Flags of the 11 Native American tribes of Wisconsin in the Wisconsin State Capitol. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

At a state prison in Stanley, Wisconsin, participants in a Native American-focused group take part in traditional cultural practices.

According to Ryan Greendeer, executive government relations officer with the Ho-Chunk Nation, Stanley Correctional Institution’s chaplain recently reached out to the tribe with requests for the group’s programming.  

The chaplain wanted teaching materials, as many materials in the current selection were old. He said that men learn songs and Native language with the materials, as well as history and culture.

The chaplain said the men are eager to learn more about all things Native, according to Greendeer. He was also seeking a larger pipe bowl and poles to help build a new lodge. The pipe has a history of ceremonial use.  

The prison’s annual report for fiscal year 2024 mentions a Native American smudge and drum group. The report says that each month, several religious organizations and volunteers come in to hold various services, and the list includes “Sweat Lodge (Native American).”

There were 79 American Indian or Alaska Native people at Stanley Correctional as of April 30, according to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC). 

Gov. Tony Evers’ budget recommendations for corrections included a tribal liaison position for the DOC. The liaison would be responsible for working with Native American tribes and bands on the agency’s behalf.

Each of the governor’s cabinet agencies has already set at least one staff member to be a tribal liaison. The governor’s proposal would create a new position, set aside for the job of tribal liaison for corrections. 

Evers also proposed creating a director of Native American affairs in the Department of Administration and tribal liaisons in several other agencies, including the Department of Justice and Department of Natural Resources. 

“Gov. Evers’ commitment has been—and always will be—to ensure that the state maintains strong partnerships with the Tribal Nations by recognizing and respecting the needs and perspectives of the Nations and Indigenous people,” Britt Cudaback, communications director for the governor’s office, said in an email.

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee removed the proposed positions in May, along with hundreds of other items proposed by Evers. 

“Unfortunately, [Evers] sends us an executive budget that’s just piles full of stuff that doesn’t make sense and spends recklessly and raises taxes and has way too much policy,” Joint Finance Committee co-chair Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said in May.

Tribes already work with the state, including the Oneida Nation, which is located in northeast Wisconsin. The tribe told the Examiner that it continues to work with the state to make sure incarcerated Native Americans have proper access to culturally based practices and resources. 

With a tribal liaison that can help navigate the corrections system, the tribe’s efforts to make sure resources are provided and distributed appropriately make better progress, the tribe said. 

“These efforts will continue whether or not a tribal liaison position exists, although the impact on incarcerated individuals who use culturally based resources may be greater as efforts take longer,” the tribe said. 

The Oneida Nation said it “supports tribes’ efforts to ensure incarcerated members maintain access to appropriate support services as provided by tribal, state, and federal laws.”

Maggie Olson, communications coordinator for the St. Croix  Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, said the tribe is not located close to the corrections facilities where their tribal members are incarcerated. This is a significant barrier, she said. 

“It would be nice to be able to have a better handle on where our people are within the system to ensure they are having their spiritual and cultural needs met,” Olson said in an email to the Examiner. “It is much easier (at this time) to meet religious needs (think Christianity) within the correctional system than it is to meet the spiritual and cultural needs of Native Americans within the system.”

A great first step would be having a dedicated person who can build relationships with incarcerated Native Americans, she said.

In a statement, the tribe said the liaison “would be a start to developing and enhancing tribal input with State initiatives.” The tribe said it wants to work with the DOC on access to supportive services in county jails. 

Olson said she met DOC Secretary Jared Hoy at an event on June 5 and that they had a great discussion about the potential benefits of a tribal liaison at the agency.

“With the uncertainties surrounding federal funding, we are hopeful state funding will be increased to tribal programs in Wisconsin,” Olson said.

The tribe’s criminal justice work involves partnership with the DOC. In the St. Croix Tribal Reintegration Program, case managers work with tribal members before and after their release from prison or jail, the tribe said. The program has a memo of understanding with the Department of Corrections, providing guidance for working relationships between tribal reentry and probation.

All of the governor’s cabinet agencies have consultation policies that say how they will work with tribal governments. Agencies and tribal elected officials have annual consultation meetings to talk about programs, laws and funding that may affect the tribe. 

Discussions at the annual state-tribal consultation tend to be about high-level policy, but they can delve into specifics, Greendeer said. He gave an example related to tribal members who are on probation or parole. 

“For example, a topic that keeps coming up is re-entry programming for enrolled tribal member offenders,” Greendeer said. “A concern discussed at a recent consultation was that probation/parole officers might not consider tribal norms/values, citing a lack of eye contact in saying a client is disengaged or disconnected.”

The co-chairs and vice-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee did not respond to requests for comment. DOC communications director Beth Hardtke did not answer a question from the Examiner about the responsibilities and goals of the tribal liaison position.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

SUBSCRIBE

Local advocacy organization JOSHUA held a prayer vigil outside Green Bay Correctional Institution. | Photo by Andrew Kennard for Wisconsin Examiner

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers included a prison accountability office in recommendations for the upcoming state budget. That proposal was tossed out by the state Legislature, along with hundreds of others made by Evers. And so far, prison reform advocates haven’t found a Republican sponsor for a separate bill. 

The proposed Office of the Ombudsperson for Corrections would conduct investigations, inspect prison facilities and make recommendations to prisons in response to complaints. The proposal would cost about $2.1 million from 2025-2027. 

Deaths of prisoners, staffing problems and lawsuits have drawn attention to serious problems in Wisconsin’s prison system. 

“How many more millions of dollars are we going to spend in fighting lawsuits, dealing with litigation?” said Susan Franzen of the Ladies of SCI. The prison reform advocacy group wants to see independent oversight of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. 

“We’re willing to spend that money, but we’re not willing to take a million dollars to put something in place that can help start addressing these things and eventually get proactive, so we don’t have all this litigation going on against the Department of Corrections,” Franzen said.

“Unfortunately, [Evers] sends us an executive budget that’s just piles full of stuff that doesn’t make sense and spends recklessly and raises taxes and has way too much policy,” Joint Finance Committee co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said in May, after the committee killed more than 600 items in Evers’ budget proposal. “So, we’ll work from base and the first step of that today is to remove all that policy… and then begin the work of rebuilding the budget.”

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections has already partnered with Falcon Correctional and Community Services, Inc., a consulting and management firm, for a third-party review. 

The Falcon partnership includes a comprehensive study of the Division of Adult Institutions’ health care program, behavioral health program, correctional practices and restrictive housing practices, the Examiner reported. The study was projected to take six months. 

What Republican lawmakers are saying

In February, Gov. Tony Evers laid out a plan for changes to the prison system, including closing Green Bay Correctional Institution and updating Waupun Correctional Institution.

Rep. Jerry O’Connor (R-Fond Du Lac), vice chair of the Assembly Committee on Corrections, said “our first priority” is addressing staff shortages in various areas, ranging from guards to social workers. 

For the most recent pay period, the DOC reported a vacancy rate of 16% for correctional officers and sergeants at adult facilities. Columbia Correctional Institution has the highest vacancy rate among adult facilities, at 35.4%. Waupun and Green Bay Correctional Institutions have vacancy rates over 20%. 

The second priority O’Connor listed in an email to the Examiner is the hundreds of millions of dollars needed for facility reorganization. 

“Based on the pressing financial requests for address[ing] critical staffing shortages and housing issues, I do not see [the governor’s recommendation for an ombudsperson office] getting passed or funded,” O’Connor said.

Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) criticized the potential structure of the ombudsperson’s office, Wisconsin Public Radio reported in February. 

“De facto lifetime appointments (which the ombudsperson appears to be), almost a dozen new bureaucrats, and millions of dollars are not creative solutions,” Felzkowski said, according to WPR.

Would the ombudsperson be independent? 

To Franzen, “it feels like we’re back to square one, with the original plan of trying to get a bill, and we’ll keep trying,” she said. 

Ladies of SCI Executive Director Rebecca Aubart said she is still hopeful about finding a Republican to sponsor an ombudsman office. 

Aubart said she’s heard support for oversight of the DOC, , “but it just appears that nobody’s willing to stick their neck out to be the one to sponsor it,” she said. 

The Examiner reported in October that 20 states had an independent prison oversight body. Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, wrote about independent oversight in an essay published by the Brennan Center in 2021. 

“They can identify troubling practices early, and bring these concerns to administrators’ attention for remediation before the problems turn into scandals, lawsuits, or deaths,” Deitch wrote. “They can share best practices and strategies that have worked in other facilities to encourage a culture of improvement.”

The proposed Office of the Ombudsperson for Corrections was described in a summary of the governor’s corrections budget recommendations. It would be attached to the Department of Corrections. 

Officials in the Evers administration said the office would operate in a “‘functionally independent’” manner, Wisconsin Public Radio reported in February.

Franzen said she’d rather it be completely separate from the DOC, but would support any movement toward some type of oversight at this point. Aubart said independence is a “cornerstone to any ombudsman.”

What would the office do?

The proposed office’s powers include conducting investigations, having witnesses subpoenaed, inspecting facilities at any time and examining records held by the DOC.

If the ombudsperson made a recommendation to a prison regarding a complaint from a prisoner at the facility, a warden would have 30 days to reply. The warden would have to specify “what actions they have taken as a result of the recommendations and why they are taking or not taking those actions.” 

If there was reason to believe a public official or employee has broken a law or requires discipline, the ombudsperson could refer the issue to the appropriate authorities. 

The ombudsperson would report to the governor at the governor’s request. Each year, the ombudsperson would submit a report of findings and recommended improvements to policies and practices at state correctional institutions, as well as the results of investigations. 

Mark Rice, transformational justice campaign coordinator at the advocacy coalition WISDOM, said he also wants to see an additional mechanism to hold the Wisconsin Department of Corrections accountable. 

“Currently incarcerated people, and people who have loved ones who are currently incarcerated, need to really be more at the center of decision-making,” Rice said. 

The co-chairs and vice-chairs of the Joint Committee on Finance did not respond to the Examiner’s requests for comment. 

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

SUBSCRIBE

Victor Garcia in a photo from his Facebook page | Photo courtesy the Garcia family

Months after a suicide attempt at Columbia Correctional Institution, an online court database indicates that Victor Garcia, 34, died on April 5. 

His sister, Susan Garcia, said her brother was removed from a ventilator and died from complications from his attempt to hang himself on July 19 in a Columbia Correctional Institution shower. At the time, Garcia was on clinical observation because he said he was feeling suicidal.

Garcia gave the Examiner access to records her family received from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, including incident reports that provide accounts from the day of Garcia’s suicide attempt. 

Questions remain about the purpose and origin of the tether Garcia used in the suicide attempt, as well as why an officer waited for a supervisor and did not immediately remove the tether when Garcia was found. 

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has received notice of an anticipated lawsuit being filed against the department on behalf of Victor Garcia, DOC communications director Beth Hardtke said in an email in response to questions from the Examiner. DOC practice is not to comment on matters relating to pending or ongoing litigation, Hardtke said. 

Attorney Lonnie Story said he plans to file a lawsuit involving Victor Garcia’s attempted suicide at the facility. He said he needs to obtain more information before filing a suit. 

Garcia’s prison sentence and mental health strugles

In March 2008, when he was 16, Victor Garcia was found guilty of criminal trespassing in a dwelling, battery, disorderly conduct and a domestic abuse incident. He was sentenced to two years of probation. Garcia’s probation was revoked in July 2008, and in August he was sentenced to nine months in jail. 

When he was 18, Garcia was found guilty of being party to a crime for burglary and being armed with a dangerous weapon, causing substantial bodily harm and two counts of armed robbery with use of force. He was sentenced to over 20 years in prison. 

Garcia was placed in clinical observation on July 8. According to records provided by Susan Garcia, Victor Garcia was placed there because he told security staff and psychological services that he was feeling suicidal. 

An incident report said that Garcia stated he was using psychological services to remove himself from general population status “due to fears that he was being targeted as an informant.” Susan Garcia said her brother had suicidal thoughts and had been threatened by another incarcerated person. 

In the two days prior to his suicide attempt, Garcia did not engage with staff during multiple attempts to evaluate him. According to a review on July 16, Garcia said he felt depressed and felt like dying every day. 

The report said it appeared other members of the psychological services team had recommended exploring a stabilization referral for Garcia to the Wisconsin Resource Center (WRC). WRC provides treatment for severe impairments in daily living caused by mental health challenges. Susan Garcia believes her brother should have been sent to WRC earlier in his time in prison. 

According to a mental health report dated July 19, Victor Garcia was to be monitored every 15 minutes. 

Under the DOC’s clinical observation policy, the frequency with which a patient is monitored can vary. Depending on the level of risk, a patient might be observed at 15, 10 or 5-minute intervals, or constantly. 

According to an incident report by Psych Associate Chastity Drake, Drake thought she heard someone from the clinical observation area “yell they were ‘going to hang’ themselves.” She was unsure who it was. Her report was dated July 19, with an incident time of 2:30 p.m. 

Drake asked who had yelled, and the clinical observation checker told her who it was. The name is redacted in the incident report. Drake stopped at a door to check with that person about whether he was the person who had yelled about hanging himself, and he denied it. 

In front of the shower, Drake reported she “heard a man yelling and it sounded like the voice heard earlier. Due to PIOC going into shower, this writer determined she would touch base with him after the shower.” 

Garcia had access to a ‘tether’ 

At 2:30-3 p.m., Drake followed the observation checker to check in with Garcia, who was seated on the floor with his back against the door, according to her incident report. Drake could see a “tether” around his neck. She began to bang loudly on the door, yelling “Garcia.” He did not respond. 

Both ends of the tether were secured to the shower door near the shower drain.

Another incident report was completed by correctional officer Anthony Rego, who drove to the hospital where Garcia was treated. He wrote in the report that he’d learned Garcia had been in the shower for approximately 40 minutes, and at some point had the tether around his neck. 

It is unclear if the tether was meant to be attached to the shower door. One incident report said Garcia had used “the tether that was attached to the shower door.” An incident report by correctional officer Tyler Peterson also mentions a tether.

In his report, also dated July 19, Peterson wrote that he was assisting with removing and escorting Victor Garcia from a cell to the observation shower. Once he was in the shower and the door was shut, another correctional officer “removed the tether and wrist restraints,” he wrote. 

Family member questions why Garcia was left tethered while unresponsive 

An incident report by Courtney Schmidt, a licensed psychologist, states she was in RH1 at approximately 2:30 p.m. Schmidt’s report states that she and Drake were waiting to check in with Garcia to assess him for risk and that at the time, he was naked in the shower.

Schmidt wrote that as they walked back to the clinical observation shower, she saw Garcia hanging from the tether. He was unresponsive and she could see that the tether “was wrapped tightly around his neck.” 

Drake began to pound on the shower cell door, and the officer accompanying them called for a “supervisor/help over his radio.” Drake left to go and wait for help in the front, while Schmidt stayed with Garcia. She wrote that she saw his belly slightly moving. 

Schmidt asked the officer if he could take the tether off, “but he stated ‘I am not taking it off until a supervisor comes.’” He then called again over his radio, and Schmidt waited until help arrived. 

In an interview with the Examiner, Susan Garcia questioned the decision to wait for another person to arrive. She thinks the door should have been  opened, and staff should not have waited to assist her brother, “if you obviously see something’s wrong.”

Drake wrote that she heard the officer call for help and went to the clinical observation table to wait for help to arrive. She wrote that “the response appeared delayed due to other high priority events happening at the same time.”

“This writer went to find help and ran into Dr. Stange and Sgt. Ferstl,” Drake wrote. “Sgt. Ferstl and moments later Lt. Laturi and support staff rushed to the clinical observation shower. I observed as the PIOC was removed from cell and began to receive medical treatment.”

In his incident report, supervising officer Steven Laturi wrote that he was working as a shift supervisor. At about 2:40 p.m., he was responding to another emergency in Restrictive Housing Unit 1 (RH1) when he heard a radio call for a supervisor to report to the observation area. 

Laturi wrote that he was unable to respond immediately because he and a team were responding to someone else, whose name was redacted in the report. This person was in a restraint chair in a program cell, and he had tipped his restraint chair back and removed his legs from it. 

According to Ferstl’s incident report, he was assisting Laturi and completing inventory when Drake came out from the RH1 observation area and told staff that Garcia was unresponsive. He reported that at around that time, the observation check officer made a radio call, asking for a supervisor to come to the observation area for an inmate who was harming himself. 

Ferstl wrote that he arrived in the RH1 observation area and saw Garcia sitting upright at the shower door. He tried to get Garcia’s attention, but Garcia was unresponsive. Ferstl made a radio call for a supervisor to report to the observation area. 

Ferstl then “unsecured one end of the door tether which removed the tether’s tension,” he wrote, allowing Garcia to rest in a lying position near the cell door. Ferstl made another radio call, asking the health services unit to report to RH1 immediately. 

How Garcia described himself

Garcia has a profile on penacon.com, a website for finding an incarcerated pen pal. Susan Garcia said her brother set up the profile, which includes photos of artwork. 

Garcia described himself as “an avid reader that enjoys educating, empowering & entertaining myself mentally in a place designed to break the mind, body & spirit.” 

He wrote that being incarcerated at 17 “forced me to mature fast.” “When I’m out,” he wrote, on his bucket list was traveling the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts, experiencing the life of different cultures through food. 

“He would call my kids almost every day,” Susan Garcia said. “Weekly, definitely weekly. He would send them gifts. He loved kids… My brother would give the clothes off his back for you. He was emotional, but hid it. He hid it very well.” 

Further information not yet available 

According to the DOC’s mental health training policy, the department’s division of adult institutions (DAI) is supposed to provide annual update training in suicide prevention to all DAI staff who have contact with incarcerated people. DAI facilities are also supposed to conduct drills simulating a suicide attempt by an incarcerated person and staff response.

On April 17, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office said it could not release any information pertaining to the investigation at this point. The investigation was being reviewed by the Columbia County District Attorney’s Office, and additional investigation may need to occur. On May 23, the sheriff’s office said there had been no change in the status of the case. 

On May 21, the Examiner submitted a public records request to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, asking for any records produced by any DOC investigation of Garcia’s death.

The DOC denied Susan Garcia access to body camera and security camera footage of Victor Garcia’s suicide attempt, citing security concerns and the public interest in protecting the safety of incarcerated people and staff. 

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

SUBSCRIBE

Waupun Correctional Institution, photographed in 2017 (Wisconsin Department of Corrections photo)

A federal civil rights lawsuit was filed Thursday over the death of Joshua Botwinski, 43, at Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI). The lawsuit named Randall Hepp and Yana Pusich as defendants, the then-warden and then-security director of the prison. 

According to the lawsuit, Botwinski suffered from a severe drug addiction and from mental illness at all times while serving his prison sentence at WCI. It says he died of a fentanyl overdose.

The lawsuit alleges prison staff known to be smuggling drugs were assigned in proximity to Botwinski. It also alleges a failure to order Botwinski into close observation until drug smuggling could be controlled. 

The DOC’s online offender locator dates Botwinski’s death on January 19, 2023. Botwinski is at least the eighth incarcerated person to die at the prison since 2023. The death of Damien Evans, 23, was at least the seventh death at the Waupun prison since 2023, according to reporting from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this year. 

Another man incarcerated at Waupun, Tyshun Lemons, died on Oct. 2, 2023 when he overdosed on a substance containing fentanyl, the Examiner reported. 

The estate of Joshua Botwinski is the plaintiff for the lawsuit, by special administrator Linda Botwinski. The lawsuit alleges Hepp and Pusich were deliberately indifferent to a serious medical need, knowingly created a danger for Botwinski and knowingly failed to protect him from danger. It argues that their alleged deliberate indifference caused Botwinski’s death. 

In January, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that nearly a dozen prison employees had resigned or been fired since the U.S. Department of Justice’s launch of a probe into a suspected smuggling ring within the prison.  

In September, William Homan, a former facilities repair worker at WCI, pleaded guilty to smuggling contraband in exchange for bribes. A sentencing memorandum by prosecutors said the presence of contraband in WCI contributed to a “lack of institutional control.” 

In late April, Hepp was convicted of a misdemeanor and fined $500 in the death of Donald Maier, who was incarcerated at WCI. 

A sentencing memorandum by a lawyer for Hepp said that in March 2023, “conditions and actions of the inmate population created an environment that posed an immediate threat to the safety of the staff and inmates while also threatening the security of the institution.” 

The memo said Hepp put the prison in modified movement, “at times referred to as a ‘lockdown.’” 

“This led to an investigation of the conditions and a search of the institution,” the memo said. “Information and physical evidence that was developed revealed a level of corrupt behavior taking place that was historical in scope involving trafficking of illegal drugs, cellular telephones, finances, and other contraband.”

The sentencing memo from Homan’s case said the lockdown involved incarcerated people “being confined to their cells twenty-four hours a day except for medical or other emergencies.”

“As part of its efforts to reestablish control, a facilitywide search was conducted, resulting in the recovery of numerous cellular phones, controlled substances, and other contraband,” the memo said. “WCI provided information obtained from its investigation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which included information that WCI staff were receiving bribes in exchange for smuggling in contraband.”

The lawsuit alleges that before Jan. 19, 2023 — and therefore before the lockdown and investigation — “via the reports they received from staff, both Pusich and Hepp knew that illegal drug use was rampant at WCI, and they knew that prison staff was smuggling drugs into WCI.”

Lawsuit includes alleged timeline leading to overdose

The lawsuit alleges that on August 15, 2022, WCI officials found out that Botwinski was under the influence of drugs. Botwinski tested positive for opiates and stimulants. 

Incidents of prisoners being under the influence of drugs “is automatically reported to Pusich as security director,” and Pusich would report incidents of prisoners using illegal drugs to Hepp, the lawsuit alleges. 

Before Jan. 19, the day of Botwinski’s death, Pusich and Hepp knew illegal drug use was “rampant” at the prison, the lawsuit alleges. 

“From the reports of drug use and overdoses, they knew that inmates had an almost unfettered access to drugs in prison,” the lawsuit alleges. “Botwinski’s access to drugs in WCI was greater than his access to drugs outside of WCI.”

The lawsuit alleges that Hepp and/or Pusich assigned prison staff known to be smuggling drugs into the prison in proximity to Botwinski. It alleges that they knew placing staff who smuggled drugs into the prison in Botwinski’s proximity would lead to overdose. 

According to the lawsuit, staff observed Botlinski in his cell at about 5:10 p.m. 

“At about 6:45 p.m., Botwinski was discovered in his cell: he had been the victim of a drug (fentanyl) overdose, from which he died,” the lawsuit says. 

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Examiner. 

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

SUBSCRIBE