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

Prison reform advocates gathered by Green Bay Correctional Institution on Monday, calling for change at a moment when the prison’s future is uncertain. 

The vigil included prayer for incarcerated people in solitary confinement and for the families of Shawnee Reed and Brittany Doescher, who died at Taycheedah Correctional Institution. 

“We’re all human,” JOSHUA Coordinator Caitlin Haynes said. “So whether you committed a crime or not, you deserve humane treatment. So we’re here for that, and to bring light to the situation that they deserve better.”

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections reports on how long prisoners spend in disciplinary separation, where a prisoner might be sent after committing a violation. GBCI has the longest average length of stay in disciplinary separation of any of the adult facilities listed, at 48.6 days, as of the most recent data.

JOSHUA, a local affiliate of the advocacy organization WISDOM, holds monthly vigils at Green Bay Correctional. 

Leslie Hill, who attended the event, said her son died by suicide after leaving prison. 

“I spoke to him daily whenever he wasn’t in solitary, and he had many traumatic experiences,” Hill said. “He had no support. And he was facing one more charge, he was on bond. I had bonded him out to have some mental health treatment…and I think [a] contributing factor to his death was [the prospect of going back].”

In a post before the event, WISDOM said advocates were gathering with four other groups “to call on Gov. Evers to veto any budget that continues to invest in punishment over people.” At a rally at the Capitol in late May, advocates called on the governor to veto the budget if it lacked certain items. 

“We’re urging [Evers] to veto any budget that does not include adequate investments in health care, child care and public education,” said Mark Rice, Wisconsin Transformational Justice Campaign Coordinator at WISDOM. “Also, we want him to ensure that no new prisons are included in the budget… Also wanting to adequately fund measures in the budget that would reduce the prison population.” 

GBCI’s future to be determined 

In February, Gov. Tony Evers laid out a plan that included closing GBCI in 2029 and updating Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI).

Last week, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee approved a level of corrections spending that was significantly lower than Evers’ proposal.

Co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said GBCI wouldn’t be discussed until later in the week, when the committee would take up the capital budget. That meeting was canceled. 

According to the Evers administration, the governor’s plan opted to close GBCI instead of Waupun because of local support for closing GBCI and the lower cost of updating the Waupun facility, the Examiner reported in February.

Long stays in restricted housing

According to the most recent data, 138 incarcerated people were in disciplinary separation at GBCI. There were 71 people in restrictive housing in the facility for over 30 days, the highest of any facility listed and nearly triple the number at the second highest facility.

Over the years, the average length of stay in disciplinary separation has declined across facilities, from 39.7 days in 2019 to 27.8 days in May 2025. 

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has entered a contract with a third-party management and consulting firm, Falcon Correctional and Community Services, Inc. The partnership includes studying restrictive housing practices at adult prisons. 

An aging facility 

GBCI was built starting in 1898. As of June 20, it housed 381 more incarcerated people than its design capacity of 749. 

Overcrowding puts additional burdens on staff to maintain a facility’s safety and security, a 2020 draft report on the Wisconsin Department of Corrections website stated. Overcrowding also “stresses inmate programs and support functions.” 

The report found that GBCI and Waupun Correctional Institution, the oldest facilities in the system, were both “at or nearing the end of their useful lives.”

Without extensive demolition and reconstruction of housing, program and support services buildings, the report stated, “they will not begin to achieve the safety, security, efficiency and flexibility found in modern correctional institution design.”

Maximum security housing at the prisons opened with 50 square foot cells designed for single occupancy, according to the report. Most of those cells were being used to house two people, presented operational issues and did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act or meet American Correctional Association standards. 

The report said new maximum security housing was needed in the long term. In the short term, “consideration should be given to reducing populations at GBCI and WCI if possible to allow for more single occupancy cells.” 

The 2020 report also said a number of facilities have ADA-accessible housing accommodations, but “there exists a particular lack of accessibility at the GBCI and WCI maximum security institutions.” 

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