Waupun staff members predict more inmate deaths without better training, proper staffing (2024)

Chronic understaffing at Waupun Correctional Institution is a major contributor to poor conditions at Wisconsin’s oldest prison, a dire situation that is putting guards and inmates in danger, current and former staff members told the Wisconsin State Journal.

Waupun has experienced the highest number of inmate assaults against staff among the Department of Corrections’ adult facilities over the past five years — 436 assaults in a prison that houses about 700 inmates.

Inmate safety is a concern, too: In June, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office arrested former warden Randall Hepp and eight staffers at Waupun Correctional Institution in connection with the deaths of two inmates last year. Authorities at the time said more than 20 other people are under investigation. It isn’t clear how widespread the remaining investigation is, or whether more arrests will come.

The staff vacancy rate at Waupun has soared in recent years — at one point nearly one of every two jobs was unfilled — although authorities have brought that down to 41.7%, with 118 of 283 full-time positions unfilled, compared with a 12.5% vacancy rate for correctional officers and sergeants across all DOC facilities, spokesperson Beth Hardtke said.

The effort has been helped by raises approved by the Legislature and Gov. Tony Evers to bring the starting minimum pay to $33 an hour, with provisions allowing rates of up to $41 per hour.

Yet while the staff vacancy rate is down, continued understaffing combined with inexperienced new guards is leaving many correctional workers feeling unsafe at Waupun, said Kara Nelson, the wife of a Waupun employee, who has advocated for support of prison staff. The DOC’s current training regimen isn’t sufficiently preparing new hires to enter the prison, she said, and she fears that may lead to more deaths.

“What I’m hearing is a lot of those on-the-job training people (newly hired staff) are the ones that are basically having to run the institution, especially on third shift,” Nelson said. “That’s not safe. That is not safe for the staff. That’s not safe for the inmates. That is not safe for the prison as a whole.”

What’s going on?

A Waupun sergeant, an officer and a former guard who spoke with the State Journal described a grim work environment beset by chronic staff shortages, heavy reliance on inexperienced guards, insufficient training and guards’ fears of criminal prosecution for even minor infractions.

The June arrests of the warden and Waupun staff members, all of which come with felony charges, followed a months-long probe into the deaths of inmates Dean Hoffman, 60, who killed himself in solitary confinement on June 29, 2023; Tyshun Lemons, 30, who died of a fentanyl overdose and stroke on Oct. 2; Cameron Williams, 24, who died of a fentanyl overdose and stroke on Oct. 30; and Donald Maier, 62, who died on Feb. 22. Maier’s cause and manner of death have not yet been announced.

All the charges are related to the deaths of Williams and Maier.

While four inmates died, several more have come near death due to self-harm, drug overdoses and other things, one former employee who spoke to the State Journal said, something for which he said current training isn’t preparing new employees.

He said he has been attacked by inmates seven times during his six-year tenure at Waupun.

“Pretty much every week there’s a staff assault,” said the employee who, like other workers at the prison interviewed for this story, asked to have their names withheld for fear of retribution. (Hardtke said DOC policy prohibits retaliation against employees for sharing “concerns or allegations of wrongdoing made in good faith.”)

“You’re not trained. You’re forced to work around the people that assaulted you. They get barely any segregation time,” the DOC’s term for solitary confinement, the employee said.

“There’s been many times I’ve been completely covered in inmate blood,” he said. “You may have these (staffers) there, but if they don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t know how to respond. As soon as they get blood on them, they freak out.”

All correctional officers and sergeants are required to complete a six-week training academy covering “everything from administrative rules to de-escalation techniques and first aid,” Hardtke said. After the academy, officers and sergeants undergo on-the-job training at their institutions, which is structured differently at each site.

DOC Secretary Jared Hoy works at least one day a week at Waupun, supporting staff and hearing their concerns, Hardtke said.

But adding to the threats of violence, employees fear being sanctioned or even criminally charged for using force to quell attacks. That leaves inmates feeling they can get away with throwing bodily fluids, making threats and assaulting staff, according to the former employee.

Too shorthanded

During an interview with investigators, Hepp, the former warden, blamed Maier’s death at least in part on the staffing shortage, according to a criminal complaint.

Waupun doesn’t adhere to a specific inmate-to-staff ratio, Hardtke said, as there are “too many variables” for officials to recommend a ratio. Those variables include physical design of a facility, level of security, level of programs and activities, and state and local standards and laws.

One current correctional officer recalled a February 2022 shift during which the entire 700-inmate prison was staffed by only eight people. Standard staffing for a hall of 188 inmates is four employees, the employee said, and on weekends there are usually just two.

The officer also provided a copy of a June shift schedule showing just 19 of 46 scheduled second-shift positions filled on one day.

Another employee said he and his colleagues have to take on a minimum of three double shifts per week, 16 hours each, something he said has been the norm for at least the past four years. The extra hours are not listed as requirements in the job description but are assigned due to open shifts. Morale is at an all-time low, the worker said.

Inmates are mostly confined to their cells as part of the institution’s “restricted movement” policies, but those restrictions have loosened in recent months, which the staffer fears may lead to attacks on outnumbered employees.

“I think a lot of the concerns from officers and sergeants are that we’re going to be forced to open back up to what we used to be to where there’s going to be free inmates walking around and that something major is going to happen,” he said.

‘Hard to feel safe’

Built in 1853, Waupun is and one of the oldest prisons in the nation. State lawmakers and governors have talked about closing it for decades. But, while improvements have been made, there has been no significant movement toward replacing the outdated facility.

Officials cite the enormous cost of building a new prison, the need to house a growing inmate population and an impasse between Republicans and Democrats over whether to update institutions or expand alternatives to prison.

In the meantime, workers say, everyone suffers.

The correctional officer, who has worked at Waupun for more than three years, said staff vacancies have contributed to longer hours, more dangerous working conditions and fatigue, all of which lead to more staff leaving, perpetuating the vacancy problem.

Some of the newer hires are still learning the job and miss key details, such as requiring inmates to stand up when checking to make sure they are in their cells, the officer said. That’s a problem because many inmates lie in their beds covered by sheets, and guards can’t see whether they’re breathing, harming themselves or doing drugs.

Some guards fear being charged over “something stupid,” such as incompletely documenting their work, the officer said.

The guard described a scenario called “pencil whipping,” in which one guard documents that all inmates are in their cells and another guard or sergeant signs off on that, without knowing how or even whether the rounds were conducted. That could put the person who signed the document at risk but not the person who conducted the checks.

Falsely reported hourly check-ins explained the 12-hour lapse between Williams’ death and employees finding his body, according to Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt.

“Lately we’ve all been just kind of holding our breath seeing who else is going to get walked out that day,” said the employee who frequently works double shifts. “It’s been hard to feel safe at Waupun.”

Nelson’s Facebook page is littered with posts about the DOC and its employees. She shares information on protests, legislative actions and staff attacks, some of it coming secondhand from officers at the prison who feel they cannot speak out themselves.

“These guys, they’re burnt out,” Nelson said. “There needs to be some level of help.”