Frederica Freyberg:
State Senate President Mary Felzkowski is a Republican member of the Building Commission and, along with other Republicans, voted with reservations to fund the planning phase. We sat down with Senator Felzkowski at the Capitol following the vote. Thanks so much for doing this.

Mary Felzkowski:
It’s a pleasure.

Frederica Freyberg:
So the $15 million that the commission unanimously approved is meant to start the planning process. And Governor Evers said, “it’s important for the state to know we are serious about this project.” How serious are lawmakers taking this prison revamp project?

Mary Felzkowski:
So the state and the lawmakers have been very serious about this since, I think it was 2018 when we passed the closure of Lincoln Hills and moving forward with the SJOs.

And if you look at it, we’ve had numerous council studies around revamping corrections. We’ve had legislators from the Green Bay area trying to close the Green Bay Correctional Institute for years and do other types of reforms. So this has been a forefront for a lot of us for a lot of years.

Frederica Freyberg:
But what concerns do you have even ahead of this planning process?

Mary Felzkowski:
So I think, you know, corrections has been in disarray under many governors. And Governor Evers, when he first ran against Governor Walker — what is that? Eight years ago now? — ran on corrections reform and has done really nothing. He’s pushed for the closure of Lincoln Hills, but we’ve all been working towards a closure of Lincoln Hills. So that’s not something special that he’s been doing. And now all of a sudden, in 2025 budgetary cycle, he comes out with a proposal and he’s kind of like shoving it down our throats. And he didn’t include anybody in this proposal. Not his own legislative Democrats and he’s kind of given us a take it or leave it proposal. I don’t — I don’t think that’s how this should work. Now he wants $15 million to move forward with that plan. There was a press release that yesterday the governor doesn’t even — didn’t even seem like he remembered putting out two weeks ago, that said, you have to release this money. Don’t hold it up. Whatever.

Frederica Freyberg:
You took objection to that.

Mary Felzkowski:
Um hm. How is that a bipartisan move forward? And under his proposal, because right now, we have over 1100 medium security inmates that are housed in maximum security institutions. And because of that, they’re not receiving any programing to help them. They’re not where they need to be. Under this proposal, he’s releasing them into society in order to move forward with the building modifications that he wants to do. So you’re going to take 700 people that have had no programing and release them under a program earned release that normally they would go through programing, mental health programing and other things and just release them into society. How is that good for the safety of constituents to release people out into society? And if you look at some of the crimes that have been committed by these people, it’s not safe. It’s not well thought out. And the sad part about it, we don’t have to do that. We gave them alternatives yesterday where we could expand Jackson. We could expand Taycheedah, move people into those programs. Lincoln Hills can be converted. We can take over 500 inmates there, close Green Bay and expand on other areas. It’s just not — what he’s doing is not well thought out.

Frederica Freyberg:
In the meantime, though, he said to you that you have my promise. This is one step of many, and the next step will include all legislators that want to be involved. Are you confident in that promise?

Mary Felzkowski:
I’m not going to use the term confident, cautiously optimistic. Cautiously optimistic.

Frederica Freyberg:
Is there danger of partisan politics kind of derailing this whole effort to redo the correctional system in Wisconsin?

Mary Felzkowski:
That’s what’s been happening so far. I’m hoping that with the governor’s words yesterday, we get away from partisan politics and move towards doing what’s right for the citizens for once.

Frederica Freyberg:
In terms of those 700 inmates and their release, does that skirt in your mind toward kind of prison reform policy, or do you think it’s simply just to make the dominoes, as they’re called, work in this project?

Mary Felzkowski:
There was things in the governor’s proposal that I think every one of us could have gotten behind, because I think a lot — some of his ideas were positive. That’s why I think it would have been nice to include everyone. So this isn’t a — this doesn’t have to be a Democrat or a Republican idea. Prison reform across the United States has been very nonpartisan. We can all work towards the same ideas. But when you — when you give somebody a proposal and say, take it or leave it, here it is. This is what we’re moving forward with. And especially when it’s not even a good proposal, how do you think the other sides are going to react?

Frederica Freyberg:
Reiterate for me what the prongs of a good proposal would be in your mind?

Mary Felzkowski:
I think we do need policy change where we need to look at the programing as it’s out there. Former Assemblyman Mike Schram had the idea around — I’ll use Waupun, for example, of making that into more of an academy where medium and minimum security inmates could get programing education so that when they are entry into society, they are ready to go and they’re educated and more into a work environment so they can become productive members of society. One of the things that we see around prisoner reentry, if they can have a home, have a job, and become productive, they are much less likely to re-offend. They become productive, self-esteem, can take care of their families. That’s a winning message in the corrections reform. Those are ideas that have worked in other states. Those are some ideas that could have been brought to the table. I hope we can count on the governor being true to his word, and that he brings all people together, and that we can put a plan together, because our corrections system is in a world of hurt right now. We need to move it forward.