Good News in Brief
This time, we’re telling you some good news that’s happening right here in Dane County. The Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center, which opened in 1995, is demonstrating that healing instead of punishment works with severely troubled kids: violent recidivism is 50% less for kids treated here rather than in traditional juvenile facilities.
The center is staffed by psychologists, not corrections officers, and it’s under the state’s health department, not the Department of Corrections. It was expanded recently to serve more kids and now houses nine girls ages 15-18 and 34 boys. It looks more like a secure high school than a prison, even though it is a secure facility and the kids who are there were deemed too dangerous for the state’s other juvenile facilities. The center plans to expand its capacity to 55 boys by the end of this June.
All of the young people at the center have experienced severe adversity throughout their childhood. This background is clinically referred to as ACE: adverse childhood experiences, and is scored 1-10 based on how extreme the experience was. Most adults have an ACE score of 1 or 2; the majority of kids at the center have a score of at least 7, and for girls it may include trafficking. (Judge Mitchell stated in his May 20 Lunch and Learn speech that trafficking is a significant problem in Dane County.)
The average stay for a young person at the center is six to nine months, though some stay until they turn 18. Expansion at this center is part of the state’s plan to eventually close the two troubled juvenile state prisons, Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake in Lincoln County, and to build newer juvenile prisons elsewhere in the state.
This information was taken from an excellent article by Erin McGroarty in the Cap Times’ June 3, 2026, issue. You can read the full article, which we strongly recommend, at captimes.com.