It's always been difficult to explain Scott Walker's dismissive attitude over the serious abuses committed against young people at Lincoln Hills. It was a place Walker refused to visit because of bad optics and the fact that it was not a corporate big money priority. WPR:
WSAW-TV is reporting Gov. Scott Walker's administration told former Corrections Secretary Ed Wall to cancel his ... November 2015 ... written request for an association to investigate abuse at Wisconsin's youth prison. Wall resigned as prisons secretary in 2016. The association's former executive director said shortly after receiving the letter Wall told him that Walker's staff had instructed Wall to cancel the review request. Wall says the letter proves Walker knew about problems at the prison long before they admitted them publicly.
Walker's surreal but serious response? He called it false? Amazing:
Walker spokeswoman Amy Hasenberg characterized Wall's assertions as "false attacks."
Who would question Walker's perfect life and political record?
Here's WKOW's Capitol City Sunday's interview with Wall that makes all of this perfectly clear. Remember, Wall was a 32 law enforcement officer, and you've got to respect that, right Republicans?
I think former Corrections Secretary Ed Wall said it best about Scott Walker and his band of plundering Republican pirates when they overthrew the government. WKOW-TV:
Wall: "Suddenly there was a bravado amongst people, and this feeling of entitlement, and it almost felt like revenge. And they were going to make big bold changes and they didn't care if anyone agreed.
Revenge-Entitlement: So it's not hard to imagine Republicans ignoring 100,000 Wisconsinites protesting and the more than 1 million signatures to recall Scott Walker. The Republican majority was hell-bent on pushing through their no-compromise ideologically driven policies, so it was pretty damn obvious "entitlement" ruled the day.
Ed Wall is now putting the finishing touches on a book dealing with his experience as Secretary of Corrections, and it confirms everything we ever thought about Walker's handling of it, and just how bad his bumbling lackey in the AG office is, Brad Schimel:
Gov. Scott Walker’s former corrections secretary said the attorney general had “completely botched” a probe into abuses at Wisconsin’s teen prison by failing to review incident reports or check medical records after months of investigation. Former Corrections Secretary Ed Wall said Attorney General Brad Schimel passed off the investigation to the FBI a year after it began as a “Hail Mary pass” to “get it out of their lap.” Wall also contended Walker had not taken problems at Lincoln Hills School for Boys seriously enough, saying the matter had been “shuffled off by the governor’s office.”
Retaliation? Isn't it funny how all criticism aimed at Republicans, from Scott Walker, Brad Schimel, to Trump...it's all just sour grapes and retaliation? Who knew Republicans were infallible?
A spokesman for the GOP attorney general on Tuesday contended Wall was attempting to "retaliate" against Schimel with "misinformation" but did not answer whether Wall's claims that investigators failed to review medical records were true.
AG Schimel's only talent is kissing up to Walker, and he's really good at that, but he sure doesn't know how to do an investigation or solve important legal problems:
Wall said he found out in November 2015 that Department of Justice investigators had not gathered medical records or prison reports about incidents in which teen inmates said their arms had been broken by staff. Wall expressed alarm that investigators had not taken those basic steps to try to verify the claims."What’s more important than (investigating) hurting kids?" Wall said during his WKOW interview.
It's all Wall's fault: Isn't it always someone else's fault, the "other," the immigrant, the Democrats, those liberals, minorities...never a whiny Republicans fault. But wait, Lincoln Hills is still a problem...so Wall is still at fault too?
Schimel spokesman Johnny Koremenos (said) "Unfortunately, in a sad attempt to retaliate, Wall is peddling misinformation to distract from his failure as secretary of the Department of Corrections..."
...and I loved this:
"...the fact that law enforcement needed to be brought in to conduct a criminal investigation into the institutions that he was responsible to oversee," Koremenos said in his statement.
Remember when Wall said "Schimel passed off the investigation to the FBI a year after it began as a 'Hail Mary pass' to 'get it out of their lap.'” Why did Schimel end the investigation? Scott Walker conveniently and deliberately eliminated it, and has since not paid a price for Lincoln Hills:
The state John Doe probe of Wisconsin's juvenile prison ended Monday under a law Gov. Scott Walker signed last year limiting how such investigations can be conducted. The John Doe probe of Lincoln Hills would hit the six-month mark on Friday. Attorney General Brad Schimel and Lincoln County District Attorney Don Dunphy did not seek an extension, and Russell closed the John Doe probe, saying the state had asked to end it.
You can't make this stuff up. Here's the full interview:
Wall still might have to explain this...
CCI staff have often said that when concerns about safety and security are brought up to management, the response from Warden Mike Dittman and DOC Secretary Edward Wall is “there are 1,000 people in line to take your job.” In one meeting with legislators in October, Wall reportedly responded to a comment that more staff would be leaving in the next year by saying, “I don’t care. Let them go.”
Jakes Economic TA Funhouse posted a story about how Walker's Act 10 brought about the problems at Lincoln Hills, which is another reason why Walker's steered clear of whole mess. First...:
In 2012, Scott Walker appointed Dept. of Corrections Secretary Ed Wall, who's one major responsibility was public safety. We're now finding out that he's been an incredible failure.
But we also need to hold Walker responsible. I know Republicans don't like it, but the same "buck stops here" rule applies to Scott Walker. Where has Walker been during the breakdown of corrections staffing and documented abuse? Oh that's right, Act 10 solved all our problems, not made them worse.
Walker's “Working for Wisconsin” tour dubbed the “2020 Vision
Project,” where he is supposedly seeking local advice, is a sham. According to one attendee:
The format didn’t allow for more dialogue about problems
facing the state. “The governor didn’t address what was being shared. He recorded it. He listened. But I can’t say he gave us a response to
any of the issues that were raised.”
Walker never mentioned the Failure of Act 10 - The Problems at the Columbia Correctional Institution: Public safety fell apart after Act 10, since corrections staff no longer had input, and many up and quit. Despite losing 541 employees, Walker's DOC Sec. Ed Wall didn't think it was important to increase oversight?
Following the passage of Act 10, 541 employees retired from the DOC. In 2012 resignations went up 40 percent. At CCI, staff report seeing more people leaving, some recent recruits deciding not to stay along with the exit of veteran employees.
CCI staff have often said that when concerns about safety and security are brought up to management, the response from Warden Mike Dittman and DOC Secretary Edward Wall is “there are 1,000 people in line to take your job.” In one meeting with legislators in October, Wall reportedly responded to a comment that more staff would be leaving in the next year by saying, “I don’t care. Let them go.”
Buck stops where? Walker sees the dangerous conditions at CCI and the dramatic staff reductions as another problem to run from. Contract it out. Walker isn't kidding either when he blamed previous administrations. He really thinks that gets him off the hook:
When asked after his speech about the state of the Department of Corrections and Columbia Correctional Institution in particular, which runs (by some estimates) a 20 percent staff deficit, Walker said that it was to be expected.
“This is an issue that predates me and predates Act 10. Back when I was in the Legislature, in the early 1990s, Tommy Thompson had a similar problem. It’s part of the reason why for a while he looked at out-of-state contracts for holding inmates.”
Anecdotal Walker flip flops on Anecdotes: After countless Walker policy changing anecdotes were found to be unprovable or flat out fabrications, Walker won't allow other peoples anecdotes about Warden Dittman and Wall's comments make him look like a complete incompetent, even when they're true:
“I would love to see the documentation. I’ve never heard him say that. I would be interested in hearing where that is documented, rather than rumors from staff out there. I’ve yet to hear that. If that’s something you can document for us or show, that would be concerning to us, but I’ve never heard that from the Secretary or anyone else in the administration.”
Democratic offers to help partisan attempts to Embarrass Walker? Instead of being suspicious of the Democrats, he should have listened:
In September, Sen. Jon Erpenbach, sent a letter to the co-chairs of the State Legislature’s Joint-Audit Committee, requesting a vote on an audit of the DOC. In January, Erpenbach, with a group of representatives including Rep. Dave Considine and Sen. Jennifer Shilling offered a nine-part proposal for addressing the problems in the DOC, separately proposed for a more convenient a la carte consideration.
