Life Inside Waupun Prison: Lockdowns and Survival

Matthew Neumann recounts life inside Waupun prison, Wisconsin’s oldest maximum security prison, where years of lockdowns, corruption, and harsh conditions shape daily survival.

As my direct appeal lingers on, I remain existent or at least above ground and still kicking, although often waning in faith. I’m now six years into my first prison incarceration and housed at the oldest dungeon in Wisconsin. Waupun (WCI), built in 1850, is now 176 years old. By the qualities of age, I always knew this stinkhole was ancient, but during my most recent trip to the prison library, I learned from the newly posted historical photograph/posters just exactly how old and notorious this snake pit really is.

WCI is a maximum security prison fortifying four general population housing units (cell halls), a separate restricted housing unit (RHU) aka “the Hole,” and a behavioral health unit (BHU). Being the oldest maximum security prison within the midwestern U.S., it has housed some of the foremost notorious killers and gangstas. You could only imagine the endless skeletonizing dark secrets these concrete walls and iron bars hold. One poster shared an article about the notorious Chicago mob boss Al Capone’s crew making a daring escape and shootout with police at this very same dungeon.

The moment I arrived in March 2020, my legs and hands anchored to my waist with thick metal chains/shackles, it felt as if I was walking through the wicked iron gates of Gehenna. Being a first timer (fish), I felt an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension as the fear increased my pulse, causing beads of sweat to pour out of my skin. As I was escorted through the uncanny tunnel into my new assigned living space, I tried to ignore the haunting unpleasant screams and horrifying sounds of laughter as they produced a shivery feeling, increasing my heartbeat into a rapid thumping sound that vibrated my entire body to each thundering thump.

Now, six years into this unjust conviction, I look back and think to myself, the monsters aren’t behind these walls. The real monsters are the ones that put me here.

COVID-19 Lockdown at Waupun Prison

My arrival in March 2020 was also the peak start of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the prison was on lockdown, which meant we lived in our 5×9 windowless, concrete cells with iron/grated fronts 24 hours a day. The cell doors only opened for medical calls and maybe a shower once or twice per week. Although WCI was on lockdown, it didn’t seem to affect the underground prison world. Pretty much anything that falls under the illicit contraband category could be purchased through the prison’s underground. This includes drugs, weapons, booze, cellular phones, porn, and anything and everything in between. (With the pandemic lockdown, the aforementioned contraband logically was entering the prison in a utterly corrupt fashion.)

The COVID lockdown drifted into late 2021, and Waupun prison attempted to softly reopen, only to enter into the longest U.S. prison lockdown in history. Starting in 2022, this stinkhole went on a full-blown security threat lockdown—zero inmate movement that lingered into 2024, drawing national media attention, federal lawsuits, and public protest.

Life During the Longest Prison Lockdown

This security threat lockdown meant no inmate movement. Eat, sleep, and poop in your 45-square-foot living space. No movement further closed the prison’s kitchen, school, church service, library, law library, etc. Week number one, our meals consisted of two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, an eight-ounce carton of often spoiled milk, and a snack size bag of expired chips, served to our cells three times per day. Imagine 42 PB&J sandwiches within a week’s time. This bagged meal service remained in effect for 18 months, although the PB&Js were dialed back to just 14 per week; they were actually a blessing when compared to its mystery meat rival that we were served.

This historic never-ending lockdown was triggered by mass amounts of the foregoing illicit contraband. The everyday occurring overdoses, along with six inmate deaths, also contributed to this security threat lockdown.

Corruption and Contraband Inside Waupun Prison

WCI was so out of control that outside agencies like the FBI and HITDA had to intervene, conducting a massive prison shakedown, which rumored to have confiscated 240 cellular phones. WCI houses approximately 1,200 inmates. The interesting factor is after the massive shakedown and continuous of zero inmate movement, the aforementioned contraband still flooded the prison cell halls, and overdoses remained an everyday occurrence. Corruption was obvious, but how deep did it go?

In mid-2023, the walls of this dungeon rumbled and roared boisterously as inmates cheered to the primetime news broadcasting the indictment/arrest of WCI’s warden and 18 other high-ranking staff members. The charges stemmed from felony official misconduct all the way up to homicide of a inmate. In hindsight, it makes sense that the prison warden had his hands in the cookie jar, because I witnessed a lot of illicit activities, some of which I find morally disgusting which I cannot share due to prison politics.

Life at Waupun Prison Today

In the wake of WCI’s warden arrest and plea of guilty, we are now in 2026. Waupun prison is almost fully open. We still have no bakery or chow hall, which means we still eat where we shit. We seem to get out-of-cell rec now twice per week, some weeks even a third day, and the same with showers.

Another way to describe life in Wisconsin’s notorious dungeon would be for inmates who aren’t working as inmate workers or going to school spend on average 163 hours of the 168-hour week in a 5×9 windowless concrete cage.