September
2009
Walker closes Farm and Fish Hatchery at House of Corrections
Running for Governor is Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker‘s #1 priority so the long term health and safety of our community barely makes it onto his radar. As is the case this year as every other year of his budgeting, Walker cut funding that he knew the County Board would put back in. That way, Walker gets to claim that he’s cutting or holding the line on taxes, but the big bad County Board refused to see the “wisdom” of his work “protecting” the taxpayers.
What bunk.
Once again, Walker is proposing to cut funding for the Milwaukee County House of Corrections (HOC) Farm and Fish Hatchery. Why, you would ask, is the House of Corrections doing these responsibilities in the first place. The answers are multiple.
Cost Effective Services: Inmates have little to do but wait for their sentences to be served. There aren’t a whole lot of opportunities to keep inmates busy. They can cook in the kitchen, do laundry and occasionally a small crew can pick up litter on the sides of the highway. Running a fish hatchery and farm at the house was done on the cheap since inmates are paid next to nothing for their work.
Security: Inmates have little to do while serving their sentence. House of corrections inmates are not the normal bad boy that you see on the prison shows. You won’t find a whole bunch of felons at the House. People sentenced to the House have typically done non-violent crimes like driving without a license or drunk driving. Still, put a large amount of people in a room for months after months and you will have conflict if you don’t have something to keep them busy. Don’t think so? Watch the TV reality show Big Brother and you’ll get an understanding of what I mean.
Job Training: Inmates who are lucky enough to be chosen for work at the fish hatchery or the farm gain valuable work experience as well as an understanding of the benefits of a work ethic. After working at a fish hatchery they are qualified to move their skills to the private sector. The same thing goes for farm work.
Food for Inmates: Many people complain about how they have to pay high taxes. By running a farm at the HOC, inmates are able to grow food to feed the inmate population at the HOC, at the County Jail, and for some of the mental health facilities that the county runs.
Food for the Hungry: Food that is grown by inmates that isn’t already used in County facilities is given to Hunger Task Force, a non-profit food bank which distributes food to multiple food pantries throughout the metro area.
Stocking fish for Ponds in County Parks: Without the fish hatchery Milwaukee County won’t be restocking the fish that are in their ponds at the county parks. Urban fishing is a great recreational opportunity for seniors and for families. By having inmates to the labor to raise the fish, the county’s only cost is the infrastructure for the tanks and transportation. Without the hatchery, fishing at County Parks will be ridiculously poor.
Plants and Trees for the Domes: The Milwaukee County Domes at Mitchell Park are a unique sightseeing destination as well as a Milwaukee Landmark. Few people realize that plants and trees at the domes sometimes get their start at the HOC.
Cutting off funding for the HOC farm and fish hatchery is a bit like a farmer selling off their seed corn. Services will be dramatically and negatively impacted. This is one of those budget cuts that Walker has attempted in the past and he knows that the County Board will put funding back in. The public should prepare itself for yet another round of Board bashing by Walker. Once again he will sell himself as the white knight fighting for the taxpayers while bashing the board as a bunch of oafish and selfish politicians looking out for their own self interest.
The truth is that it’s Walker, not the board, who is looking out for himself and his own craven lust for greater political power.
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Jim McGuigan
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If the hatchery is as important as you say it is, then the County Board can put it back in the budget as they have done other things that Walker has cut. Maybe if they don’t then it tells you how non-essential it is.
And since when is it the taxpayers responsibility to provide jobs to incarcerated criminals? Why not use the hatchery for low-income and/or unemployed NON-criminals who can actually contribute POSITIVELY to society?
I guess I’ll never understand the perpetual Florence Nightingale syndrome that liberals have for convicted criminals when law-abiding citizens should be the focus of taxpayer dollars for positive purposes.
lover,
That response is typical of today’s conservatives — if you don’t like the mess that in inappropriately named “conservatives” made, then fix it. I’ve got a better idea. How about not making the mess in the first place.
Here’s another novel idea — write a budget that is realistic, pays for services and doesn’t rely on others to clean up a mess.
Or how about this one — write a budget as if there was no one else that you knew would fix it and then submit that budget.
You provide an overly simplistic concept of providing jobs to criminals without even addressing the cost savings that accrue from running the farm. On top of that, you suggest the taxpayers should pay to hire people to run the hatchery rather than use inmate labor that is low to no cost. Figures that a “conservative” would make the argument that low to no cost labor is a bad idea.
I guess I’ll never understand the perpetual Turkish Prison syndrome that conservatives have for non-violent offenders, especially since it’s the conservatives who think we need a law for everything and that we should have HUGE sentences for medial crimes. Rather than focus on helping out the taxpayer, they want to incarcerate them all if it helps them win elections and fear monger a little bit more.
From the Milwaukee County web site: “The County Correctional Facility-South (CCF-S), previously known as the House of Correction (HOC) receives and maintains custody of all prisoners in Milwaukee County sentenced and committed by an authorized court for periods not exceeding one year; prisoners from other jurisdictions are accepted as authorized by County ordinance. The Office of the Sheriff operates the County Correctional Facility-South.”
There has never been a “House of Corrections”.
Is there a point in there?
Again, if the hatchery is so imporant and vital to the county then the more than liberal county board can put it back in and raise taxes to pay for it. It’s really quite simple.
It is still called the HOC ! it may not correct much but it will always be known as the house of correction.
As for mkelover….
Walker is playing politics instead of honesty….
this way when they put the hatchery back in the budget he can play the blame game and point fingers….
The products of the farm and hatchery go to fill the county’s needs. I say expand the farm and do some real good for the people who need the help and the prisoners to prepare them for getting out. Done right, it would profit the county, not cost.
OMG… we won’t have a county farm and fish hatchery? Show me any successful city or county that doesn’t own a farm or fish hatchery. How will we ever attract businesses and jobs without a government fish hatchery???
The farm and fish hatchery were so successful in reducing costs that they only added $330,000 to the budget. The hatchery claims to have produced 40,000 fish. A feeder goldfish at Walmart sells for about ten cents. Ok, so there is $4000. Where did the rest of that money go? Let’s upgrade that to stocking crappies and bass, say 5″-7″, nice size stock. Okay, they cost more. About $1.25 each. So, we have $50,000. The farm only produces seasonal goods. Let’s use math again. 80lbs of ear corn to a bushel at 3.25 a bushel. We spent $50k on fish leaving $280k. That means we could buy 7.5 million pounds of corn in bulk. Do we make that much? Not even 5% of that. Clearly a HUGE waste.
Now, some will whine that the food goes to food pantries. Lovely, but when did we decide that it was the job of taxpayers to stock food pantries? It’s not. They are charities, not entitlement. There are already state programs that provide food aid.
Job training? Are you serious? Yes, I’m sure that plenty of former inmate go on to lead productive lives as farmers after they are incarcerated. Please show me one… anyone? I’m sure the former low level crooks and drunks can’t wait to buy a tractor… Green Acres is the place for meeee…
Why on earth are taxpayers being bilked to run a farm and fish hatchery. You want fish? Buy em cheap from a local business. You want corn and cabbages? Buy em from a local farm. Both would help out the county more than this ridiculous farce.