Friday, December 23, 2016

Scott Walker renegs on new youth lock-up proposed by Scott Walker

Wisconsin GOP Gov. and inveterate denier of responsibility Scott Walker backed away from a plan to replace deeply troubled youth correctional facilities with a new facility proposed by Scott Walker after Scott Walker abruptly consolidated the existing facilities in 2011.

Walker said "they" wouldn't have time to put together the replacement Walker proposed which would have been included in Walker's budget next year, though in a classic Big Government deflection, Walker did send in a new top bureaucrat to replace another bureaucrat at the Corrections Department because "putting someone like that in is the appropriate response, as opposed to going in for a photo op or something like that,” Walker said.


Walker knows all these things even though Walker said he was unaware of the serious problems at the facility in question until the troubles triggered a criminal investigation in 2015. 


This paragraph from the linked story above casts doubt on Walker's, er, recollection:

A Racine County judge wrote to Walker in early 2012, alerting him to the sexual assault of a boy from that county and the failure by Lincoln Hills staff to get him medical care for hours. Walker's staff has said the letter did not go to the governor. The judge never received a response.
Also a possible explanation: Walker's dog ate the letter, and though Walker has said Walker does not have a dog because Walker is allergic to them, an imaginary paper-eating dog disappearing that letter is about equal to the explanation offered by Walker's unnamed staff. 

Walker also admitted he had never visited the facility, and, in fact, had never visited any Wisconsin correctional facility as Governor.


Never the less, and though Walker and his party control state agencies including Corrections, and the budget shop, and the key legislative committee that can add items to Walker's budget and both houses of the Legislature with overwhelming majorities, Walker very clearly explained the impossible obstacles which prevent Walker from addressing and fixing the problem Walker set in motion in 2011:
"I think timing-wise, it’s difficult to imagine, being a month and a half or less away from introducing our budget, that there’s anything they could in detail propose now that we could put in the budget,” he said.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

At one toime the idea "had merit" and was "interesting." He must have decided otherwise in the course of fund raising.