Buck Stops with Walker, who allowed Abuse, Excessive Force, Child Neglect, Sexual Abuse and retaliation against Accusers.

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.”

“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.”

Unsatisfied with the explanations so far, Racine County officials moved their youth out of the state facility 30 miles north of Wausau in 2012. Milwaukee County officials are seeking to do the same, which would withdraw the majority of inmates from the prison and leave it with a gaping hole in its present operations. The joint federal and state probe of the juvenile prison near Irma in Lincoln County is investigating allegations of prisoner abuse, excessive use of force, child neglect and sexual assault, as well as retaliation against accusers.

The Journal Sentinel reported Thursday on a botched state response to the beating and sexual assault of a youth at Lincoln Hills that led Racine County officials to pull all juvenile offenders from the facility and sharply criticize the incident to Gov. Scott Walker and to top state corrections officials.

Records … show clearly that despite Walker’s repeated statements that he was surprised by more recent allegations of abuse, his office and his administration were told of troubling conduct at the prison in February 2012.

Then-Racine County Circuit Judge Richard Kreul sent a memo directly to Walker on Feb. 10, 2012, detailing the sexual assault from the month before and the failure of Lincoln Hills staff to notify law enforcement, child protective services and county officials about it. “Almost 50 years in the legal system and I’ve seen and heard a lot, so (I’m) not naive as to what ‘prison’ is about. But the indifference in this sordid tale is absolutely inexcusable,” Kreul wrote to the governor.