Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel, a maximum security prison where the peer specialist program started. | Photo courtesy Wisconsin Department of Corrections

William Bowers is incarcerated at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in the city of Boscobel, in southwestern Wisconsin, a maximum security prison, where inmates’ behavior and activities are closely monitored. 

Bowers struggles with his mental health and self-harm, and is concerned about his safety. He said he has received help from a peer specialist. Through this state program, incarcerated people in Wisconsin are drawing on their personal experiences to mentor other prisoners. 

Bowers called his peer specialist a “miracle worker” who has “saved my life so many times.” He said the demand for peer specialists currently exceeds the number of specialists available and he thinks more staff should be better informed about the program. 

If he’s in a crisis and wants to see his peer specialist, Bowers said, he can press a button in his cell and make the request. If he is able to see the specialist, they’ll go to a separate room and talk. He also has a scheduled meeting with his peer specialist each week.

He said that his peer specialist has been more helpful for him than the psychological services at the prison and he wishes to be transferred to the Wisconsin Resource Center. The facility treats people incarcerated in state prisons who need specialized mental health services. So far, prison authorities have not agreed to his request.

Certified peer specialists have personal experience with a range of issues including addiction, recovery and mental illness, and have been trained and certified by the state to use that experience to mentor others. 

Since 2010, 1,500 peer specialists have been certified by the state of Wisconsin. After completing their training, peer specialists work alongside clinicians — psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and counselors — helping their clients or “peers” move toward recovery from addiction and function without criminal violations. 

Over 100 specialists are incarcerated people who mentor other prisoners, as of August 2023. 

The Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative is a service of the organization Access to Independence, funded by a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The organization provides 52 hours of training, according to Gaochi Vang, the peer specialist program manager for Access to Independence. She said she thinks peer specialists in prison take a little under 48 hours of training due to the schedule and the needs of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC). Peer specialists must get continuing education and apply for recertification after two years. 

“We’ve had countless feedback from agencies and employers and organizations just saying, ‘Wow, our clients are opening up to the certified peer specialist more than the therapist or the social worker,’ and it’s just because they have that connection of having that lived experience,” Vang said. 

Vang said peer specialists “learn to decenter themselves so that they can support another person, while also knowing when it is appropriate or when it is necessary to share their lived experience.”

A year-end report from Stanley Correctional Institution noted that in one of its housing facilities, Unit 3, five  certified peer specialists work with 25 incarcerated peers. 

A report from Dodge Correctional Institution stated that so far in 2024, 14 certified peer specialists had offered their peers 12,103 sessions. On 138 occasions, the prison staff requested a peer specialist to deescalate a situation or meet a peer in crisis. 

Kenya Bright, from the Bureau of Prevention of Treatment and Recovery for the Department of Health Services (DHS), explained what peer specialists do during a Dec. 19 Zoom meeting of the Wisconsin Council on Mental Health Criminal Justice Committee. 

A certified peers specialist, Bright said, “walks beside the individual who is struggling and help(s) them identify through their own lived experience ways that perhaps a person might work to grow in their recovery.”

In an August 2023 webinar hosted by Vang, Tracy Johnson and Allyson Eparvier, peer specialist co-directors for the DOC, talked about the DOC’s experience with the program in prisons beginning in 2017 at Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel and at Oshkosh Correctional Institution, two maximum security prisons.

Johnson said in 2017, 10 men from Boscobel and eight from Oshkosh were screened and gathered in Boscobel for an intensive week of training.

“We covered everything in the curriculum,” said Johnson, “and we added more layers that apply to the Department of Correction.”

In 2019, women from the Taycheedah Correctional Institution, a women’s maximum- and medium-security prison, attended  training.

By 2023, Johnson said, 150 had taken the training while serving a prison sentence, and most had been certified.

Results of the peer specialist program

To receive the training, the potential peer specialist must meet certain criteria, Johnson said. These include having committed no major rule violations (such as using drugs or fighting) within the last year, having a positive work record within the facility and having adjusted to life within the facility. The specialist must go through an approval process, which includes the prison’s security threat group coordinator and the psychological services unit. 

“Our guys (peer specialists working at Dodge) are well equipped to deal with anxiety and depression, trauma and grief,” Eparvier said.  “We always have interpersonal issues with a cellmate. We have this phrase that we’ve coined, kind of called cell etiquette, and so they talk about how, if you’re not getting along with your cellmate, how to navigate that and so that you don’t end up getting in trouble or getting in a situation that where you could get a little riskier than normal. So they talk about how to navigate various types of situations. Same thing with staff — if they’re not getting along with staff on their unit, just how to navigate that.”

Eparvier said one peer specialist at Dodge sleeps with his shoes on so he is able to quickly leave his cell to help someone in crisis.

“These guys do wonders with individuals who have a history of self-harm,” said Eparvier. “They’re very, very compassionate and very patient and very understanding. And a lot of times, we find some really amazing success stories come out of some of the individuals who have a significant history of self-harm after they’ve been working with a [peer specialist]. They work on general self-improvement, release planning, goal setting. They’re always goal setting no matter what part of their incarceration they’re at.”

The peer specialists are paid $1 an hour — the maximum amount that incarcerated people make in DOC — for up to 40 hours per week.

Eparvier said a dissertation published in 2023 — “Effectiveness of the Certified Peer Specialist Program in Wisconsin” by Shelby Kottke-Weaver, University of Wisconsin-Madison — reveals peer specialists  working with peers has resulted in fewer misconduct reports, less time in restrictive housing and less recidivism.

The research paper, which collected data from 24 DOC institutions, found  “these results suggest overall positive effects of the [peer specialist] program for individuals who receive peer services and have far-reaching policy implications for the use of peer support in carceral settings.” 

“So individuals who work with a [peer specialist] while they’re in the Department of Corrections, when they get out, they are, it seems, better and more well equipped to deal with life out there,” Eparvier said. “That goal planning and that release planning and goal setting seems to be really sinking in and having a positive impact.”

Johnson said that often when peers are being released from prison, they want to work with another peer specialist  on the outside.

“We have a lot of peers releasing saying this has been the best thing I’ve ever done working with a peer specialist,” said Johnson, and she said many peers on the outside stay in touch with the specialist  they worked with.

Johnson said she receives regular email from a staff member commenting on how a peer specialist has made a difference in the life of other residents and in the lives of staff members.

Like Bowers, Ronald Dennis is incarcerated at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel. He has been in prison since 1975 and has a life sentence, he told the Examiner over the phone. 

“I’ve had a real violent past in prison,” Dennis said. “I’ve stabbed guards, stabbed inmates.”

Dennis said he became involved with the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist criminal gang that operates inside and outside of prisons. He said that gang membership lasts for life, but that he is no longer actively involved with the gang’s activities. 

“As I got older I learned to deal with people on a individual basis, not on whatever race they are,” he said. “I try to get along with everyone.”

Dennis said he’s been in Wisconsin since 2002 and hasn’t received a disciplinary report for violence in over two decades. More recently in his incarceration, he worked as a peer specialist, he said. 

Dennis said he uses his past to try to keep someone from going down the same path. Incarcerated people at Boscobel are more at ease talking to another incarcerated person than to a staff member, he said, adding that people he’s talked to have broken down and cried, and that he’s talked people out of hurting themselves or beating someone up.

Dennis said he lost his position because he received pornographic photos while in prison but continues to work with other incarcerated people. 

“I hear guys on the tier… [saying], ‘I’m going to beat this guy’s ass, or ‘I’m going to beat that guy’s ass,’ when we come out to rec,” Dennis said. “And if I know the guy, I’ll try to pull him aside and try to talk to him [and say]… ‘What if you get in the fight, you hit [him], he falls over, hits his head on the table and he dies. Now you’ve got a life sentence over some stupid stuff you don’t even got to fight for.’”

Connecting with people before they leave prison

Tamra Oman is the Peer Support Administrator at Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO). She’s been involved in peer support work for over two decades. 

“So, I have the privilege of going back in and hopefully sharing hope and inviting people to really look at themselves and determine what they want for their life, and what’s it going to take,” Oman said. “And allow people to support them while they’re in the institution.” 

Oman prefers to develop contact with  incarcerated residents before they leave a correctional facility. 

“Our greatest desire would be to meet with people and connect with them and hear their hopes and dreams and then support them in developing a reentry plan that actually has a schedule to it,” she said, “Because it’s hard when you go from 24 hours a day of what you’re going to do, to then 24 hours a day of ‘I don’t know what to do,’ right?”

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The Robert Ellsworth Correctional Facility, a women's prison in Wisconsin. | Photo via Wisconsin Department of Corrections

A Dane County judge sided with the Wisconsin ACLU after the nonprofit argued that eligible, incarcerated mothers must be able to receive programming and support for their relationships with their children under the age of 1.

At issue in the case is Wisconsin state statute 301.049, which creates a “mother-young child care program.” 

The law mandates that the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) “shall administer a mother-young child care program” allowing eligible women to retain physical custody of their children during participation in the program. 

Circuit Court Judge Stephen Ehlke said that the plaintiffs — two incarcerated mothers — had established “a clear right” to be considered for the program, according to the transcript of the oral ruling. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin expects to work with the DOC to determine a “realistic timeline” for the program’s implementation, the nonprofit said in a statement. 

“We are encouraged by this current ruling and hope the final judgment will also reflect the same sentiment – that the separation of families is one of the most debilitating and traumatizing aspects of the criminal legal system,” Ryan Cox, legal director at the ACLU of Wisconsin, stated. 

The ACLU’s initial complaint in June sought a writ of mandamus ordering the DOC to comply with the statute. While the plaintiffs asked for a “provisional” emergency order, Ehlke said he didn’t see how further proceedings would change anything and thought his order would be final. 

He asked the plaintiffs to draft an order that would fulfill their request for relief and said he would sign it once it had been reviewed by the counsel for the Department of Corrections.

Juli Bliefnick is the operations coordinator for FREE, a statewide nonprofit addressing the gender-specific issues of women’s incarceration and reentry. In a statement to the Examiner she said FREE was overjoyed by the ruling. 

“This is a crucial first step in reducing the harm caused by mother/infant separation during the most critical bonding period for mother and child, and the formative year after the baby is born,” Bliefnick said. “We hope this will open doors for collaboration between the Department of Corrections and other community organizations to ensure that incarcerated mothers and their babies receive dignified and compassionate care through this program.”

How did the judge rule?

Both sides agreed that a program was in place, but they disagreed over whether the DOC was required to provide programming for incarcerated mothers, Ehlke said, according to the transcript of the oral ruling. 

The statute says the DOC is required to provide the program for females who are prisoners “or” who are on probation, extended supervision or parole and who would be participating in the program as an alternative to revocation. 

Extended supervision is when an offender is released to the community under certain conditions. If a person commits a violation and their supervision is revoked, they will either be returned to court for sentencing or transported to a correctional institution. 

The ACLU of Wisconsin argued that the word “or” in the statute meant the DOC is supposed to provide the program for both of these groups, Ehlke said. The DOC argued that if the Legislature had meant to use the word “and,” it would have done so, he said. 

Ehlke said that if the statute used the word “and,” mothers would only be eligible for the program if they were in both groups at the same time, and that this would be impossible. For example, a person could not be incarcerated and on probation at the same time. In this way, wording the statute that way would be “nonsensical,” he said. 

Ehlke also said the Legislature “was presumably trying to help as many infants and mothers as it could, regardless of the mother’s status within DOC” when it passed the law. 

“Interpreting the statute as giving the DOC discretion to choose between these groups makes no sense given the purpose of the statute is presumably to help as many people as possible,” Ehlke said. 

Ehlke said that he understood there “is a financial difficulty, perhaps, from the DOC’s point of view” but that was an issue for the state Legislature. 

Who are the plaintiffs?

The plaintiffs in the case are Alyssa Puphal and Natasha Curtin-Weber, who are currently incarcerated at the Robert E. Ellsworth Correctional Center in Union Grove, WI, according to the DOC’s offender locator. 

Puphal gave birth to a son in August 2023, according to the complaint the ACLU published in June. Over the approximately 10 months between his birth and the filing of the complaint, Puphal had four visits with her son, about 12 to 15 hours in total. Her family lives too far away for regular in-person visits, the complaint said. 

As of June, Curtin-Weber was pregnant and expected to give birth in July. 

What programming does DOC already provide?

A Department of Corrections spokesperson told Wisconsin Public Radio last June that  Wisconsin offers programming to support mothers out on parole, probation or extended supervision. 

The programming uses three contractors: ARC Maternal and Infant Program in Madison, Bethany Recovery Center in Oconomowoc and Meta House in Milwaukee, WPR reported. It uses the contractors to help women avoid recidivism through treatment of substance abuse disorder and other issues. 

The DOC said 224 women had participated over the previous year, WPR reported in June. 

What is the program described in the statute? 

The ACLU’s complaint said the law in question was enacted in 1991. To enter the program, incarcerated mothers must provide consent, receive the department’s approval and be either pregnant or have a child under 1 year old, the statute says. 

The statute lists the following directives for the program:

• Place program participants in the least restrictive placement consistent with community safety and correctional needs and objectives.
• Provide a stable, safe and stimulating environment for each child participating in the program.
• Provide program services with the goal of achieving a stable relationship between each mother and her child during and after participation in the program.
• Prepare each mother to be able to live in a safe, lawful and stable manner in the community upon parole, extended supervision or discharge.

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections did not respond to requests for comment.

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Protestors March near Washington Ave in Downtown Green Bay, on Feb 8, 2025. (Photo by Jason Kerzinski/Wisconsin Examiner)

Early Saturday afternoon, a crowd of demonstrators marched through the streets of downtown Green Bay, holding signs and chanting to protest U.S. President Donald Trump and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“If being an American is defined as hard-working, pro-family values, and being a good neighbor, then we are Americans,” protest organizer Verenice Lopez told the crowd before the march. 

Trump took action on immigration with a flurry of executive orders, including pausing the resettlement of tens of thousands of refugees who had been approved for relocation into the U.S. Reports of deportation raids around the country have caused panic, even after The Guardian reported that ICE press releases had been doctored so they appeared on Google searches to make it seem as though years-old raids had happened recently.  

Trump’s promised mass deportation of immigrants throughout the U.S. has not happened yet, Politico reported last week. The president is reportedly angry that deportation numbers are not higher. 

Trump’s threats have caused fear among immigrant communities in Wisconsin. Lopez addressed Trump directly in her speech. 

“Mr. President,” Lopez said. “My name is Verenice Lopez, and I am a Dreamer. I have chosen to use my voice today for everyone here and for others across this nation that seek a path to citizenship and the American Dream. My story is like so many others. I was brought to this country by my family when I was 2 years old. I have lived, worked and been educated in America my entire life.”

As demonstrators gathered near a promenade that runs alongside the Fox River, Winter Storm Brenda was hitting northeast Wisconsin, dumping up to 10 inches of snow across the region Saturday. Passing cars honked at the marchers. 

Lopez said that “in a moment of, I guess, fear and anxiety,” she “just had a calling to do something about it.” She used Facebook and reached out to organizations she hoped would support the protest. 

Two organizations joined the effort, though neither group specifically works on immigration issues. The Green Bay Anti-war Committee is “dedicated to fighting against U.S. wars” and has opposed the war in Gaza. Hate Free Outagamie’s aims include improving inclusivity for LGBTQ+ people. 

“Whenever you’re trying to create or do anything big, getting momentum going is always the biggest issue, or the hardest part,” said Daniel Castillo, co-chair for Green Bay Anti-war Committee. “…Something that people can go to and realize that they’re the only ones that can really fight for their own rights, is something that we would like to get started.”  

Lopez said she felt the turnout — estimates varied from 50 to 100 or more people — was good. 

She said that “we do plan on creating more [protests or marches] within the next few weeks or month.”

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Green Bay Correctional Institution | Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner

A consulting and management firm will begin on-site visits to Wisconsin prisons next week, the next step in a third-party review of the state’s prison system. 

Falcon Correctional and Community Services, Inc. “exists to elevate mental health services in jails and prisons” for incarcerated Americans with mental illness, according to the firm’s website. Amidst concerns over the conditions of confinement in state facilities, Falcon is studying some aspects of life inside Wisconsin prisons to find areas for improvement. 

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections recognized the value of a third party reviewing policies and procedures and providing recommendations for improvement, DOC Secretary Jared Hoy said in a July 9 letter to lawmakers on Wisconsin’s 2023 Assembly Committee on Corrections. 

On the same day, prison reform advocates spoke in front of the committee, giving testimony about solitary confinement and other issues. The Department of Corrections has received scrutiny after deaths of incarcerated people and criminal charges against staff at Waupun Correctional Institution.

“This is just one step of many that we at the department are taking to make improvements at our facilities to help keep staff safe and improve the conditions for those in our care,” Hoy said of the review in the letter. 

Falcon teams have been deployed to review restrictive housing practices in at least four states, according to the firm’s proposal: Washington, Connecticut, Louisiana and Massachusetts. 

Bringing in Falcon is an acknowledgement of serious problems in the department, said Mark Rice, the transformational justice campaign coordinator at the nonprofit WISDOM. Rice hopes the study will lead to change, but he also thinks the department should make improvements based on information that is already available.

“Solitary confinement is being used far too frequently,” Rice said. “People have been dying. People have not been able to get access to medications that they need in some situations. People have not had adequate health care during emergency situations. And so certainly [there have] been several deaths that were preventable.”

What will Falcon do? 

In November, the DOC and Falcon signed a contract. The Examiner received the contract and accompanying documents through public records requests to the DOC.

The partnership includes a comprehensive study of the Division of Adult Institutions’ health care program, behavioral health program, correctional practices and restrictive housing practices. 

The study was projected to take six months, the documents say, with a cost of about half a million dollars. 

Currently, the Falcon team is on the fourth stage of the study, according to Beth Hardtke, director of communications for the Department of Corrections. This involves beginning group workshops, according to the contract documents. 

The fifth stage is titled “Onsite Visits and Facility Studies,” and it is scheduled for weeks eight through ten of the partnership. The Falcon team will begin on-site visits next week, Hardtke said. 

Some priorities listed in the plan focus directly on incarcerated people. These include timely emergency treatment, access to and administration of necessary medication, psychiatric services and access to recreation. 

Other priorities are focused on employees. These include facility leadership culture, staff wellness and safety and behavioral health and health care staffing. 

The second part of the partnership is labeled as optional. It involves technical assistance for implementing the study recommendations and includes Falcon measuring the impact of the changes after 30, 90 and 180 days. 

Hardtke said the DOC plans to release recommendations from Falcon after the project concludes.

One section of the proposal covers six areas of focus for Falcon’s experts. It tasks Falcon’s experts with conducting analyses related to training, recruitment, culture and retention of staff, as well as restrictive housing and initiatives aiming  to reform it. 

One of the other areas of focus is a report with “actionable recommendations and a roadmap for addressing behavioral health, health care and correctional practices, including restrictive housing, and their impact on [incarcerated people] and staff.” 

The report should include a timeline for execution and proposed ways to evaluate and adjust the implementation of the recommendations, the section says.  

WIDOC_Falcon_Scope_Proposal_8.22.24

Analyzing restrictive housing

In a section about restrictive housing, the proposal says the DOC is “engaged in an agency-wide culture change” to more rehabilitative practices. Restrictive housing includes disciplinary separation — when an incarcerated person has committed a violation. It also includes instances when staff remove an incarcerated person from the general population for reasons such as their own safety.

The state limits when incarcerated people in disciplinary separation can leave their cells. They may do so “as needed for urgent medical or psychological attention, showers, visits, recreation and emergencies endangering their safety in the cell or other reasons as authorized by the warden.” 

For November 2024, 3.4% of incarcerated people tracked were in disciplinary separation, according to the DOC. 

Also for November, the average sentence to disciplinary separation was 37.4 days, while the average time spent there was 23.6 days. The average time spent in disciplinary separation declined overall from January to November.. 

The most common reasons for disciplinary separation are disobeying orders, disruptive conduct, disrespect, threats and assault, according to DOC data from November 2019 to November 2024.

Advocates have called for reform of solitary confinement in Wisconsin, which can be defined as confining a prisoner for 22 or more hours a day without meaningful human contact. In 2011, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture said indefinite and prolonged solitary confinement in excess of 15 days should be prohibited, citing the mental damage caused by social isolation. 

The Falcon team hopes  “to reduce reliance on restrictive housing as a tool.” The group’s analysis will cover prevention of restrictive housing when possible and alternatives and modifications to restrictive housing time. It will also focus on the return of incarcerated people to other housing after leaving restrictive housing. 

To substantially decrease reliance on restrictive housing, “the scope of systemic change must reach far beyond the restrictive housing areas,” the proposal says. 

Advocates want to see reform, independent oversight 

When the Examiner shared the contract documents with WISDOM’s Mark Rice, the focus on solitary confinement reform drew his attention. He hopes the publication of a report will lead to the end of long-term solitary confinement in Wisconsin. 

“We’ve really been leading the charge on that issue for over a decade, and have seen not a huge amount of progress, not the progress that we want to see,” Rice said. 

Susan Franzen told the Examiner that she’s encouraged by the focus on behavioral health and restrictive housing. Franzen is the director of operations for Ladies of SCI, another prison reform advocacy group. She said she’d like to see incarcerated people have the opportunity to share what it’s like trying to get mental health care in prison.

“They mention that they’re going to partner with all relevant stakeholders [for the study],” Franzen said. “But there is no mention of speaking to or engaging with inmates or their family members.” 

Falcon experts will gather information through staff interviews, workshops, site visits and existing documents, forms and data, according to the  proposal document. The Falcon Method of analysis “relies heavily” on interpreting quantifiable data instead of using “only subjective testimonies,” the proposal states.

“DOC values input from friends and family and while they won’t be engaging directly with Falcon consultants the department is certainly considering their viewpoints as leadership makes decisions on this project,” Hardtke said. 

The consultants will continue to interact with “a wide variety of staff” throughout the DOC and during the site visits, she said.

Franzen pointed to unfilled positions for DOC psychological services, where the agency has a vacancy rate of 21.6%. She hopes the Falcon partnership will benefit incarcerated people who need psychological services. 

In October, the Examiner reported on the Falcon partnership and the idea of creating an independent ombudsman to increase oversight of the prison system. Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), chair of the 2025 Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, and Rep. Jerry O’Connor (R-Fond Du Lac), vice chair of the 2025 Assembly Committee on Corrections, weighed in.

Rice doesn’t see the Falcon partnership as a substitute for independent oversight, but he thinks “lives can be saved” if it leads to improvements in the prison system. 

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Green Bay Correctional Institution | Photo by Andrew Kennard

Amidst a staffing crisis that worsened living conditions in Wisconsin prisons, the state gave corrections officers a large raise.  

The number of vacant positions for correctional officers and sergeants across adult institutions has declined over 20% from a peak of 35%. But there’s still a struggle with working conditions, former correctional officer Joe Verdegan said. 

“By its nature, with the clientele you have there, it’s a very toxic environment,” said Verdegan, who worked at Green Bay Correctional Institution from 1994 to 2020. “The toxic part of it will never change, but the problem is, you need veteran staff that can deal with it.” 

Wisconsin’s Act 10, passed in 2011, excluded many government workers from collective bargaining for anything other than inflationary increases to base wages. The law led to an exodus of veteran staff concerned about what might happen to their pensions, Verdegan wrote in a 2020 book about GBCI.

Act 10 grouped some workers together as public safety employees and others as general employees. Public safety employees’ collective bargaining rights were largely unchanged, while those of general employees were severely curtailed. 

Dane County Judge Jacob Frost struck down the law’s collective bargaining restriction, ruling that the Wisconsin Legislature didn’t have a defensible reason for excluding some public safety workers from the public safety group. 

On Wednesday, Frost put his order on hold, granting a temporary stay on his Dec 2 ruling while he considers written arguments that he should keep the ruling on hold while the Wisconsin Legislature appeals it.

Frost’s December 2 decision essentially confirmed a previous ruling released in July, in which he wrote that Act 10 violated the equal protection clause of the Wisconsin Constitution. Previous legal challenges failed to overturn the law. 

Opponents of the law celebrated what the decision might mean for employees’ power in the workplace, while supporters said Act 10 saved billions of dollars. Former Gov. Scott Walker, who signed Act 10 into law, called the decision “brazen political activism” and “an early Christmas present for the big government special interests.”

The law’s effect on retirement contributions led to an increased cost for public employees and government savings. Since employees were responsible for a larger share of pension contributions, state and local governments saved nearly $5.2 billion over the seven-year period from 2011 to 2017, according to a 2020 report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. 

The judge didn’t strike down Act 10 provisions that changed the rules for employees’ retirement contributions and health insurance premiums, an attorney representing unions in the case told Wisconsin Watch. Those provisions don’t rely on the distinction between the public safety and general employee groups, he said. 

Frost’s ruling has been appealed, and it’s expected to go to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. Its fate might depend on an upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court election and whether any justices recuse themselves. 

Frost didn’t find a legal problem with the Legislature treating the public safety group differently than the general employees group — for example, by providing them with benefits that would attract quality employees to jobs important for public safety. If teachers, administration or sanitation workers face labor unrest, their absence from work probably wouldn’t cause death or great harm, he wrote in the July ruling. 

Instead, Frost took issue with the Legislature’s decision to not include certain workers in the public safety group, including the Capitol Police, conservation wardens and correctional officers. 

Specifically referring to correctional officers, Frost wrote, “What greater threat is there to public safety than the escape of the persons that those in the public safety group arrested and brought to justice?” 

Wisconsin prisons have seen a staffing crisis, allegations of harassment 

After Act 10, GBCI staff had to contribute more to their pensions and paid higher health insurance premiums, Verdegan wrote in his book. 

“People were fleeing the prison to go drive truck, be bartenders, work in cheese factories, or even bag groceries at Woodman’s,” Verdegan wrote. 

Corrections officers were asked to put in more overtime around 2011 or 2012, former GBCI officer Jeff Hoffman told the Examiner in July. 

“From that time forward, it never got any better,” said Hoffman, who left GBCI in early 2023 after almost 23 years. “If you were there, you were going to work 16-hour shifts.” 

Staffing vacancies for correctional officers and sergeants have declined substantially from a peak of 35% in August 2023 to the current 12.9% vacancy rate.

In the DOC’s 2022 Climate and Engagement survey, over half of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the idea that their pay was fair relative to the duties they performed. Over half said that if they left DOC, it would be because of their salary and/or benefits. 

These responses were given before Wisconsin implemented a large pay raise for corrections officers. Under the pay increases, correctional officers’ wages increased from $20.29 an hour to over $30 an hour, with more pay for officers in higher-security and understaffed prisons. Wages had received a $4 boost from federal pandemic relief funds prior to the increase, the Associated Press reported. 

Verdegan wrote in his book that some supervisors would try to harass or intimidate staff. Sean Daley of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 32 made a similar remark to the Examiner in 2022. 

“It’s a tough enough job as it is,” Daley told the Examiner in 2022. “Add in that a lot of the supervisors think they’re ‘top-cops’ and spend their time tirelessly harassing staff with weak investigations and it just adds to the vacancy rates.”

Nearly half of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the statements “My supervisor cares about my interests” and “Employees are treated fairly in my work unit.” 

About 1 in 10 strongly disagreed with the statement “My supervisor treats me with dignity and respect,” with about a quarter expressing at least some disagreement. About three-quarters at least somewhat agreed that they have positive relationships with their colleagues. 

Close to 40% of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the statements “Work rule violations are not tolerated” and “I can disclose a suspected violation of a rule, law, or regulation without fear or reprisal” in the 2022 survey.  

Some individual facilities have vacancy rates for correctional officers and sergeants that are higher than the overall number for adult facilities, including  20.5% at Waupun Correctional Institution. Waupun has seen several prisoner deaths and staff charged with crimes. 

Waupun has seen an influx of staff since September, when the vacancy rate was 42%. Sarah Cooper, administrator of the DOC’s division of adult institutions, said at a public meeting in September that other staff were sent to assist Waupun. For example, Waupun also had 40 supplemental staff per pay period, she said. 

Correctional officers and sergeants are far from the only staff in Wisconsin prisons. The Department of Corrections has varying levels of vacancies of other staff. Some of the highest vacancy rates are 22% for social services and 21% for psychological services. 

Prison Policy Initiative argues for addressing staffing issues through decarceration

While Wisconsin’s large pay raises have garnered credit for bringing in new staff, the state hasn’t yet seen whether current efforts will fully staff Wisconsin prisons. A briefing published last week by the Massachusetts-based Prison Policy Initiative challenged the idea that the U.S. can solve prison staffing problems through recruitment. 

The research and advocacy group argued that decarceration would be more effective in addressing understaffing than pay raises, lowering employment requirements, offering staff wellness programs or constructing new facilities. 

The group promoted reducing the prison populations through parole, other forms of release and taking steps to decrease the number of people admitted to prison. 

As of Dec. 6, Wisconsin’s adult prisons held over 23,000 people, more than 5,000 people higher than design capacity. The adult prison population has risen over 2,500 from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2024. 

Incarcerated people face the worst harms of understaffing, the PPI argued, but they noted health risks that employees face, including injury, exposure to infectious diseases and high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. 

“Unfortunately, there’s only so much that a pay raise can do to ameliorate that,” said Wanda Bertram, communications strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative. 

A 2018 survey of Washington State Department of Corrections employees found that prison employees experience PTSD at a rate equivalent to Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans and higher than police officers. These jobs take a lot out of people, Bertram said. 

In Wisconsin’s adult prisons, 452 assaults on staff took place in fiscal year 2024, according to Department of Corrections data. The incident rate was 19.6 assaults per 1,000 incarcerated people, which is the highest it’s been since at least 2013, the earliest year available. These numbers are for adult institutions and many of the assaults involve prisoners spitting or throwing bodily substances (fewer than half involve battery, physical injury or sexual assault).

How long new staff stay in corrections also matters, and Bertram pointed to challenging turnover rates found in a 2020-2021 survey. The job isn’t for everyone, said Hoffman, the former GBCI correctional officer. 

“Historically speaking, from the time that I started there to the time that I left… if 10 new people would start at one point, usually half would quit,” Hoffman said. “Because they didn’t want to work in that environment.” 

Former officers’ thoughts on Act 10

Former correctional officer Denis O’Neill has had complicated feelings about Act 10. He said he would’ve liked to have more money in his pocket, but he said the act was for the greater good of Wisconsin and saved billions for taxpayers. 

In Verdegan’s book, O’Neill recounts the story of a fight in 2015 with an incarcerated man who was attacking a staff member. Verdegan wrote that there was “no question O’Neill was fighting for his life.” 

O’Neill left GBCI with a medical termination and had physical, cognitive and speech therapy, Verdegan wrote. He had at least four documented concussions while working at GBCI. O’Neill told the Examiner that he had to go back to doctors he was seeing and get new paperwork after the state said they didn’t receive the original documents. 

“It’s their job to make it as hard as possible as they can for you so that you get sick and tired of doing everything and you forget about it,” O’Neill said. “That’s the game I felt that was being played.”

O’Neill said he received his benefits after a state senator stepped in. He thinks the union could have taken care of the issue for him if it had not been disempowered under Act 10.

“I could’ve just continued to work on my recovery,” he said. 

Kimberly Verdegan, a former GBCI correctional officer who is married to Joe Verdegan, thinks prison jobs are less desirable than teaching jobs and that the passage of Act 10 didn’t take this into account. 

“Not to say that a teacher’s job isn’t important,” Kimberly Verdegan said. “But they have their holidays off, they go home at night. They don’t get forced to stay another shift.”

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections declined comment for this story, and AFSCME Council 32 did not respond to requests for comment. 

Update: This story has been updated with the most recent data on staff vacancies and prison assaults.

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Lincoln Hills, a detention facility the state had ordered closed by 2021. (Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections)

When Randy Forsterling went to the Lincoln Hills juvenile prison at 16, he learned skills he still uses today, he told the Examiner. 

“I’m a machine operator,” Forsterling said. “I die cast, I make transmission casings and engine blocks for one of the largest corporations in the world. A lot of the metallurgy that I learned when I was in the foundry in Lincoln Hills, I use it now — 25 years later.” 

While Forsterling doesn’t believe Lincoln Hills still has a foundry, a Wisconsin initiative is aiming to better prepare incarcerated youth with disabilities for the workforce. 

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction released a statement about a collaboration with the Departments of Corrections and Workforce Development that is “the first of its kind in Wisconsin.” 

“By providing these young individuals with the guidance, education and opportunities they need, we empower them to break the cycle and contribute positively to society,” State Superintendent Jill Underly said in the statement. “Supporting these kids is not only a step toward healing, it is an investment in their future and will save future taxpayer expenses.” 

The U.S. Department of Education awarded the DPI a 5-year, $10 million grant. The program aims to help youth with disabilities transition from correctional facilities into their communities, according to a DPI statement released in September. Funds will also be used for work rehabilitation training and for dyslexia screening for all youth during intake at state correctional facilities.

The project provides three different levels of support, with some youth falling into more than one level. 

The program intends to support all justice-involved youth with disabilities and the adults who care about them, according to an abstract on the federal Rehabilitation Services Administration’s website. They will receive support through social media campaigns and an app-based reentry toolkit. This is the broadest level of support, for 8,000 participants, the abstract says. 

The second level will support a “targeted group” of students made up of Wisconsin youth under 18 in state correctional facilities. This level involves dyslexia screening and “related intervention services” and is for 1,500 participants. 

The smallest group will receive the highest level of care, or intensive supports, the abstract says. These are students “most marginalized at the intersection of disability and justice and, often, race.” They will receive care under a model that is “trauma-informed, community-based” and facilitated by mentors. This level is for 250 participants, who will begin receiving care while incarcerated. 

Young people have a higher risk of returning to incarceration in Wisconsin 

The Department of Public Instruction’s statement compared youth to older age groups for a three-year period after release, citing an August 2021 DOC report. The report found that for a 2016 cohort, 20-24 year-olds were reincarcerated about twice as often as people aged 45 or older. 

According to the DOC’s website, of 45 people aged 19 and younger released in 2020, 33 were reincarcerated in Wisconsin within three years after release due to a new sentence or a revocation. This data is based only on readmissions to DOC prisons, so it wouldn’t include reincarceration in another state. 

Forsterling said he committed crimes when he was 20 and went into adult prison at 21; he was released to extended supervision last year. He hopes the program will take the experiences of formerly incarcerated people and staff into account. 

Good job training is important for getting a good job, Forsterling said, which helps people avoid a desperate situation that may lead to a return to crime. 

“And that’s where mentors come in very handy,” he said. 

Forsterling said he received helpful mentoring at Lincoln Hills. He mentors and supports several friends who are still incarcerated. 

Cost to incarcerate per child rises as enrollment falls 

The cost of incarceration at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake has “ballooned” to nearly $463,000 per child per year, as enrollment has “plummeted,” Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service reported last week. Fewer youth means fixed infrastructure and staffing costs are spread across fewer individuals. 

A new Department of Corrections budget request would nearly double that amount, they reported. That would raise the cost to 58 times what taxpayers spend on the average K-12 public school student. 

Wisconsin’s Division of Juvenile Corrections had a population of 81 people as of a monthly report for September, including 40 at Lincoln Hills and 14 at Copper Lake. The campus was designed for more than 500 youth, the news organizations reported. 

The juvenile prisons, which have been troubled for many years and are slated for closure, received renewed scrutiny after youth counselor Corey Proulx died from injuries received in an assault in late June. Lawmakers on the 2023 Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety heard testimony about safety concerns at a hearing in August. 

The DOC is under a court-ordered consent decree mandating changes at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake after a 2018 lawsuit challenged practices such as the use of pepper spray and punitive solitary confinement. 

The DPI received the grant to assist minors with disabilities as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Disability Innovation Fund program. The program seeks to ensure people with disabilities receive “in-demand, good-paying jobs.” Out of over 800 organizations, Wisconsin was one of 27 projects to receive the grant.

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Nasal Narcan, used to reverse an overdose, stock the inside of Milwaukee County's first harm reduction vending machine. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has been awarded a $7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to increase access to substance abuse treatment, the agency announced Friday. 

“Making treatment more accessible is important not only for those struggling with substance-use disorder but for public safety as well,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement acknowledging the grant. “This grant will allow for more to be done to help fight addiction.”

The Wisconsin DOJ was awarded the grant to implement the Wisconsin Deflection Initiative (WDI). The program aims to connect people struggling with substance use disorders to services before they have a crisis, an overdose or a criminal charge, according to the DOJ. 

Key components of the Wisconsin Deflection Initiative include self-referral and officer intervention programs, active outreach to at-risk individuals, better response to overdose incidents, comprehensive support services and coordination between law enforcement and treatment providers, the Wisconsin DOJ said. 

The program will be implemented across multiple Wisconsin jurisdictions and have a focus on urban, tribal and rural communities.

If programs like the Wisconsin Deflection Initiative lead to fewer people with a substance use disorder entering Wisconsin prisons, it would reduce strain on the state prison system’s programming. As of October, substance use disorder programming for incarcerated people had a waitlist of over 11,500. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections’ website says the agency tries to enroll individuals in programming close to their release date. 

“We would like to be able to serve every single person that we come into contact with at the highest level that they need in terms of intervention and more research,” Alisha Kraus, then-director of program services for adult prisons, said in an article published by PBS Wisconsin in June. “More resources would allow us to do that, more efficiently.” 

In the U.S. in 2022, nearly 108,000 people died from drug-involved overdose, including from illicit or prescription drugs. Drug overdose deaths in the United States have declined since then, but the fight against addiction continues. In Wisconsin, drug overdose deaths declined from 1,828 in 2022 to 1,771 in 2023. 

Funds directed toward fighting addiction in Wisconsin have included opioid settlement money from lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies. The Oneida Nation in northeast Wisconsin is considering an emphasis on prevention in the spending of $6.5 million in settlement money it estimates it will receive, to be allocated between 2020 and 2037, the Examiner reported last month. 

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Prison barbwire fencing. Credit: Alex Potemkin, Getty Images.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons is closing a women’s prison and other facilities “after years of abuse and decay,” the Associated Press has reported. The bureau is suspending operations at a minimum-security satellite camp in Wisconsin. 

The camp is adjacent to FCI Oxford, Wisconsin’s federal prison, the AP reported. According to the bureau, such camps “provide inmate labor to the main institution and to off-site work programs.” FCI Oxford is located in southern central Wisconsin, north of Wisconsin Dells. 

The bureau previously announced the closure of a federal prison in Dublin, California, which staff and incarcerated people named “the rape club,” according to AP reporting in 2022. 

The bureau is closing minimum-security prison camps in Florida, Minnesota and West Virginia. It’s also suspending operations at minimum-security satellite camps in Wisconsin, Colorado and Pennsylvania, the AP reported. 

Such facilities have seen frequent escapes and an influx of contraband, according to the AP. Oxford’s satellite camp had an escape in 2022; the man was later arrested in connection with a retail theft offense. 

The camp at FCI Oxford was cleared out in June, the AP reported. For the three satellite camps, employees have been or will be moved to adjacent low-security prisons while the minimum-security incarcerated people are moved elsewhere. 

The AP reported that the bureau pointed to efficiencies and infrastructure concerns for the moves. This included a $26 million estimate for repairs to a camp at FCI Englewood in Littleton, Colorado.  

In June of last year, the bureau announced FCI Oxford would transition from medium security to low security, in support of the First Step Act signed into law by then-President Donald Trump in 2018. 

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Gov. Tony Evers kicks off a budget listening session in Appleton, Wis. on Monday, Dec. 2 | Photo by Andrew Kennard

Members of the public traveled to Einstein Middle School in Appleton Monday to tell Gov. Tony Evers about their priorities for Wisconsin’s 2025-2027 budget. 

During the first of Evers’ five planned listening sessions around the state ahead of his next budget proposal, Wisconsin residents expressed concern about the cost of housing, Wisconsin prisons and other issues in a breakout group attended by the Examiner. 

In opening remarks, Evers expressed support for addressing “long neglected” priorities and cited Wisconsin’s budget surplus of over $4 billion for the 2024 fiscal year. 

Evers said his priorities include expanding BadgerCare, legalizing marijuana, protecting access to reproductive health care, gun and justice reform, protecting the environment and investing in kids and schools. 

Local Republican state Rep. Ron Tusler (R-Harrison) has a different view on the surplus, Fox 11 reported. He wants to use it to  return money to taxpayers and provide relief from inflation.  

Members of the public split into six breakout groups. Each group focused on different topics relevant to the budget. The Examiner attended the “Strong & Safe Communities” group, which addressed issues ranging from affordable housing to Wisconsin’s prison system. 

A De Pere resident brought up the high cost of housing, saying that she and her husband are from Door County but couldn’t afford to live there even though they both work. Even in De Pere, “all the houses in my neighborhood are getting bought up and flipped,” she said. 

Tom Denk, who was formerly incarcerated, said he wants to see change in Wisconsin prisons. He said he wasn’t allowed access to enrichment  programs in prison. 

“The DOC needs more funding because their staff need to be educated. They need to have that trauma-informed care,” Denk said. “Because most people are going to get out of prison. I’m one of them.”

Substance abuse and anger management programs in the Wisconsin prison system have waitlists in the thousands. The Department of Corrections’ website says the agency tries to enroll people in programming as they get close to their release date. 

Karen Winkel, a homeless prevention specialist, said many of her clients have been recently released from the Department of Corrections or the Green Lake County Jail, with “no place to go. There’s no place to live.” 

Lisa Cruz, executive director of Multicultural Coalition, Inc., said her nonprofit is overwhelmed with serving immigrants and refugees. 

“It’s [a] humanitarian crisis,” Cruz said. “And I think we often think about that happening somewhere else, in another country, maybe in another state. It’s right here and it’s right now.”

Members of the group expressed concerns about American Rescue Plan funding running out, including funding for services for crime victims. Wisconsin passed $10 million in funding for victim services earlier this year, but providers are still facing budget cuts. 

“My agency received a 72% reduction, really impacting nearly half of our budget,” said Isabel Williston, executive director of ASTOP Sexual Abuse Center. 

Jared Hoy, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, attended the group discussion, but mostly listened since the focus was on the public’s input. 

An informational packet distributed at the event described positions the governor has taken on criminal justice. These include increasing funding for Wisconsin’s TAD (treatment alternatives and diversion) program and addressing staffing shortages that have worsened conditions in state prisons. 

Evers will introduce his budget proposal early next year, Communications Director Britt Cudaback told the Examiner in late October. In his remarks, Evers praised Wisconsin’s new legislative maps as more reflective of the “will of the people.” In last month’s election, the maps helped Democrats flip 14 previously Republican-held seats in the Legislature, narrowing Republican majorities. 

Evers’ next listening session is Wednesday evening in La Crosse, followed by Milwaukee, Ashland and a virtual session.  

Members of the public can submit comments on budget priorities through the governor’s constituent services page. 

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Oneida Nation General Manager Mark Powless. | Photo by Andrew Kennard

Oneida community members shared wrenching stories about loss and addiction during a community meeting last Thursday evening at the Oneida Nation’s Norbert Hill Center, near Green Bay, Wisconsin.

During the tribe’s community meal and discussion, one man said he was 16 when his brother died of an opioid overdose, and he has five nieces and nephews who don’t have a father. 

The Oneida Nation estimates it will receive about $6.5 million in opioid settlement payments between 2020 and 2037, according to an informational packet provided at the meeting. The money is the result of lawsuits against companies involved in manufacturing and selling opioids in the United States. People who attended the meeting spoke passionately about how the tribe should use the funds. 

Data from 2021 shows that Native Americans and Black people in Wisconsin were hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic. Native Americans died of opioid overdoses at close to three times the rate of white people, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Historical trauma, high levels of unemployment and poverty contribute to the vulnerability of Native Americans to addiction.. A total of 1,427 people died of opioid overdoses in Wisconsin in 2021.

“We did a little analysis of individuals that had overdosed in our community, and I want to say that more than 90% of the individuals that overdosed left children behind,” Oneida Nation General Manager Mark Powless told the Examiner.

Oneida data in a packet provided at the meeting showed 20 overdose deaths between October 2022 and September 2023. For each quarter of that year, between 380 and 516 active patients  received substance abuse services. 

Nationally, in 2022, non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native people died from drug overdoses at the highest rate of any racial or ethnic group.

Powless wasn’t surprised by the comments people made at the meeting, he said, but their testimony will contribute toward what the tribe is trying to do. He said he never gets used to hearing stories of losing a child, a parent or another family member to an overdose. 

“There was a few times tonight where I had to quickly regain my composure because it’s just so difficult to hear some of the things that people say and share,” he said. 

‘We want to prevent addiction, not simply treat addiction’ 

Powless told the Examiner about a concerning trend among children 5 years old and younger who are affected by drug abuse. He mentioned Head Start and Early Head Start programs, where staff are encountering families affected by substance abuse.

“Those areas are starting to encounter kids who are coming from homes where there’s either rampant substance use or a loss of a parent due to an overdose,” Powless said. “Or you have kids that were born addicted. So those kids are now entering into our programs and services, and that’s like a growing issue… We’re seeing more and more kids, and it’s more and more difficult to find spaces for them to get the services that they need.”

When you have conversations with the community about children who lost one or both parents to an overdose, you hear about those childrene experiencing challenges, including bullying, Powless said. 

There’s an understanding that only focusing on treatment means never overcoming the addiction problem, Powless told the crowd at the meeting. For the opioid settlement funds, the tribe is proposing an emphasis on prevention. Prevention is often underfunded, he said. 

Family-friendly events, programming in the school system and training about trauma and stigma are among ideas that could be funded by the settlement money. “We want to prevent addiction, not simply treat addiction,” Powless said. 

At the meeting, the man whose brother died from an overdose was disappointed to see the tribe not proposing spending more settlement funds on harm reduction. The only harm reduction proposal outlined would spend $5,000 on harm reduction kits in tribal vehicles. 

He expressed support for having Narcan, a medicine that can treat an opioid overdose, available in more areas in the community to prevent deaths. 

The Oneida Nation’s proposals for the settlement funds aren’t its only plans to prevent overdoses. Narcan is distributed through the Tribal Action Plan and behavioral health services, Powless said.    

“Yes, there is a need for vending machines, other ways to get even more [Narcan] out into the community,” Powless said. “But we haven’t talked about all of the work that is happening, and so some of that is missed in this conversation.”

How might the tribe use the funding?

The tribe has more ideas than it can pay for with the settlement funds and is continuing to add tothe list, Powless said at the meeting.  

There is not yet a final plan for how most of the money will be used, but there is agreement on a few items, he said. These include funding for future community meetings and  buying equipment for Oneida Nation High School students to develop anti-opioid multimedia content. 

“The youth voice and youth participation in this conversation has been really low, so we do want to get our youth engaged in this topic,” Powless said. 

One person at the meeting said that to her, providing transitional housing to people with nowhere to go should be a top priority. There are different models of transitional living the tribe might use to help people overcome substance abuse. 

One model is called “Housing First,” and it welcomes people still struggling with substance abuse and can be tricky to manage, Powless said. The idea is to satisfy a person’s basic needs, then help with recovery, he said.  

Powless isn’t sure if the tribe will go in that direction, but he said it will at the very least provide a safe and sober place to live for people coming out of treatment. This would aim to avoid scenarios where someone goes to treatment and then returns to an environment that may lead to relapse. 

“It’s really those early days of recovery [when] people need a lot of support,” Powless said. 

Some proposals are specific to Oneida culture. One idea Powless described involves people in recovery receiving training in the trades and then helping build a longhouse. Another idea involves hiring apprentices to learn the Great Law of Peace. One person does the majority if not all of the speaking for Oneida at Great Law recitals, Powless said, and the tribe doesn’t currently have people learning to replace him.

“The Great Law is one of the foundations for our culture,” Powless said, “one of the foundations for our community… We do need to pass on that information to other generations.”

State settlement money will help fight addiction 

The Oneida Nation may receive more opioid settlement funding from the state of Wisconsin. This would provide additional funding for a tribe that has more ideas about how to address addiction in the community than it can fund with its settlement money. 

Wisconsin is due to receive over $750 million through 2038 due to national litigation against the pharmaceutical industry, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ website. 

The state received about $31 million in opioid settlement payments in the state fiscal year 2023. (Wisconsin’s fiscal years run from July 1 to June 30 of each calendar year). Wisconsin’s 11 federally recognized tribes received $6 million for prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery services for tribal members. The Oneida Nation received over half a million dollars. 

Earlier this year, the Wisconsin Legislature’s Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee passed a plan for using the state fiscal year 2025 payments. The state again allocated $6 million to the tribes. 

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