Lockdown at Waupun Prison, Five Months In

My names is Justin Welch and I’m just a grandfather, father, son, brother and friend to some.

I’m in prison for the rest of my life and I’m fine with that. I did it to myself and feel so bad for what I did.

Now let me tell you about the conditions of confinement at Wisconsin’s max prison Waupun Correctional Institution.

Waupun prison is 169 years old and one of the oldest prisons in America. In my cell I can touch each wall standing in the center of the cell, and that goes for the roof of the cell also. So yes, it’s very small in the cell and most of the cells have 2 men in them.

So back in March 29, 2023, this prison was placed on lockdown. It was no big deal at the beginning because lockdowns in prison happen and I have been through many over my many years in prison.

Don’t miss the 7 month update on this important story

Now to date we are almost at 5 months in on this lockdown. Well, the prison officials stopped calling it a lockdown 4 months ago and now call it a modified movement. But it’s a lockdown!

We are locked in are cells 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. The reason I say 6 days is because some inmates are offered one recreation a week for a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes. Now, not all inmates get this one recreation a week because the prison officials have came up with a way to refuse inmates recreation without any form of appeal for the inmates. I know this because I have been that inmate a number of times. So you wait all week long to get that one recreation, and when they start letting inmates out to go to the one recreation and your cell door does not open and you get no answer on why this is until days after the recreation. The only way I found out why I was refused recreation was I had to write the administration and wait on them to respond to me. I was told I was not standing for count. I couldn’t understand this and knew it was a lie. See, the reason the prison officials lie about stuff like this is because the less inmates are at recreation, the easier it is for the correctional officers to not have to watch as many inmates.

Maybe this will clear it up a little for you all. Last week at recreation I counted 46 inmates out at recreation. That’s 46 out of a total of 116 inmates. Many inmates are refused recreation, and we all want that one recreation more then you can even understand. Like I said, we are going on 5 months of this, and inmates are becoming more and more mentally unstable.

We are just getting started on the conditions of confinement at WCI.

So for the last 5 months all inmates in this prison have had only one shower a week. Now that comes with one set of clothing a week also. So yes, we must keep the same nasty underwear all week long.

In the cell hall I live in, there is no ventilation at all in the cells. This is a violation of federal law, and I have told administration this a number of times. What happens is when the cells heat up they can’t cool down because there is no air flow in the cells in the North Cell Hall. Like I said before, this prison is 169 years old. Old and outdated.

The water is contaminated and this is a fact and posted, but what can we do about it?!? We must drink the water or die, or drink the water and suffer down the road from its effects of contamination.

All religious services have been suspended for the last 5 months. This has affected many people’s beliefs and path to the higher power. Many people’s faith has suffered because of administration choices to stop all religious services.

Mental health programming has been suspended for the last 5 months. And this is a big deal in here. We have had one suicide and god only knows how many attempts at suicide since the start of this lockdown 5 months ago. Not a day goes by I don’t hear an inmate yelling for help that he is suicidal. And when this happens, many times the correctional officers take their sweet time getting to the inmate, and by that time the inmate has cut himself up or is hanging in his cell. This is a real thing in here and a sad thing. I have never seen anything like this before in all my prison time. The lack of professional officers is a major problem here, and I can’t say it about all of the COs, but OMG if an inmate is yelling he is going to commit suicide, get your ass to his cell and pull him out to be seen by mental health staff or place them in observation status.

It’s only a matter of time before we have another suicide. I don’t want nobody to kill themselves. I understand everybody has somebody that loves them. But some COs just don’t care who hurts themselves or kills themselves. Sad but true. The correctional officers make very good money and should take more pride in there work.

But who am I, just a no-good prisoner. I have family and friends who love and care about me because they know the kind of man I have become. If I was to commit suicide, my friends and family would suffer unneeded because of the unprofessional officers and a lack of mental health programming form this unjust lockdown. Like I said, it’s not all the staff but too many.

Now also, let’s not forget the administration suspended all visitation for the last 5 months. This has affected not only the inmates but families of the inmates. I just can’t understand this for the life of me. Why in the world would prison officials do this to the kids who want to see their fathers? This can’t be mentally healthy for the kids or the fathers in here. I just don’t get it.

Now, this is not all that is going on, but I’m sure you’re seeing or understanding it.

Now, the prison officials are trying to justify this by saying they are short of staff. This is true, but not true also. The prison officials have options when there is a staff shortage. (If it’s as bad as they say, but it’s not and I will get to that soon.) Option one is the administration contacts the governor of Wisconsin and requests the National Guard to come into the prison to help out, because they are no longer able to run the prison.

But it’s not that bad because if it was as bad as the prison officials claim, they wouldn’t be running metal stamping. Metal stamping is where the license plates are made for the state of Wisconsin. Ask yourself why would metal stamping be running if they are short on staff??? Well, the state of Wisconsin has a contract with Waupun to make license plates. So no way in hell would the prison system shut down its honey pot. The prison system gets a nice kickback from the state and feds for running metal stamping.

But the prison system will stop everything listed above and say fuck inmates and their families but run metal stamping. I thought they were short on staff; lol talk about a dirty system. I’m an inmate worker but have not worked one day in the last 5 months because my job does not make the prison more money. But metal stamping makes this prison a lot of money!!!!

Justify that Waupun! No way in hell can they justify running metal stamping and stopping visitation or showers or mental health programming and so on.

The prison does have some, and I only mean a few, inmates working other than the 40 or 50 inmates working in metal stamping.

Prison officials only have inmates working to make their jobs even easier. The thing is, administration knows good and well if they do not give in to the correctional officers and let some inmates out to work, the correctional officers will get sick of working here and quit like many already have! And on one hand, I get it. The inmates are paid to do a job, and the correctional officers are doing most of are jobs right now and have been for 5 months.

But now, let’s get into the pay correctional officers make. Now, feel free to look this fact up. Maybe you will want to become a correctional officer. Starting pay for a CO is $33.30 a hour. Not bad at all!! That’s good money, and most COs make well over that here in Waupun. So do the math and the correctional officers make around $100,000 a year, and that’s with no overtime; with overtime it’s well over $130,000 a year.

You don’t need an education, just a GED, and you can make way more money than American teachers. Think about that for one second. A Correctional Officer’s starting pay without overtime is more money than any teacher in this country with a college degree. How does that make you feel, teachers? I have kids and grandkids, and I feel our teachers should make more than some uneducated CO working at a prison oppressing people.

What has America come to? Maybe we can just shut down all our schools and build more prisons, and the teachers can work at the prison as Correctional Officers. I just can’t understand this, how some uneducated CO could make more than teachers. I guess teachers are not as important as Correctional Officers.

It matters nothing to me because I will die in prison no matter what, but that’s the country we live in, where an uneducated CO makes more than teachers. How does that add up?

Whatever, it is what it is.

So after 4½ months of civil rights violations at WCI, I got an attorney’s information. The attorney’s name is Mr. Lonnie Story. He is out of Florida and a criminal defense attorney and civil rights attorney. Attorney Story took the time to listen to me and many others here at WCI and made the choice to take our case on as a Class Action against the Wisconsin prison system. And we all are so thankful for Attorney Story and his law firm for doing this.

We still have good people in the world who will speak out against unjust conditions of confinement like Attorney Story. I also hear the ACLU has made a statement in the N.Y. Times paper dated 8-19-23 and others like psychologists made statements.

Not all men in prison are bad people. Yes, we fucked up, but should we be punished to the point that we commit suicide or cut ourselves up? If you don’t understand that there is a problem with the Wisconsin prison system here at WCI, then this story was a waste of your time. But if you get it, I want to thank you for reading my story.

I care about all people and wouldn’t wish this on anybody. Waupun needs change and change soon. If the National Guard needs to come in to bring the staff numbers up, then it should happen sooner than later. Lives are at stake.

Just remember, most of the inmates in here do get out one day, but they are getting out more fucked up than they were the day they came in here.

And the reason why inmates getting out are so mentally unstable are because they don’t get the treatment they need when locked up. Point in hand, Waupun unjustly locked down for the last 5 months, and this will not end any time soon. Waupun just got national coverage in the N.Y. Times on 8-19-23, but do you think they will stop? And let’s not forget the Class Action Lawsuit by Attorney Story and his law firm. The prison knows they are in the wrong but will continue to violate civil rights because it’s not their money they are losing to every prisoner in Waupun, it’s all tax payers’ money.

The prisoners have no other choice but to work with Attorney Story on a class action, because the prison will never end this lockdown, so we are forced to take legal action against the prison officials.

I just don’t want to hear or see any more people hurting or killing themselves. This must end. Waupun is wrong and needs to change before more people hurt or kill themselves.

Thank you all for helping us in here. With change, people can better themselves.

BTW for me writing this story could very well bring retaliation, but what I say is bring it on. I have an attorney, Mr. Story.