Chapter 435, Laws of 1939 created a new State Department of Public Welfare with a Division of Corrections and transferred to that division the functions of the former Board of Control relating to the administration of the state's penal institutions. With the reorganization act of 1967, the Division of Corrections was placed in the new Department of Health and Social Services. The Division was abolished on January 1, 1990, and its responsibilities for adult offenders were
transferred to a new Department of Corrections and for juvenile offenders to the Division of Youth Services in the Department of Health and Social Services.
The stated mission of the Division of Corrections was to protect society through the retraining and rehabilitation of the offenders committed to its custody. In its treatment of offenders the Division used probation and parole, individualized institutional programs, social and clinical services, and evaluative and developmental research.
During the 1955-1967 period the Division of Corrections supervised three adult correctional institutions: the Wisconsin State Prison at Waupun, the Wisconsin State Reformatory at Green Bay, and the Wisconsin Home for Women at Taycheedah. The Wisconsin State Prison was a maximum security institution for adult felony offenders and was designated as the reception and treatment center under the Sex Crimes Act. The Wisconsin State Reformatory received first felony offenders between the ages of 16 and 30. The Wisconsin Home for Women received adult female felony offenders.
Treatment programs at the Wisconsin State Prison emphasized vocational training through prison industries including the manufacture of shoes, metal furniture, paint, license plates and clothing, and printing. Inmates also engaged in large scale farming, forestry and conservation. Wisconsin State Reformatory programs emphasized academic education and vocational training, and included some small scale industries such as clothing manufacture and auto body work. Programs at the Wisconsin Home for Women included academic training, vocational training and supervised work programs.
