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Wisconsin Watch Media Partners Center (https://partners.wisconsinwatch.org/series/waupun-allegations/)

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Cruel and Unusual?

This series examines Wisconsin’s prison system, including legislation affecting prisoners and their families.

Our reporting found prisoners experience despair, suicide attempts, mental harm and lack of services in prison and solitary confinement that can stretch on for years.

An unoccupied cell in the segregation unit at Waupun Correctional Institution. The cells are small, with a narrow window and concrete and steel furnishings.

Wisconsin Department of Corrections

An unoccupied cell in the segregation unit at Waupun Correctional Institution. The cells are small, with a narrow window and concrete and steel furnishings.

"I’ve tried many times to hang myself with a sheet, overdose on medication. I start to see things or people who isn’t there."

— Quenton Thompson, prisoner at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility

“I don’t know what has to happen for these guys to be believed.”

— Peg Swan, inmate advocate

Cruel and Unusual?

‘He shouldn’t have had to die’: COVID-19 infects half of Wisconsin inmates, five times the overall state rate

Coronavirus Coverage

Inmates fear ‘the invisible enemy’ in Wisconsin’s overcrowded prisons

Cruel and Unusual?

Pay-to-stay, other fees, can put jail inmates hundreds or thousands in debt

Cruel and Unusual?

By the numbers: Jail incarceration fees in Wisconsin

Cruel and Unusual?

Hard road ahead for Gov. Tony Evers’ promise to slash Wisconsin prison population

Cruel and Unusual?

Wisconsin’s high supervision rate can cause — rather than prevent — longer incarceration, studies show

Cruel and Unusual?

Wisconsin inmates report despair, little counseling in solitary confinement that can stretch on for years

Cruel and Unusual?

Wisconsin prison officials quietly changed mental health status of inmates in solitary, psychologist says

Cruel and Unusual?

Nearly 30 years in isolation: An inmate reflects on time in solitary

Cruel and Unusual?

Judge refuses to halt force feeding of inmate in solitary confinement protest

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The Allegations


40 allegations of guards abusing inmates at Waupun Correctional Institution
Details about each alleged incident, who was involved and the state’s response.

Listen

Wisconsin Public Radio's Gil Halsted produced two pieces about the Center's reports: Large number of prisoners allege abuse at Waupun prison and Investigative report raises questions about solitary confinement in Wisconsin.

Bill Lueders was interviewed on WPR's
Joy Cardin, July 21, on Central Time, and on The Devil's Advocate on 92.1 The Mic in Madison. Former Corrections secretary Walter Dickey spoke on Central Time.

Sidebars

Prisoner rights advocate Peg Swan has been trying for months to call attention to allegations of abuse of inmates at Waupun Correctional Institution.

Advocate Peg Swan devotes life to aiding Wisconsin's prisoners “This is Waupun,” she says, opening a file cabinet. “And that box is Waupun.”

Richard Smitheran

A look at six allegations of inmate abuse at Waupun "All we heard was a big hollow bang and when they brung him out he had blood all over his face."

The state Department of Corrections released hundreds of pages of records but denied access to other materials, including videos and internal complaints.

How the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism investigated prison-abuse allegations The state Department of Corrections released hundreds of pages of records but denied access to other materials, including videos and internal complaints.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is a nonprofit organization.

If you value our work, please help support it.

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To increase the quality, quantity and understanding of investigative journalism to foster an informed citizenry and strengthen democracy.

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