Inmate deaths show failure of state prison system

Between July 2023 and February 2024 four men died at Waupun Correctional Institution.

Dean Hoffmann, 60, died by suicide in solitary confinement, with questions about if necessary checks were being made.

Tyshun Lemons, 30, died of a fentanyl overdose on Oct. 2, 2023 with prison personnel turning a blind eye to drug use in the facility.

Cameron Williams, 24, died of a stroke on Oct. 30, 2023 with questions about the level of medical care provided before his death.

Donald W. Maier, 62, died of probable dehydration and malnutrition on Feb. 22 after prison staff began intermittently shutting off the water to prevent him from flooding his cell.

On July 10, 1853, Wisconsin abolished the death penalty calling it a throwback to a barbaric age. This is apparently news to the jailers at Waupun Prison, the warden who oversaw them, and up through the Wisconsin Department of Corrections who allowed these men to die.

No one is making the argument that any of these men were saints. They were far from it. Hoffmann was serving a sentence for kidnapping, Maier was serving a sentence for stalking a juror and was facing charges on a stabbing case from 1985. Williams, who had a history of mental health struggles, was serving a sentence for pushing a woman to take her purse in Green Bay in 2019 and violating terms of previous extended supervision. Lemons was serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted of armed robbery and first-degree recklessly endangering safety in 2014.

Last week, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Department arrested the former warden of Waupun Correctional Institution. He faces homicide charges in the death of Maier. A total of nine staff members from the prison were arrested and charged with the deaths of inmates at the prison.

It will be up to the courts and a jury to decide their fate.

Let’s hope that if they ever get sent to prison that their jailers aren’t as callous in regard to respect for human life.

Prisons serve the dual purpose of punishing inmates by separating them from the benefits of a free society, while at the same time providing a means toward rehabilitation and reform so that when their sentence is over they can be reintegrated into society as productive citizens. At least that is the hope.

More often prisons become a warehouse for the derelict souls of society, their names and fates largely forgotten or actively ignored by all but close relatives or friends.

No matter the cascade of poor choices and evil acts which lead to their incarcerations, those within the prison system remain fundamentally human beings and should be treated as such.

The staff at Waupun prison failed at their responsibility to care for these inmates. The warden failed at his responsibility to ensure that laws and rules were being followed. The state of Wisconsin Department of Corrections failed in its role at overseeing the prison and allowing these deaths to take place.

The shame on Waupun prison is a shame on all of us in Wisconsin for treating inmates as less than people.