Green Bay’s prison has returned to normal operations. Incarcerated people say it’s not all better. 

After over a year of lockdown at Green Bay Correctional Institution, which triggered a protest in Madison, the prison returned to normal operations on July 28. 

“If you don’t have a job, or… chapel, or something of that nature, you’re in your cell maybe 23 hours or 24 hours a day, depending on [if] it’s a recreation day,” said Michael Johnson, who spoke with the Examiner the day after the return to normal operations.  

In June, the lockdown at GBCI hit a one-year mark, Fox 11 reported. Over time, the prison has allowed incarcerated people more recreation time. On the week of May 20, GBCI started offering at least two 50-minute recreation periods per week and at least one additional period per month, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections said.  

Now, people incarcerated at GBCI have no less than four hours of recreation each week, Kevin Hoffman, deputy director of communications for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, told the Examiner on Aug. 2. This is offered outside if weather permits. Bryant Ellis, who is currently incarcerated in GBCI, said the recreation schedule provides four hours per week. 

“Experienced staff continue to support newer officers to help operations run smoothly and offer more opportunities to those in our care,” DOC Secretary Jared Hoy said in a July 22 press release. 

For an ongoing series of articles on Green Bay Correctional Institution, the Wisconsin Examiner interviewed three people who are currently incarcerated in the prison over the phone. The Examiner communicated with family members of two other incarcerated people and interviewed three people who used to be in the prison. 

Stacy Knapp, whose son is incarcerated at the prison, said in an interview on July 8 that the cells are small and every meal is eaten within feet of the toilet.  

“The environment is torture,” Knapp said. “Not just that noise level, but also being confined to your cell for essentially 24 hours a day, and not alone, with another human being in that space.” 

Joe Verdegan, a former staff member who left the prison in 2020, said GBCI used to have a lot of beneficial vocational programs, like welding and electrical work. When incarcerated people in the prison have a job, “they don’t want to screw that up,” he said. 

“Usually the guys at the prison that are causing problems have idle time,” Verdegan said. “They’re not in school, or they’re not having a job. And that’s when your problems get created. They call it modified lockdown, or whatever they want to call it. The longer guys are locked up, they get antsy and they’re going to start acting stupid.”

For technical education, the prison currently offers instruction in three fields: business operations assistant, cabinetmaking/wood technician, and masonry, Hoffman said. The institution is looking for a new instructor for the barbering program. There were 34 people enrolled in career technical education at the end of June 2024, according to the DOC. 

Ellis said he and others at GBCI haven’t been able to get programs such as substance abuse and anger management for years. The DOC website says that the department identifies a person’s needs for programs when they’re admitted, but it tries to enroll them in programming closer to their release date. 

“We’re supposed to be rehabilitated,” said Ellis, who has been incarcerated in GBCI since 2018. “This isn’t a rehabilitation process. We’re just sitting in our cells, basically next to — doing nothing.”  

Anger management is a current program, Hoffman said. DOC says a substance use disorder treatment program should open early next year, NBC 26 reported. 

Jordan Coombe said he hasn’t been in any programming at GBCI aside from school since he arrived at the prison about a year and a half ago. 

“I have tried getting into programs…they’re in my court reports where the judge ordered them, and they keep telling me, ‘On the list, on the list,’” Coombe said. 

Lack of full staff at the prison affects life inside

When staffing allows, “GBCI hopes to add weekend in-person visits back into the schedule this fall,” Hoffman said on Aug. 2. 

Ellis said his stepmother works weekdays, and he hasn’t seen her since wintertime of 2023. 

The schedule is also inconvenient for Brian Coombe, Jordan’s father.

“So for my scenario, I’m driving five and a half hours each way for a 90-minute visit,” Brian Coombe said. “And I can’t even do it on the weekend.”

Incarcerated people at GBCI eat their meals in their cells, Hoffman said on Aug. 2. Lunch has always been served in cell because of GBCI’s schedule, “and otherwise was initially implemented in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID and due to available staffing.” In the coming weeks, GBCI plans to reopen the dining halls for breakfast and dinner.

In an interview on July 28, Ellis said that between 2019 and 2024, “we’ve probably had the chow hall for two weeks.” Johnson said the noise level makes socializing inside a cell more difficult. 

“Being able to go to chow hall is actually really important for some of us, because it gives us that outside-of-our-cell time that we need, and then it just gives us more environment, more space to move around,” Ellis said. 

Verdegan said that in the past, the prison had two big dining halls and would feed “300 inmates at a clip.” 

While staffing has improved at GBCI, the prison remains overcrowded and understaffed, according to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. The population of GBCI was 1,055 as of Aug. 9, while the prison’s design capacity was 749. 

A rise in the starting wage for correctional officers to a minimum of $33 an hour has helped fill positions at Green Bay, Hoffman said. Staffing vacancies for correctional officers and sergeants at GBCI have fallen from nearly 41% in a late February report to 16.4%, leaving 38 vacancies remaining. The number of vacancies is expected to drop, Hoffman said on Aug. 2. 

Filling vacant positions with more staff has let GBCI expand recreation, Hoffman said, and “will be needed to reopen dining halls as well as expand visiting hours.”

People incarcerated at GBCI are scheduled for two showers in the bathing area each week, and they can also take showers during recreation time, Hoffman said. Incarcerated people who work at the institution have a dedicated shower area and can shower after shifts or as needed. 

“So the minimum is at least two times per week and there are some PIOC who choose to shower daily,” Hoffman said. 

According to Ellis, showers can take up some of an incarcerated person’s recreation time. If they want to go to recreation on a shower day—Tuesday or Thursday—and take a shower, they have to take their shower during the 50-minute recreation period, he said. He also said that during recreation, “even if it’s just drizzling rain… they don’t let us go outside.”

This story was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner. It is republished in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.