By: Associated Press//January 27, 2017//
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Lawmakers have launched a bipartisan effort to push through the Legislature the first bill meant to deal with allegations of child abuse at Wisconsin’s troubled youth prison.
Republican state Rep. Joel Kleefisch and Democratic Sen. LaTonya Johnson introduced a bill this week that would require guards at the prison to report suspected instances of child abuse. If they failed to report abuse to child welfare workers or police, they would face up to six months in jail.
Word broke in December 2015 that state agents were investigating allegations of widespread abuse at the prison, in Irma. The FBI has since taken over the investigation.
Democrats introduced bills last session that would have made changes at the prison but went nowhere in the Republican-controlled Legislature.