DataWatch: Wisconsin incarcerates more people than its prisons were designed to hold

by Khushboo Rathore, Wisconsin Watch
July 30, 2024

The state prison system was at nearly 130% capacity on July 26, according to data released by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. More than 5,000 people are living outside of the designated normal population for the prison system. Overcrowding in prisons can have serious impacts on staff and prisoners. 

A 2020 master facilities plan report from the Wisconsin DOC explains that overcrowding makes it harder for prisons to operate efficiently and provide proper care and rehabilitation to inmates. Black River Correctional Center, which is currently at double its capacity, reported back in 2020 that it was unable to provide proper food service and hygiene support to inmates. 

The Drug Abuse Correctional Center is also at double capacity. The facility, built in 2012, has mostly six-person cells with only three two-person cells. The 2020 report stated that the building, which was built with capacity for 125 inmates, had no issues housing over 250 people. However, it did not clarify how or where the additional prisoners were being housed.

Oakhill Correctional Institute also reported double the designed population. McNaughton and Sanger B. Powers correctional centers had almost double the number of inmates for which the facilities were designed. 

All female-only prisons are above capacity. Milwaukee Women’s Correctional Center and Robert E. Ellsworth Correctional Center reported 250% and 213% of their designed populations, respectively. Taycheedah Correctional Institution, the women’s maximum- and medium-security facility, had 142% of its designed population, according to the report.

Notably, county and court jails, marked as “contract beds” by the DOC, do not exceed their capacity of around 280 beds. Neither does the Wisconsin Resource Center, an Oshkosh facility that provides specialized mental health services to people in the state prison system.

The DOC releases weekly prison population reports and has archives going back to 1999 here.

This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.