WJI's Daily Reads for Feb. 10, 2022

Wisconsin Examiner: Issues regarding proposed legislation to close Lincoln Hills.

Lincoln Hills is on a completely different scale. Although it currently houses 38 male juveniles, the facility was designed with a capacity of 519. It remains one of America’s largest youth prisons, with Wisconsin leading the nation in referring students to law enforcement. According to a 2021 report by the Center for Public Integrity, nine Badger State students out of every 1,000 were referred to police in 2017-18, compared to the national rate of 4.5. As of Feb. 4, 11 girls were in the Copper Lake facility, which is adjacent to the Lincoln Hills facility for boys.

Although most of the juveniles held there are from the Milwaukee area, the facilities themselves are over four hours away from home. Establishing a new Type 1 facility in Milwaukee was part of a plan to move the kids closer to home, while also redesigning their setting to aid in rehabilitation. In 2019, however, plans to open a facility in Milwaukee were met with stiff community pushback and the idea was scrapped. With the creation of a new facility now again on the table, the pressure hasn’t disappeared.

Madison365: Protests following police shooting in Madison.

WIZM (AP report): Wisconsin legislators propose Texas-style abortion ban with private enforcement.

Courthouse News Service: Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals hears defamation case stemming from Wausau Daily Herald article.

Marijuana Moment: Federal courts interpreting medical-marijuana protections differently.

Congressional lawmakers just got an update on how different federal courts across the country are interpreting a spending bill rider that has generally shielded state medical marijuana programs from interference by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The provision, first approved as part of large-scale appropriations legislation in 2014 and renewed each year since, stipulates that DOJ funding cannot be used to prevent states and territories from  “implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.” But courts have had varying interpretations about the extent to which those protections apply, a new report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) explains.

Roll Call: Bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.

Sens. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced the measure at a news conference alongside advocates, including actor Angelina Jolie. Ernst said the bill includes many priorities for her as a domestic violence survivor, such as more resources for rural areas and provisions addressing abuse against women in law enforcement custody.