 |
| Columbia Correctional Institution |
What’s
happened
The DOC has
confirmed a series of three violent incidents leading to facility
lockdowns. Our incarcerated contacts sent us detailed reports about
these incidents, which conflict with what DOC officials were told by
their staff.
On October 22- a sergeant named Fitz called a Black man “boy”. The man responded by attacking Fitz, leaving him “severely beaten”. The facility went on lockdown until Oct 25.
On
October 29- four days after
coming off lockdown, another
sergeant, Sgt Gander
provoked another Black
man by calling him the
N-word. Gander was
also assaulted,
but less severely. The
facility went on lockdown again until November 5.
On November 8- a CO or sergeant named Sainsbury (spelling uncertain) was stabbed during program services. The facility has been on lockdown and people inside deprived of basic rights and the fundamentals of human dignity from November 8 to the date of this writing (November 21).
On November 8- a CO or sergeant named Sainsbury (spelling uncertain) was stabbed during program services. The facility has been on lockdown and people inside deprived of basic rights and the fundamentals of human dignity from November 8 to the date of this writing (November 21).
On
Tuesday November 19, Makda Fessahaye, the head of the DOC’s
Division of Adult Institutions (DAI) spoke on a panel at Marquette
University in Milwaukee. After
the panel she told Ben Turk
of FFUP that
she was investigating these
incidents, but had been told
all three staff members
“were blindsided”. Our
sources insist “nobody is
just randomly assaulting staff.”
Given
Wisconsin DOC’s
history
of taking abusive guards’ word at face value, however
unbelievable, we are
demanding thorough investigations. FFUP has also
filed open records requests for shiftlogs and any
“inmate complaints”
filed over the last month in
an effort to contact the people
most directly involved.
One
of our main sources
is
an incarcerated artist
and advocate named Nate Lindell, whose work can be found
on Facebook @PrometheusWrites. He
says he attempted to send
more detailed information, but CorrLinks (the institutional email
system) flagged his emails and staff blocked them, then
issued a conduct report to punish him for writing to
us about the incidents.
Nate appealed the
conduct report and filed a
complaint about censorship
of his emails. In the emails
that did get through, Nate described
Sainsbury, who was stabbed
on November 8 as
“notoriously foul mouthed,
yells at prisoners, follows them around to make sure their shirts are
tucked in. I
saw him stare at a prisoner insultingly/aggressively, with contempt,
for over a minute.” Nate
said that Fitz and Gander
also go out of their way to
exacerbate harm against captives held at CCI, stating, “both
had rude/insulting, lazy attitudes, as do many staff here.” He said
these guards frequently “delayed letting us out of our cells for
passes, didn't let us out to use the phone, didn't pass out our
mail”.
This
conduct violates standards and training that correctional officers
are supposed to be held to. Within the context of incarceration, the
routine violence of captivity and basic deprivation of human agency,
attacking a guard who engages in verbal abuse and harassment should
be considered an act of self defense. At the very least, DOC
officials should recognize that these guards were not blindsided
without reason.
Collective
Punishment
FFUP
has long documented a culture of abuse and violence at CCI. Guards
often target
certain captives with relentless harassment to provoke a violent
response, which they then
use to justify
a lockdown and collective punishment against everyone in the prison.
In the context of the
lockdown, the violence against captives escalates. Other
people incarcerated at CCI
describe the situation as psychological warfare and
collective punishment.
In this instance, from November 8 to the time of this writing,
collective punishment took the following forms:
-
No hot food. Instead, three times a day people get “the same bag meal... asmall bag of chips, one sandwich of one very thinly sliced piece of meat, one slice of processed cheese, piece of fruit, carrots, and a cookie or other small bakery item.” On that diet people are rapidly losing weight.
-
No commissary. People are not allowed to purchase food to supplement the bagged meals.
-
No clean clothes. Laundry service is suspended and new clothes cannot be purchased.
-
No showers. November 17, nine days into the lockdown was the first time captives were allowed to take a shower.
-
Property ordered from commissary prior to the lockdown is not being delivered.
-
No recreation.
-
No phone calls.
-
No visitation.
-
No supplies, including complaint forms, state issued soap and toothpaste.
On
top of those deprivations, staff is reducing
increasing already
negligent medical and
health treatment. Medically
prescribed showers and
medical and psychological
treatment request forms are
being denied. Nate reported
that on October 9, Sgt
Bideau denied everyone on his range medications because one person
didn’t stand for count. Others
refused to stand for the next count. Many
people at CCI are taking serious psychological medications, and
missing a dose can have
powerfully negative effects, especially under the stressful
circumstance of a lockdown.
 |
| Art from inside a WI DOC solitary cell by DaRen Morris |
According
to a memo from Warden Susan
Novak that another
incarcerated contact transcribed to us, television channels have also
been limited due to an antenna replacement project that won’t be
completed until sometime in December. Also, the institution
information channel is inexplicably
broken. So, during this
lockdown, people have been additionally
deprived of a conduits
for information about the institution and
the outside world, as well
as a means to pass time while trapped in their cells.
Warden Novak’s memo
said she
is “tentatively reviewing the possibility of restoring visits
beginning Monday Nov 25”.
The person who sent us the warden's memo also said that in his 25 years of “banishment [he doesn’t] recall any… lockdown being as depriving” as the one that began November 8. Another contact named Jimmy Baldwin, who works as a barber wrote “it’s a psychological warfare going on here… a lot [of people are] trying to resist this attack on their mental psyche [others have] been broken into submission.” Being a barber, he sees many people and hears their complaints, and says "I have become stressed listening and witnessing the abuse… this administration here is part of the problem.”
Reform at the
Staff’s Pace
Wisconsin’s
prisons have been overcrowded for years. In the more than fifteen
years that FFUP has been researching Wisconsin prisons and advocating
for people held in them, conditions have only worsened. Abuse by
staff has proliferated, especially in solitary confinement units.
Horror stories from inside Wisconsin prisons are worse than ever. The
election of Tony Evers, who promised to shrink and reform Wisconsin
prisons, sparked hope, but reform has been gruelingly slow.
Governor Evers knows
he has the authority to reduce the prison population by many
thousands without any laws passed. Ending crimeless revocations would
reduce the DOC’s intake by 40% or 3000-4000 people annually.
Sentence commutation and pardons for people convicted of low-level
crimes under unpopular drug war policies could release hundreds or
thousands more. Expediting parole for people sentenced under the “old
law” who are ready for release would take the population down by
around 2800. Evers can also end the torture of long term solitary
confinement by instituting real treatment for the mentally ill. There
are many excellent successful models for this. Instead, Wisconsin
continues policies that cause people to become mentally ill like
stuffing them into solitary simply because people stuck in a cage are
easier to deal with and solitary units have space. The Evers
administration knows the DOC has completely abandoned its mission to
keep the public safe and rehabilitate people.
However despite the
glacially slow pace of reforms, Incarcerated people believe
guards
who are escalating abuse to provoke assaults are motivated by fear
that
Evers will deliver on reform promises. Their
argument is compelling. Nate
Lindell reported that Sainsbury
is “loud about how he's going to retire in some
months, seems like he wants to leave w/ disability benefits. EVERYONE
has a story about how he insulted or harassed them.” He says
supervisors allow harassment by staff and either don’t see how
their inaction makes assaults more likely, or they “are smart and
want these assaults so they can attack progressive changes”. This
provocation dynamic exists beyond CCI. Julio Soto, who is currently
confined at Oshkosh Correctional Institution reports
the same problem at other institutions:
“I’ve
seen correctional officers
disrespect inmates by calling them names including the "N"
word... Bitches, and other names that degrade people...all the
community sees or hears on the news is ‘correctional officer was
attacked by inmate?’ but yet no one on the news or media or even
the warden of the institution, they never say or explain to the
community what lead to the inmate attacking an officer, or how the
officer provoked the inmate to attack him/her, no one out in the
community ever gets the full story on what lead to what and that’s
not right!
I've
witnessed numerous confrontations [where]
other officers jumped
in started attacking the inmate by punching him and spraying a whole
can of pepper spray in his face… the inmate gets placed in
segregation/ ac- administrative confinement, and all the officer gets
is a talking to and a pat on the back.
In
the prisons inmate handbook it states ..words from the warden: that
we inmates have been sent here (prison), removed from our family and
loved ones as punishment for a crime we've committed, (BUT) are not
to be punished by the staff-officers in the institution, now that
right there is false because there’s officers that go out of their
way to provoke us inmates any way they can!
As
of right now i am currently in Oshkosh Correctional Institution,
after doing 7 years in a max setting… this medium setting is still
like a max because officers here try and provoke us inmates in any
way they can, they've tryed to provoke me a couple times here at OSCI
a officer that got lippy with me I asked for their name and was told
to come get it as she did not have her ID exposed… In
all my time being in prison I’d say 15% of staff members/officers
are good and treat us like humans and with respect, the rest are just
corrupt!”
Guards provoking
violence and using lockdowns to harm captives and manipulate the
public is a known practice. Nate shared with us a civil suit about
the same thing filed in Illinois called Turley V Rednour (7th
Cir. 2013). In this suit, Turley claimed that Illinois prison
officials “repeatedly and regularly imposed lockdowns for improper
purposes” as part of a conspiracy to pressure the state government
to increase pay and benefits to attract more staff. We at FFUP have
found evidence to support this theory. We’ve presented them in our
report “Staffing,
Crowding and Death in the Wisconsin DOC” which we put out this
summer. Through open records requests for DOC human resources data,
shift logs, and other government reports, we found that Wisconsin
DOC’s staffing shortage has been exaggerated to justify requests
for increased pay. Multiple facilities have frequently gone on and
off lockdown or “modified movement” status with arbitrary or
secret reasons.
 |
| Self portrait by Nate Lindell. |
We’ve heard the
very top brass of the DOC, including officials appointed by or hired
since the election of Governor Tony Evers. Both Makda Fessahaye and
DOC secretary Kevin Carr have called
for increased pay and benefits to attract and retain more staff.
Evers included raises for DOC staff in his budget, so the
manipulative understaffing narrative seems to be working.
Last month we met
with Fessahaye and DOC communications administrator Molly Vidal
to discuss reforms. When we asked about long term solitary
confinement, harassment and racism in Wisconsin prisons they
recognized the problems, said they were working on improvements, but
said that they need “buy-in” from staff. Fessahaye said “staff
sees solitary confinement as a tool that helps keep them safe, so we
can’t take that away until we’ve given them alternative tools”.
Fessahaye told us she’s made cultural competency and implicit bias
training a priority since becoming administrator of DAI, but is
rolling it out cautiously to avoid backlash from guards. Vidal said
they are working to present these trainings in a way that “isn’t
scary”. Apparently, DOC officials think it is too much to ask
guards to stop hurling racial epithets at captives, or to stop
putting them in solitary confinement on a whim.
Thus, captives have
been left to take defense upon themselves. Some of the assaults
described in this report led to serious injuries for staff members,
but they occurred in a context of self-defense against daily threat
of worse. On our youtube page, FFUP has a video of a
cell-extraction in CCI’s restrictive housing unit. In this and
similar videos obtained by news sources, you’ll see how staff
prepares for confrontation with unruly or protesting prisoners. In
our video, five men in body armor, carrying OC spray and tasers
gather to pull a single, naked, unarmed, 19 year old kid named Kuan
Barnett out of his cell and strap him to a chair. The night after
that video was made, guards returned and beat Kuan severely, gouging
his eyes and breaking his fingers after he was restrained. We have
requested, but the DOC has not yet released video of that incident,
even though investigations are concluded. These videos suggest that
DOC staff’s insecurity is more rooted in emotional or mental
fragility than actual physical danger. Yet, protecting their racist
insecurities remains a top priority for even the supposed reformers
in charge of the DOC today.
One reform Fessahaye and Carr are pushing is the creation of an “internal affairs” division to look into complaints. Wisconsin used to have an ombudsman who worked for the Governor and investigated complaints against the DOC. We and other organizations suggested the position be re-created at a meeting with Evers’ staff in March of 2018. Instead of this independent oversight, the new Internal Affairs Division will maintain a system where the DOC self-regulates. In short, the official pace of change in the DOC has been set not by the urgency of the humanitarian crisis caused by overcrowding, but rather by the emotional comfort and white fragility of staff, including the most belligerently racist and sadistic guards.
Unfortunately, Carr,
Evers and Fessahaye have reason to proceed with caution. The last
time reformers ran Wisconsin’s prison system, staff resisted them
stridently. In 2005, guards even organized
a “no confidence” petition to oust DOC Secretary Matt Frank
and Deputy Secretary Rick Raemisch because these officials dared to
reduce costs, limit use of state vehicles, and bring outside law
enforcement in to investigate sexual misconduct by guards. Raemisch
left Wisconsin and later became the head of Colorado’s DOC, where
he swiftly eliminated solitary confinement.
Collective
Agency and Reconciliation
Rather than trusting an Internal Affairs Division, or even a
Governor’s ombudsman to self-regulate, people held captive at CCI
have proposed a better solution: collective agency for incarcerated
people. They call for a body composed of both staff and incarcerated
people who will mediate and reconcile conflicts and resolve
grievances together. Jimmy Baldwin, the incarcerated barber quoted
above describes this proposed body in some detail:
if
you want a solution to resolve the issues here let everyone come
together and institution staff meeting as well as one which includes
prisoners to stress their concerns. You
can have spokes for each group whether it's institution’s
staff officers, a
spokesman chosen by the
officers collectively, and two spokesman chosen by the prisoners for
each unit. There
can be a memo submitted to
ask for names
of individuals who wouldn't mind being a spokesman of their
represented unit or group [then]
another memo to each of those groups with the names to
democratically select
whoever they represent.
Have them
in on this meeting
to address concerns here and any institution that has similar
concerns. This
is a need now in these institutions or else DOC
will continue to have prisoners feeling abused.
Another captive named Ras Uhuru Mutawakkil (state name Norman Green) has developed an even more
robust proposal called Common
Ground. Uhuru was tortured at CCI by force feeding for
participating in a hunger
strike protest in 2016 and wrote up the Common Ground proposal in
the summer of 2018. Common Ground is based on building structures for
communication and mutual respect between staff and captives who are
in conflict. The goal is to “find common grounds that everyone can
respect each other’s security and classification concerns without
placing blame and the use of inferiority labels that makes one party
feel the need to be defensive, which is what most prisoners who are
held in AC/long seg. feel. This defensiveness has been the main
reason no previous administration/ clinical programs have
successfully led to the prisoners transitioning and eventual release
from AC/long seg.”
 |
| Uhuru as a young man before incarceration |
The fundamental problem in Wisconsin’s prisons is overcrowding, the
system is 33%
above capacity, with some facilities like Columbia more than 50%
overcrowded. This overcrowding is entirely avoidable, as the DOC and
Evers administration have at their disposal numerous tools discussed
above that would rapidly reduce Wisconsin’s incarcerated
population. Addressing overcrowding will improve conditions for both
captives and staff, reducing the frequency of conflicts and the need
to retain high staffing levels. Currently, racist and sadistic
behavior from the worst staff members is tolerated out of fear of
staffing crisis. The massive cost savings could be invested in
treatment programs and facilities, allowing staff to be in a helping
rather than harmful role.
FFUP supports Ras Uhuru’s Common Ground proposal. We demand a
transparent investigation into conditions at Columbia CI and other
prisons that have experienced violent incidents or lockdowns. We
insist that reformers take the humanitarian crisis underway in
Wisconsin prisons seriously and stand up to racist and sadistic staff
members. Moreover, we demand movement from the administration to
reduce the prison population. Governor Evers is too fearful of
critique from conservatives and too insensitive to the plight of
Black people subject to racist torture and abuse in his prisons.
Please contact the people mentioned in this article.
Incarcerated at CCI:
Columbia Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 950
Portage, WI 53901-0950
Ras Uhuru Mutawakkil
228971 (N. Green)
Nathan Lindell
303724
Also see his art and writing at Facebook.com/prometheuswrites
Jimmy Baldwin
296764
Incarcerated at OSCI:
Julio Soto
578152
P.O. Box 3530
Oshkosh, WI 54903-3530
DOC and Government contacts you can write or call demand the lockdown be lifted and staff conduct thoroughly investigated.
Susan Novak
Warden CCI
2925 Columbia Drive
Portage, WI 53901-0950
(608) 742-9100
Makda Fessahaye
Administrator of DAI
P.O. Box 7925
Madison, WI 53707-7925
(608) 240-5104 Office
Email: makda.fessahaye@wisconsin.gov
Molly Vidal
Communications Director
(608) 240-5000
Email: DOCMedia@wisconsin.gov
Kevin Carr
DOC Secretary
3099 E. Washington Ave.
Madison, WI 53704
Governor Tony Evers
PO Box 1879
Madison, WI 53701
(608) 266-1212
https://appengine.egov.com/apps/wi/governor/voice-an-opinion
Please contact the people mentioned in this article.
Incarcerated at CCI:
Columbia Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 950
Portage, WI 53901-0950
Ras Uhuru Mutawakkil
228971 (N. Green)
Nathan Lindell
303724
Also see his art and writing at Facebook.com/prometheuswrites
Jimmy Baldwin
296764
Incarcerated at OSCI:
Julio Soto
578152
P.O. Box 3530
Oshkosh, WI 54903-3530
DOC and Government contacts you can write or call demand the lockdown be lifted and staff conduct thoroughly investigated.
Susan Novak
Warden CCI
2925 Columbia Drive
Portage, WI 53901-0950
(608) 742-9100
Makda Fessahaye
Administrator of DAI
P.O. Box 7925
Madison, WI 53707-7925
(608) 240-5104 Office
Email: makda.fessahaye@wisconsin.gov
Molly Vidal
Communications Director
(608) 240-5000
Email: DOCMedia@wisconsin.gov
Kevin Carr
DOC Secretary
3099 E. Washington Ave.
Madison, WI 53704
Governor Tony Evers
PO Box 1879
Madison, WI 53701
(608) 266-1212
https://appengine.egov.com/apps/wi/governor/voice-an-opinion
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