awful lot of anxiety and a lot of I’ll say violence. In 2023, the number of investigations for violent offenses that take place in GBCI equal that — almost equal that of 2021 and 2022 combined and they were on lockdown for half the year.

Frederica Freyberg:
Have —

Jim Rafter:
So the conditions just aren’t good.

Frederica Freyberg:
Have your calls to close Green Bay Correctional fallen on deaf ears?

Jim Rafter:
No. We have gained bipartisan support from state legislators, county elected leaders, local municipality leaders across northeast Wisconsin. I’ve never heard anyone say no, they don’t want to close it. The challenge is agreeing on what to do after they close it.

Frederica Freyberg:
Right, because where would those inmates go from Green Bay. Other max security prisons themselves are over capacity and have their own safety issues.

Jim Rafter:
Right. The options that I’ve heard, I know the governor wants to reduce the prison population and hopefully move people out of places like GBCI and into other facilities. That may be an opportunity. There are those who are calling to have a new prison, a replacement prison most likely for GBCI and potentially Waupun, to be able to provide so that they can provide the services and programs needed by those who are incarcerated. I’ve been inside four times over the last eight years. I’ve been in without the governor and I’ve toured it with the governor and Secretary Carr and when I go in there, you really don’t see a lot of programs going on because they just don’t do the programming very much anymore. People can’t get education. They can’t get health services, but when the governor comes in, people are lined up in the corridors welcoming him and shaking his hand, and when I toured it with him, he asked where in the psych ward area and he asked how many people need psychological services and the answer was about 60%. So it’s about 600 people, and he said how many beds do we have, and they said 13. And then he asked what do we do for the others? They shrugged their shoulders. They do what they can, but basically the mental health needs across our corrections system and I’ve learned an awful lot over the last eight years about this, it’s tremendous. You basically have three populations: those who are mentally ill and need help, those who have made terrible mistakes in life and will not reform, and then you have a group of those who have made terrible mistakes but are willing, able and interested in learning how to come back into society safely. And we need to have the programs in our state to be able to do that. We don’t today.

Frederica Freyberg:
Jim Rafter from Allouez, thanks very much.

Jim Rafter:
Thank you very much.

Frederica Freyberg:
Location tracking on cell phones means your everyday movements are not your own. Take, for example, an investigation that found that a nonprofit founded by Wisconsin Right to Life aimed targeted ads to people who visited abortion providers, including 14 million such ads in Wisconsin. Data privacy laws are being passed in states across the country and in Europe. Here in Wisconsin, the state Assembly unanimously passed the Data Privacy Act. It awaits Senate action. Its author, Representative Shannon Zimmerman of River Falls joins us now. Thanks very much for being here.

Shannon Zimmerman:
My pleasure. Thank you for the invitation.

Frederica Freyberg:
So how urgently do you want the Senate to take this up?

Shannon Zimmerman:
As soon as possible. I view this as one of the most important bills. I come from the technology sector. I’ve spent my 25-year career in tech, and the position I’ve taken with my colleagues is that we’ve never before lived in a time of innovation like we are right now. Most of the world is just awakening to this thing called artificial intelligence. AI is pretty simple in this regard. It builds its capabilities off of what’s called large language models. Large language models are data. And so when individuals’ personal data becomes a part of that training material, that can may be unnerving and/or not what they would have wanted. So in this era of innovation, which is great for a lot of reasons, I think the protection, the individual’s right to protection of their data has never before been as important as it is right now.

Frederica Freyberg:
What does the Data Privacy Act call for?

Shannon Zimmerman:
The bill essentially has three components, and a moment ago, you made reference to the fact that other states have done this and, in fact, other continents. Europe, for example, in 2018, incorporated what’s called GDPR, the global data protection regulation. And GDPR is a very robust set of regulations focused on privacy, cybersecurity, et cetera. This bill is a small subset of that. Rather than try and boil the ocean and get nothing done, let’s be specific was my thought and focus on three things: number one, individuals in the state of Wisconsin would have the right to say to any data collector, what do you have on me? Number two, to whom have you shared or sold that information? And third and finally, you have a right to say no. Delete it, please remove it, I’m uncomfortable with that. Those are the three main pillars of this legislation.

Frederica Freyberg:
Describe what kind of personal data is being captured and how.

Shannon Zimmerman:
We have, in its simplest form, information that we willingly provide to collectors for loyalty programs. Right? This could be your Kwik Trip rewards card, which is great. I spend, I buy these products and I get some Caribou Coffee. Probably not something that people get too worked up about. But you are many times being tracked, listened to, information is being collected on you that maybe you’re not aware of and literally this could span any form of digital data that would exist on you. You mentioned geolocation data at the start of this segment. That’s one example of data that can be collected on individuals. And so my thinking here is that many cases, a person willingly makes that exchange. They say, “Yes, I’m okay with you tracking that because maybe I get a discount reward at, again, Kwik Trip.” However, in other examples, there may be situations where absolutely not, I don’t want that sensitive personal information. Can you imagine, and I’m not using Alexa as a specific example of this, but that type of device. People have devices in their homes that are listening all the time and information, conversations that are shared in the privacy of your living room or at your kitchen table, I think there’s an expectation of individuals that that, in fact is private because we wouldn’t let somebody just walk in to our home, sit there and listen and then use that information, so it really is a broad, broad array of data.

Frederica Freyberg:
Do you expect the Senate to take this up and pass it?

Shannon Zimmerman:
I am imploring the Senate to please take this up and pass it at this point in time. Now to be candid, there are a couple of groups right now that are working really, really hard to make sure this bill doesn’t get to the Senate floor. I am super hopeful that the Senate does what’s right here for Wisconsin residents and pushes this thing across the finish line to the governor’s office.

Frederica Freyberg:
And those groups are business groups including Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. What are their objections?

Shannon Zimmerman:
So WMC, and I have a high degree of respect, I’ve worked a lot with WMC in the past, and they do a great job for small businesses, large businesses across the entire state of Wisconsin, but initially they had one primary argument, which was, “Hey, Shannon, this really should be taken up at the federal level.” What the United States doesn’t need is a tapestry of different legislation similar but not exactly the same. This should be taken up at the federal level. I agree. I 100% agree with WMC on this. The challenge that we have is that the federal government seems nearly incapable of doing anything these days, getting anything done. The second argument that they make is that it’s going to be burdensome and costly. You’re telling me that the over 10 states in the United States that have passed this, the entire European Union has implemented this since 2018, are people conducting business in those areas? Absolutely, they are. So I think that the protection and the benefit from the protection far outweighs those exaggerated arguments.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Representative Shannon Zimmerman, thanks very much.

Shannon Zimmerman:
Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
Hot off the presses, a list of textbooks and learn-to-read materials for Wisconsin schools has been released, awaiting approval by the Legislature, which could come Monday. This list comes as a result of a new bipartisan law called Act 20, which mandates science of reading and phonics instruction instead of balanced literacy, which includes something called three-cueing, now expressly prohibited. Statewide testing in the third through eighth grade show just under 40% of students are proficient in reading, much lower than that in Green Bay and Milwaukee. In efforts to boost skills along with approved lesson plans, the new law requires enhanced testing, literacy coaches, and interventions for students at risk of not being able to read. It comes with $50 million in grants for schools to purchase, approve curriculum and other costs. A member of the council tasked with choosing the approved curriculum joins us to describe more about changes coming to Wisconsin classrooms. Amy McGovern is associate director of continuous school improvement and literacy reading specialist for 22 districts in northern Wisconsin. She joins us now. Amy, thanks very much for being here.

Amy McGovern:
Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:
So we mentioned something called the three-cueing method of reading instruction, which is now outlawed. It includes using pictures, I understand, for example, to help students understand what the words are saying instead of the use of phonics or sounding out words. I guess three-cueing has failed our students?

Amy McGovern:
Well, I would say that three-cueing really, you mentioned that 40% of the students are proficient in Wisconsin, and that’s about the number of students who three-cueing is really designed to work well for, the kids who are not hard wired to have a hard time learning to read, so I would argue there’s probably a relationship between those two things. When we overemphasize using looking at the picture or taking our eyes off the word, students are less likely to be able — they’re slowing down their ability to learn to read. So that gets in the way of their progress and then once they get past third grade and they’re not reading well, it’s harder to close the gap, it takes longer.

Frederica Freyberg:
So you were among the panel of educators who chose the list of 11 early literacy instructional materials that schools can soon use. Will this be a new way of teaching children to read for teachers across the state?

Amy McGovern:
Well, the absence of three-cueing will be definitely make an impact for a lot of students and the curriculum resources are designed to — the ones that the council selected really met a high bar of quality and no resource is going to be perfect, of course, and so all those other things you factored in with training and leadership support all matter, but the actual design of the curriculum that we selected is far more likely to produce readers than some of the others that weren’t selected out by the council.

Frederica Freyberg:
So you spoke to all those other measures, including the approved teaching methods, more testing, literacy coaching, training. Can schools handle this load, though? Do teachers have time for all of this?

Amy McGovern:
That’s a great question. I would say that it’s not on the teacher’s plate to determine how the time is used; it’s on the administrator’s plate. Do they need to balance that for the teachers and there is actually part of Act 20 is leadership and literacy training to help them set up a system that supports this roll-out. So if it’s done well, yes, but there has to be support from those administrators, protecting the teachers, really.

Frederica Freyberg:
So we mentioned that the bill calls for $50 million in grants for school districts. How far will that go?

Amy McGovern:
Not far enough. Some of that money is being used for the director and for the coaches and now I understand some of it’s been set aside for professional learning for teachers. So that leaves a small amount that will be allocated for the curricular resources. But something is better than nothing and who knows where this will lead us. It’s hard to say exactly how far it will go. Probably not far enough.

Frederica Freyberg:
In the schools — in the districts that you work with, what are their reactions to this change?

Amy McGovern:
I think there’s some anxiety about the timeline. A lot of the schools that I work with are excited about the shift. They recognize the need for change and those that might still be holding on to past practices are realizing that they might need to make some changes to make progress. But there is anxiety about the timeline because it’s supposed to start next fall and there is a bill that might delay the implementation of Act 20 until the middle of the year, which would be helpful for districts to get their feet under them with the training that’s required.

Frederica Freyberg:
How difficult is it for teachers who specialize in reading and teaching children to read to see those kinds of test score numbers?

Amy McGovern:
Well, I mean, the teachers pour their heart and soul into helping their children learn to read, their students learn to read, so it’s very disheartening when you feel like you’re doing everything that you’ve been taught to do and it’s not working. Part of Act 20 also addresses how universities approach the teaching of teachers so that we can send them into the field with the most up-to-date information.

Frederica Freyberg:
What should parents and students expect in the classroom when all the provisions of the new reading law are rolled out?

Amy McGovern:
Well, parents should expect to be notified much more quickly if their students are struggling, because part of Act 20 requires a reading readiness plan to be communicated with parents for any student that falls below the 25th percentile. That new test that’s coming down the pike. So I would imagine that parents will have greater communication with their school right from the start.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. That’s good news. Amy McGovern, thanks very much.

Amy McGovern:
Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
In economic news, being hungry and not knowing where your next meal is coming from is the definition of food insecurity. Across Wisconsin, food pantries are seeing a major uptick in demand over the past year. In some counties, triple digit increases, and it turns out college students experience food insecurity at higher rates than the general population, with estimates putting students between 33 to 51% food insecure compared to all U.S. adults at 9.8%. At Northwood Technical College in Rice Lake, students are experiencing food insecurity and now some help. We turn to the college’s President John Will. Thanks very much for being here.

John Will:
Glad to be here. Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
What do you see on your campuses in terms of food insecurity?

John Will:
We actually have some data from 2015. We did a study with the Hope Lab and then a follow-up bit of research that showed that about 45% of our students were identifying an issue with food insecurity and so that’s the data that we’re relying on and then we also know that research shows that food insecurity is a barrier to completion in college. And so we felt like we needed to take some action. Actually, in about 2019, had one of our managers of enrollment services put together a plan to create a food pantry. 2019 was a pretty busy year. You may remember a lot of things started to happen in 2019. And so we didn’t implement that at that time but recently we were able to come up with a plan to start a food pantry at our Rice Lake campus.

Frederica Freyberg:
So how hard is it to see that food insecurity amongst your students?

John Will:
Well, it’s not very hard — we have a lot of students who — there’s a lot of data points that you can look at. We have many students who receive Pell grants, which is the need based federal grant program, and so we know we have students who are in need. Some who are in poverty. We also have students who are supporting families. Many of them work part time and can’t work full time because they’re going to school. They made that really important decision to try. They’re trying to go to school to get more education to provide a better life for them and their families, but it’s a struggle financially and, of course, food is one of the basic things that they need to purchase and so that’s something that’s a barrier to them being successful, not only for them, but for their family. And so given our connection with them, a food pantry seemed like a great way to help them overcome that barrier.

Frederica Freyberg:
So what kind of help did you get to run that food pantry, then?

John Will:
This is a really good story. Technical colleges have been receiving private support I think in larger numbers in the last — I’ve been president for 10 years and we’ve seen much more willingness to receive private support. And at our college, we received $100,000 anonymous donation, still do not know who provided the funding, and the only directive was to direct it towards something that would help our students. And so we have four campuses and each of them has a leadership team. That leadership team got together, identified this as the place where the endowment that that money established would be the most impactful, and so they used it as sort of seed money to get the food pantry going. We’re calling it Blazes Covered. Blaze is our mascot and that was a good way to brand it and make it into a positive thing for our students and happy to say that it has seen a successful launch.

Frederica Freyberg:
I was going to ask, what kind of demand are you seeing for that pantry?

John Will:
It’s a little bit early to look at numbers or volume, but we definitely see students accessing it and I should mention, it’s like a lot of food pantries, stocked with nonperishable food items and even hygiene items for folks, because those are some of the basic kind of needs that people who are struggling with financial issues see and it’s anonymous. You walk in and can take what you need and then walk out. So we know there’s enough activity to need to restock it periodically, but we’ll evaluate that more towards the end of the academic year here.

Frederica Freyberg:
You said your baseline started in kind of 2015 when you did that research about the numbers of students who might be food insecure. Is it your sense that it’s gotten worse with the cost of food now and the cost of housing?

John Will:
I think that’s maybe a little bit anecdotal, but I do think a lot of people are struggling with some of those basic — sort of those costs that relate to necessities and we’ve seen that increase. It’s reflected in a couple of different ways. We see students going more part time. That’s starting to turn around a little bit this year, but on the heels of the pandemic, we saw a greater percentage of students going part time and that’s often so that they can hold down more hours, and so we’re starting to see that turn around a little bit now, but that’s definitely — that’s definitely been something that we’ve noticed and wanted to try to proactively address and alleviate.

Frederica Freyberg:
So when you receive the $100,000 gift, was it ever a question but that helping students who are hungry was the first priority?

John Will:
Well, we’ve got a lot of great things that we can use funding for, but that’s a pretty basic need for everybody and managing the logistics of a food pantry takes not only initial seed money but a commitment from our existing employees on campus and so once we worked that out, I think that was a pretty easy decision.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. John Will, thanks very much.

John Will:
Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our website at PBSwisconsin.org and then click on the news tab. That’s our program for tonight. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a good weekend.

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