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Abstract: 

This article details some of the benefits accruing from a unique partnership between a minimum-security prison and a community advisory board, albeit a board with a distinctly different thrust than most prison advisory boards. The Felmers O. Chaney Correctional Center Community Advisory Board (FCAB) was an advocacy-oriented board seeking to work with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) in reaching desirable correctional and rehabilitative goals. In addition to working hand-in-hand with the DOC in efforts to implement effective evidence-based policies, procedures and programs, the FCAB also disseminated information to the public via broadcast and print media whenever the DOC appeared to be faltering in achieving its stated mission to “prepare inmates for a safe and successful re-integration into the community.” This collaborative push-pull FCAB/DOC relationship initially resulted in transforming the Chaney Correctional Center from being a “warehouse” to being the most successful minimum-security facility in the state, but the very success of the advisory board also resulted in the demise of its linkage with the DOC, largely due to the FCAB’s vigor in disseminating various facts and figures to the public about the failure of many of Wisconsin’s correctional policies.

Keywords: Prison oversight, Felmers O. Chaney Correctional Center Community Advisory Board (FCAB), Wisconsin Department of Corrections, inmate re-integration, correctional rehabilitation

Affiliations:  1: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Emeritus); 2: Chaney Correctional Center (Retired); 3: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.