[ “This is not the solution to mass incarceration,” Rep. Ryan
Clancy stressed. “This is harm reduction to the incredible damage
that we do inherently when we incarcerate people.”]
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BILLS INTRODUCED TO IMPROVE CONDITIONS IN WISCONSIN JAILS AND PRISONS
 
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Isiah Holmes
November 3, 2023
Wisconsin Examiner
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_ “This is not the solution to mass incarceration,” Rep. Ryan
Clancy stressed. “This is harm reduction to the incredible damage
that we do inherently when we incarcerate people.” _

A Green Bay Correctional Institution watch tower and guard. (Photo |
Isiah Holmes),

 

In Wisconsin’s Capitol, a package of 17 bills aimed at improving
conditions in the state’s incarceration facilities was introduced
Thursday. Covering issues from hygiene to oversight and transparency,
the proposals were crafted following recommendations from stakeholders
including formerly incarcerated people and their families. The authors
offered the legislation against a backdrop of at least two state
prisons being locked down and reports of recent deaths among
incarcerated people.

For those who gathered in the Capitol to announce the bills, the
situation couldn’t be more dire. “From lockdowns to deaths in
custody and protests, current prison conditions are at a breaking
point,” the bills’ authors declared in a joint statement.
“Today, we introduced legislation to address the unacceptable
conditions for people in our custody across the state of Wisconsin. We
know that a vast majority of people who are currently incarcerated
will return to our communities. We owe it to those individuals and our
communities to maintain correctional facilities that are humanely run
and promote rehabilitation in an environment of basic dignity and
respect.”

“Those who are closest to the issues are closest to the
solutions,” said Rep. Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee), one of the
authors. In addition to activists, formerly incarcerated people and
their families, Madison noted that correctional officers and staff
from the Department of Correction (DOC) also provided input into the
package.  Given the conditions in many jails and prisons across
Wisconsin, he said, “The purpose of this bill package is to ensure
that we have humane conditions for the people who are currently
incarcerated, along with increasing oversight and transparency of our
jails and prisons.” He decried  the conditions faced by many
incarcerated people as “unacceptable,” adding, “The people who
are incarcerated, alongside their families and even some victims, are
calling for change.”

Rates of incarceration for Black and Native American residents in
Wisconsin remain some of the highest nationally
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663 people per 100,000 according to data from Prison Policy
Initiative. Over 20,000 people are held in DOC facilities, many of
which have chronic problems with overcrowding and understaffing.

Many of the problems seen in state facilities are also found in local
jails. The Milwaukee County Jail — where at least six people died
over the last 15 months — has become a prime example
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In September, 27 men held in the jail were charged
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barricading themselves in a library area of the jail to protest the
facility’s conditions. Sheriff deputies and correctional officers
used batons and pepper spray to break up the protest. A local
coalition of activists has continued pushing for transparency after
repeated medical emergencies and deaths by suicide in the jail.

Kerrie Hirte spoke at the press conference about her daughter,
20-year-old Cylvia Thyrion, who died in the Milwaukee  jail last
December. “She was incarcerated for 10 months without going to
court,” said Hirte. “So she was never sentenced.”

Hirte said the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office has not been
transparent about what goes on in the jail. “I called several times
to find out how Cylvia was doing, they would tell me that they
couldn’t give me all the information, even though she signed some
paperwork,” she said. Thyrion, who had been held in solitary
confinement, was found with pieces of a diaper given to her by the
jail in her system. Investigators suggested
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she had eaten the pieces, and said staff hadn’t intended to harm
Thyrion.

Since her daughter’s death, Hirte says that many people have
contacted her about conditions they have experienced, from food served
rotten with maggots to excessive lockdowns and lack of mental health
support. The state’s oldest prison in Waupun has been the subject of
similar complaints. Three deaths
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occurred there over the last four months as the prison has continued a
“modified movement” or lockdown order.

[Kerrie Hirte, mother of Cylvia Thyrion, who died in the jail last
December. (Screenshot | WisconsinEye)]
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Kerrie Hirte, mother of Cylvia Thyrion, who died in the jail last
December. (Screenshot | WisconsinEye)

Lawmakers said the legislation introduced Thursday was written to
address many of these issues. One is a proposed constitutional
amendment that would ban slavery in all forms in Wisconsin. Madison
said he was surprised that carve-outs allowing slavery for people in
jails and prisons had endured into the 21st century, in the form of
prison labor at wages ranging from nothing to 40 cents an hour.

The proposed amendment would raise the minimum wage for incarcerated
people to $2.33 an hour. “The year is 2023, and the fact that
slavery is still legal here in the state of Wisconsin is
unacceptable,” Madison said.

The bills also call for:

* Culturally sensitive products and universal credit for incarcerated
people.
* Free feminine hygiene products.
* Four baths with heated running water per week.
* Two visits, including the ability to embrace a loved one for 20
seconds.
* Required recreational activities for 7 hours a week, and
structured programming for 14 hours per week.
* More rights for people in solitary confinement including access to
writing utensils, hygiene products, and 25-minute visitation
privileges.
* Electronic credits for emails, video calls, and other media.
* Climate control to prevent overheating or hyper-cooling.
* Outdoor time for state prison residents.
* The creation of a public dashboard on solitary confinement,
lockdowns, and complaints.
* Access to jails and prisons by the public and legislators for
oversight purposes.
* Providing written documentation to incarcerated people explaining
their rights under the U.S. and state constitutions and relevant laws.
* A constitutional amendment giving county government oversight
authority for jails, rather than leaving them to the county
sheriff’s office.

Formerly incarcerated people, advocacy groups like the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin and Ex-Incarcerated People
Organizing (EXPO) and others contributed to the bills’ content.

“We are here today because conditions are dire within our
institutions, both at the state level and at the county level where
policies are often worse than at the state,” said Rep. Ryan Clancy
(D-Milwaukee). “Just in the last few months we’ve seen lockdowns,
we’ve seen mass protests, and we’ve also seen preventable
deaths.”

Clancy, who’s been a fierce critic of the Milwaukee County
Sheriff’s handling of the jail, said that he often hears
“heartbreaking” accounts from incarcerated people. He recalled a
person held at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility who told him, 
“I just want to see the sky.”

The comment “nearly broke me,” said Clancy. “This person’s
biggest priority was being able to see outside because it was so
traumatic, and so disorientating, to be locked in a place where he
wasn’t aware of the existence of anything else outside those
walls.”

Clancy also said the legislation was not by itself being offered as
comprehensive criminal justice reform.

“This is not the solution to mass incarceration,” he stressed.
“This is harm reduction to the incredible damage that we do
inherently when we incarcerate people.”

_Isiah Holmes is a journalist and videographer, and a lifelong
resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His writing has been featured in
Urban Milwaukee, Isthmus, Milwaukee Stories, Milwaukee Neighborhood
News Services, Pontiac Tribune, the Progressive Magazine, Al Jazeera,
and other outlets._

_The Wisconsin Examiner is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site offering
a fresh perspective on politics and policy in our state. As the
largest news bureau covering state government in Madison, the Examiner
offers investigative reporting and daily coverage dedicated to the
public interest. We take our inspiration from the motto emblazoned on
a ceiling in our state Capitol: “The Will of the People Is the Law
of the Land.”_

_The Examiner is part of States Newsroom
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supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers. We retain
full editorial independence._

* Mass Incarceration
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* prison conditions
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* Wisconsin
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* Milwaukee
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