Wisconsin Prison Enters into Consent Decree to Correct Tainted Water by Derek Gilna In 2014, Wisconsin’s Fox Lake Correctional Institution (Fox Lake) executed a consent decree with the state Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) in response to complaints about high levels of copper and lead in the prison’s water supply. …
Parolees Violated Without New Charges Bloat Wisconsin Prison Population by Matthew Clarke Due to policies and practices which are costly to society and former parolees, well over half the 7,727 people sent to prison in Wisconsin in 2013 were imprisoned for parole rule violations without any new criminal charges. Those …
Wisconsin Civil Commitments a Major Expense by Matthew Clarke When the Wisconsin Legislature first passed the Sexually Violent Persons Law allowing for civil commitment of certain sex offenders who had served all of their prison sentences, the additional expense was expected to be minimal. Today's reality proves that such a …
Wisconsin Uses Prisoner Workers to Cut Labor Costs by Derek Gilna The recent news that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was planning to utilize prisoners to perform work previously done by state employees has ignited controversy from those who feel that such work will reduce the number of public employees. In …
Wisconsin DOC Unexpectedly Releases Use of Force Video by The Associated Press (AP) settled a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WDOC) for $5,000 in attorney’s fees and an edited copy of a use of force video. The AP sued the WDOC in October 2009 when it refused to …
7th Circuit Affirms as Proper Jury Instructions on Intent and Harm Elements of Excessive Force Claim Brought by Wisconsin Pretrial Detainee by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has affirmed a lower court’s use of jury instructions including harm and subjective intent elements of a use of …
7th Circuit: Minimal Use of Force Not An Eight Amendment Violation by Wisconsin prisoner Juan Guitron alleged that a prison guard bent and injured his wrist. Following a preliminary screening required by 28 U.S.C. § 1915A, the district court dismissed the complaint and the 7th Circuit affirmed. While prison …
$295,001 Awarded to Wisconsin Prisoner for Wet Mattress by In the United States District Court, Western District of Wisconsin at Madison, on September 17, 2008, a jury returned for plaintiff, Wisconsin state prisoner Reggie Townsend on an 8th amendment civil rights case that was previously granted summary judgment for the …
Wisconsin Parole Hampered by Prison Bureaucrats by David Reutter An “irrational” and unaccountable system is preventing Wisconsin’s parole eligible prisoners from satisfying requirements to merit release on parole. About 15% of Wisconsin’s more than 32,000 prisoners have sentences that allow them to be paroled. They are the remnant that lingers …
Results from Seven States Shows Program-Driven Recidivism Reduction by The National Reentry Resource Center has published a new study of seven states showing that with proper pre-release programming, recidivism rates can be reduced by a significant amount. The study, which covered the states of Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, …
Wisconsin’s Mass Incarceration of African American Males: Workforce Challenges for 2013, Pawasarat and Quinn, 2013 Wisconsin’s Mass Incarceration of African American Males: Workforce Challenges for 2013 Prepared by John Pawasarat and Lois M. Quinn Employment and Training Institute University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 2013 Executive Summary Among the most critical workforce issues …
New Contracts Pull Wisconsin Prison Industry Out of Red for 2012 by Fiscal year 2012 was a profitable year for Badger State Industries. A memorandum from the Wisconsin Department of Correction (WDOC) to the co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Finance shows WDOC’s prison industries gained $3.6 million for the …
Commission on Reducing Racial Disparities in WI Justice System - Final Report, Doyle, 2008 Commission on Reducing Racial Disparities in the Wisconsin Justice System Jim Doyle Governor Spencer Coggs ◊ Noble Wray Co-Chairs Final Report February 2008 Commission on Reducing Racial Disparities in the Wisconsin Justice System Co-Chairs Spencer Coggs, …
Negligence not Grounds for Prosecution in Deaths of Wisconsin Prisoners by Gary Hunter It was a Thursday in late July 2009 when Myron Weston, a prisoner at Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF), drank cleaning fluid from the supplies given to him to perform his janitorial duties. A short time later …
Milwaukee Man Receives $506,000 Award for Wrongful Stop by A Wisconsin federal jury awarded $506,000 to a man who was stopped without reason and wrongfully arrested. As Leo Hardy was leaving his mother’s home, Milwaukee police officers Michael Gasser and Keith Garland, Jr., stopped him on March 13, 2012, for …
Wisconsin Prisoner’s Civil Rights Action Alleging Verbal Harassment Reinstated by Derek Gilna Ronald J. Beal, a Wisconsin state prisoner, filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging violations of his civil rights by Department of Corrections (DOC) staff who had subjected him to verbal harassment. After his complaint was …
O'Connell v. Village of Mount Horeb, WI, Complaint, Police Excessive Force, 2016 State of Wisconsin Circuit Court Branch _____ Dane County Michael D. O'Connell, 215 Heather Court Mt. Horeb, WI 53572 Plaintiff, Case No. Case Code: v. _________________ 30107 Village of Mount Horeb 138 E Main Street Mount Horeb, WI …
Former Wisconsin Corrections Secretary Fired by Wisconsin Attorney General Brad D. Schimel confirmed on April 15, 2016 that Ed Wall, the former state corrections secretary who responded to widespread prison violence by equipping prison employees with pepper spray and Tasers [see: PLN, May 2014, p.30], was fired by the state’s …
