Excerpt from a letters sent on 3/9/18 by a prisoner at Waupun Correctional:
“The real problem with PREA [Prison Rape Elimination Act] is that it’s the same staff who decide how the investigation is handled and outcome. So if I complain on a C.O. action, his boss is the one who decides if conduct happens. The staff will always support staff….This is such a closed door system people don’t get a real feel for what it’s like or conditions….They turn AC on in winter to make rooms colder…As for individual institutions having their own rules: very true. Dodge has laws run very differently than here. They also play racist staffing sending groups of people to one prison vs another. They also get away with having worse tv or less channels due to policies or worse recreational activities. They even made one rule that we can only file one complaint a week….It is true WI has less gang influence. There are still gangs but more CI or snitches, to tell on them before they can do much. While this is good from a safety standpoint it is bad as less people organized means less strikes! If the gangs would work together and ll people here to make conditions better this place could improve, but so many people are focused only on their needs or their group and if you’re not part of them they won’t listen or work with someone or even talk to them. ”
Conditions in the Wisconsin prison system need to change.