Charges were brought last Wednesday against Randall Hepp, the warden at Wisconsin’s oldest prison, the maximum-security Waupun Correctional Institution, as well as eight of his staffers after the deaths of multiple inmates, according to the Associated Press.
Republicans and Democrats alike have been calling for years to close both the prison in Waupun and another built in the 1800s in Green Bay, but concerns over job losses in the communities and the cost of building a new prison — perhaps as high as $1 billion — have been stumbling blocks. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has said that the closure cannot be done without broader criminal justice reform and a plan for housing the roughly 1,700 inmates who would be displaced.
The focus has been on Waupun over the past year after four inmates died. Families of three of them have filed federal wrongful death lawsuits against the state.
Inmates also have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that they can’t access health care. They also argue that they’re allowed only one shower per week, receive no educational programming, aren’t allowed in-person visits with their families, and the prison is infested with rats and cockroaches.
The state Corrections Department is investigating the prison’s operations, and the governor last year asked the U.S. Justice Department to look into contraband smuggling at the facility.
The institution has suffered from understaffing that resulted in a lockdown in March 2023. Nearly half of the jobs at Waupun, 43%, were vacant at the end of May.
