Wisconsin has prison problems. Government isn't doing much to solve them, advocates say.
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MADISON - Two months after Gov. Tony Evers issued a statement vowing action on bleak circumstances in some of the state's prisons, little appears to have changed.
In two of the state's prisons, inmates remain largely confined to their cells as they have been for months with limited access to recreation, showers and visits from loved ones.
Advocates for inmates and their families say there's blame to go around — including to state lawmakers who ended their session last month without acting on legislation aimed at improving prison conditions — but they in particular point their finger at inaction from the administration of Gov. Tony Evers.
"I'm just shocked and dismayed and that it's not getting the kind of response that it needs, either from the Legislature or frankly, from the administration. I mean, this is everybody getting it wrong," said David Liners, the executive director of WISDOM, an advocacy organization aimed at supporting incarcerated individuals.
"People in prison are out of sight, out of mind, unless someone reminds people."
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Specifically, advocates say, Evers could act on his own without the Legislature and point to actions taken during the coronavirus pandemic that lowered prison populations by not incarcerating people who committed technical violations of their terms of supervision, in addition to sending newly sentenced people to county jails instead of crowded prisons.
"They can change some of these practices. Matter of fact, they did back during COVID,” Liners said. "In one fell swoop the Secretary of Corrections changed the policy and it reduced the prison population by 1,200 people.”
As of Dec. 31, 2023, 4,330 individuals were incarcerated due to revocation in Wisconsin, according to the DOC. Revocation means that the person is placed in prison because they violated a rule or condition of their supervision but does not necessarily mean that the person engaged in criminal behavior, DOC Communications Director Beth Hardtke said.
Evers said in an interview Monday that he visited Waupun recently as educational classes were being restarted. He said those incarcerated were "excited" about the programming.
When asked about the ongoing complaints about the conditions inside some of the state's prisons, Evers said they'll work to get bills over the finish line that address issues, noting that the composition of the Legislature could change after November's elections.
"We're working on it right now," he said. "We're going to have a new Legislature next time, and hopefully it will be helpful."
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Republicans who control the state Legislature also did not take action on proposed measures to address conditions inside Wisconsin's prisons, including the state's largest facility that is under federal investigation and has been on lockdown for months.
Advocates and family members of incarcerated individuals have protested the lack of attention paid to prisons, showing up outside with signs, music and microphones outside of many of the embattled corrections institutions. Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, said he's heard from constituents about the events and their desire for change.
"Collectively, both the Legislature and the governor are making it worse," he said. "We should be making conditions in our jails better."
The inaction comes after former GOP Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-led Legislature were criticized for years for doing little to address similarly dangerous conditions at the state's youth prison. A bill to close the prison wasn't passed until Walker ran for re-election in 2018 — a race Evers won after making Walker's inaction on prison conditions a campaign focus.
While campaigning in 2018, Evers also said he supported eventually reducing the state's prison population through the release of inmates for good behavior, expanding or creating court diversion programs, and treating 17-year-old offenders as juveniles instead of adults.
He has pursued the changes through the Republican-controlled state Legislature but GOP lawmakers have blocked the efforts.
Liners said the state Capitol is not conducive for solutions with Democrats and Republicans not seeing eye to eye on how best to reduce crime.
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"I'd love to see more bipartisan work," he said. "I think it's disingenuous to not do anything at all and then blame the people who actually do try to introduce the topic for introducing it wrong."
Evers has taken some steps recently to address issues in prisons, particularly the restriction of movement by inmates. Compensation for correctional officers was also raised, drawing in more applicants and reducing the levels of understaffing that contributed to the restricted conditions within prisons.
But even with those actions, Liners said, Evers could be doing more.
"He made a lot of promises when he first ran for governor, about reducing the prison population, and he's just stepped away from all that," Liners said.
"The governor has a responsibility for people in prison that is unique. He doesn't speak on criminal legal system issues hardly ever, and almost never speaks on people in prison. And he certainly isn't offering a lot of leadership on the issue and we find that really disappointing."
When asked about that campaign promise, a spokeswoman for Evers declined to answer questions, instead pointing to the governor's past budgets.
There has been an outcry over state prisons, run by the DOC, with several deaths, allegations of mistreatment and months-long lockdowns that have largely confined those incarcerated to their cells.
"The conditions in some of our prison institutions are unacceptable," Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said during an event in February.
"There is no excuse for the way people are being treated and there is no reason to incarcerate the vast number of people that we do."
Wisconsin had more than 22,000 people incarcerated as of March 29 in all of its facilities, a number much larger than neighboring Minnesota, which had 8,275 people incarcerated as of Jan. 1, the latest data available.
James Wilbur, a criminal justice reform advocate, said in early February after Evers announced that DOC would be examining the lockdowns, that there hadn't been much movement and that lack of action was hurting those incarcerated.
"The men in these facilities are continuing to be subjected to nothing less than vicious conditions. I really need to emphasize that word, that conditions that these men are being subjected to are absolutely vicious," he said.
"Think about what that kind of living situation would be like when you're subjected to a six by eight cell for up to 23 and one-half-hours a day. With no access to recreation, no access to non-artificial light, no programming. Your ability to communicate with your family and your friends is virtually unknown because you don't know if you're going to get a phone call."
Waupun, one of the state's five maximum-security prisons, has seen four in-custody deaths in the last eight months, with the first confirmed as a suicide, the second due to an overdose and the third as a result of a stroke. Cameron Williams, 24, was found dead in his cell in October after begging and yelling for help for days, only to be ignored by correctional officers, according to prisoners who spoke with the Journal Sentinel.
Waupun has been in a state of modified movement for nearly a year, meaning that those incarcerated are largely confined to their cells, and have complained about a lack of access to shower facilities, and little to no opportunities to interact with loved ones. The building itself has been a source of complaints due to its age.
Green Bay Correctional Institution has also been a focal point, due to ongoing restrictions there, as well as the deterioration of the building itself. Incarcerated individuals have reported an infestation of mice, a lack of access to natural daylight, a lack of access to showers and confinement to cells so small they barely have space to move around their cellmate.
Hardtke, the DOC spokesperson, said in an email that the department "continues to assess modified movement at the two facilities."
And DOC Secretary Kevin Carr announced his retirement in early March, leaving the embattled agency without leadership as it navigates the growing number of issues being raised in its prisons.
Legislation could create change within the prisons, improving conditions and providing more resources to those who need them. But for the most part, GOP lawmakers who control the state Legislature have avoided the issue, or allowed bills introduced to languish without a hearing.
And now that the Legislature has finished for 2024, some are wondering if more could have been done to help.
'They were misled'
Seventeen bills aimed at addressing the conditions inside Wisconsin's prisons were introduced last year, spearheaded by Rep. Darrin Madison, D-Milwaukee, and Clancy, but none came to fruition.
The bills covered a host of issues inside state prisons and would have raised the minimum wage for jobs done by those incarcerated, required facilities to allow people to bathe more frequently, required more visitations, more recreational time, and required that those in solitary confinement be provided with paper, pen, envelopes and their address book, as well as a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo and deodorant.
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Advocates alongside the bill authors called the bills "a step forward," and expressed hope that they would bring about change.
John McCray Jones, a policy analyst with the Wisconsin ACLU, said at a November news conference that Wisconsin needs to work to reduce the number of people it incarcerates but the legislation was a move to help people.
"These bills respect the human dignity of incarcerated people," he said. "They improve public safety by fostering an environment that leads to rehabilitation."
None of the bills received a hearing, let alone a vote.
Clancy said the lack of movement on the bills was frustrating.
"It is unfortunate that we have yet to see even a hearing for any of those 17 bills, because we all agree that there are problems," he said. "And yet we're not even giving a hearing for it, for any of the potential solutions."
Rep. Michael Schraa, a Republican from Oshkosh and the chair of the Assembly Committee on Corrections, has been working for years on improving the corrections system, including co-authoring the push to close the Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls youth prison when problems were brought to light in 2015.
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While he said some of the bills introduced by Democrats could have made it over the finish line, there was no effort to work in a bipartisan manner by the authors of the package and the way they were announced was a "publicity stunt."
"There were a couple (bills) in there that I think we could have worked on some things together, but not when they're introduced by the minority party on their own," he said. "I think there were a lot of people that were counting on the possibility of some of those bills actually getting hearings, and they were really misled."
Clancy disputed that claim, saying his office had several appointments scheduled with Schraa's that were all canceled.
"It's just the opposite. I mean, we spent months and months reaching out to stakeholders reaching out for Republicans," he said.
Clancy said loved ones of incarcerated people met with Republicans, too, asking for them to support the bills.
"Formerly incarcerated people and their advocates, they've been waiting for some of this legislation for decades. And they are they were overjoyed that it was even put out there," Clancy said. "But I think we owe it to them to take the next step, give them hearings and actually pass these in the law."
Some bills have received bipartisan support and were recently signed by Evers.
One focuses on treating prisoners struggling with serious mental illness and another provides an alternative to solitary confinement for Wisconsin prisons' sickest inmates ― the only bill that addresses conditions inside prisons this session.
The new law follows the death of Dean Hoffman, whose suicide last year at Waupun came after his family said correctional officers didn't take his mental health needs seriously, despite his documented challenges, including bipolar disorder and suicidal thoughts.
Another newly signed law aims to help people released from prison obtain jobs by providing a state-run hotline and website to help employers hire individuals with previous conviction records.
More is needed, advocates say.
"The problem is we have too many people in the prisons. We've got some facilities that just shouldn't be there," said Liners, the advocate. "If we just did the common sense thing of getting the people out of prisons that can be gotten out safely, with no danger to anybody, we could solve a lot of these problems quickly."
Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on X at @SchulteLaura.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Governor, legislators end session without action on prison issues
