Ongoing Abuse of Prisoners In W.C.I.'s Segregation Unit
by Nate A. Lindell, created 5 May 2013

From out there, peeking through the keyhole of BtB, you might -you should- wonder, "Why do so many prisoners hate the system?" and, more importantly, "Why isin't the Dept. of Corrections making the prisoners nicer, more habilitated?" As the title suggests, I (a system despiser) think it has something to do with the outrageous cruelties that the system inflicts, hypocritically, on its captives. Only a sucker is gonna respect the law when the law-enforcement agents themselves disregard the law; and this is the big lesson that prison teaches anyone with half a brain.

To clarify, I'm not saying that all D.O.C. employees are sadistic. But they don't all have to be sadistic (and stupid) in order to teach prisoners to have contempt for the law and its underlying purpose of ensuring respect for other people. All it takes is one sadist, one bully, one crime victim set on "evening the score" to brutalize a prisoner, and a whole lot more staff who turn a blind eye on their co-horts stupid abuse - stupid because it so obviously teaches prisoners that brutality is acceptable, might is right. Prisoners would be stupid not to learn this lesson.

Since I arrived here at W.C.I.'s Seg. unit on 4 Jan 2013, this is what I've uncovered from talking to the prisoners involved, hearing or seeing with my own ears or eyes.

Right away I noticed three guards, with foul, aggressive attidues: C.O.II, C.O.II (actually, he acts polite, on the surface) and C.O.II. Joseph. They're built large and have reputations for battering prisoners. I sat back and observed them, inquired about them...

- 29 Dec 2012, C.O.II slammed D. onto a table in the Seg. units main floor, punched in testicles and used the cuffs securing wrists behind back to ligate wrists. Lt. (who weighs at least 300 pounds) and C.O.II. arrived (along with a C.O. who's name escapes me), roughed up some more, hauled to a strip cage, where was held in a Kneeling position, Lt. threatened knight with a tazen while C.O.II. cut off clothing and them groped about intimate parts, including penetrating anus, supposedly in search of contraband, then housing of in a cold cell, soiled with a past occupant's feces, urine and crazed graffiti, without clothing nor any bedding, for more than a day. Conduct Report (C.R.) #2342151 was issued, full of lies, in an attempt to justify this abuse of .

Given Gillis v. Litscher, 468 F.3d 488,493 (7th Cir. 2006) (Prisoners have an 8th Amendment right to receive bedding, hygienic items, a sanitary environment, and warmth), Dixon v. Godinez, 114 E3d 640,644 (7th Cir. 1997) (Housing prisoner in a cell so cold that it causes "severe discomfort" violates the 8th Amendment), Calhoun v. DeTella, 319 F.3d 936,939 (7th Cir. 2003) (Using strip searches as "Calculated harassment unrelated to prison needs" violates the 8th Amendment), and Stainback v. Dixon, 569 F.3d 767,772 (7th Cir. 2009) (For an officer to "knowingly use handcuffs in a way that will inflict unnecessary pain or injury" violates the 8th Amendament), it's apparent that W.C.I. staff violated Knight's Constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. This amounts to a Federal Felony pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 241 Conspiracy against rights, and 242 Deprivation of rights under color of law, as well as less serious state felony under Wis. stats. 940.29 Abuse of residents of penal facilities.

needs his knee surgically repaired due to the incident, based on W.C.I. medical staff's exam (and they sure ain't itchy to help prisoners), which bolsters the already chargeable crime of Wid. stats. 940.19 Battery (I).

As DDC 306.04 Responsibility of employees makes all W.D.O.C. staff responsible for safety, and DOC 306.11 use of mechanical restraints to immobilise inmates, at subs. (2) (a) (Forbidding use of restraints "As a method of punishment") and (b) ("In a way that causes undue physical discomfort, inflicts physical pain...."), by W.C.I. guards violating these administrative codes/regulations, they are chargeable for violating Wis. Stats. 946.12 Misconduct in public office, at subs. (2) (criminalizing a state employee's acting contrary to official duties or in excess of their authority).

What's really shocking is that W.C.I. staff's actions regarding knight also violates Wis. Stats 940.225 sexual assault, at subs. (1)(b) and (c), (2)(b), (c) and (h). And, because W.C.I. contracts with the feds to hold some of its prisoners, these guards are indictable under 18 U.S.C. 2241 Aggravated sexual abuse, sub. (a) (1) and (2); 2242 sexual abuse (1) and (2) (B); 2243 Sexual abuse of a minot or ward (b) 2244 Abusive sexual contact (b). This makes these staff sex offenders; and they should thus be registered as such; yet, they aren't on the sex offender registry site, nor have they been prosecuted for any of these crimes.

however, is not the only one who's been subject to such abuse.

-1st Jan 2012, Lt. had Christopher brought down the back stairs of W.C.I.'s south cell hall, where no security cameras nor unit staff could observe what happened. Lt. then put his pudgy right hand around *** neck, told *** to "stop acting like a kid", squeezed. *** told to let go of his neck. **** then flung ***'s body (about 1/3 of Wenzel's weight) against a wall, then to the floor, fell on *** body and smushed *** while wrenching *** on *** cuffed (behind his back) arms. This split *** lip and chipped a tooth, as well as causing severe pain in *** arm and abraiding/ligating Itamlin's wrists. Another huge (at least 6'2" and 300 pounds) guard named ***and one who'se name I forget, helped *** pig pile and pick on ***. After a couple of mintes, ***was brought to the Seg. unit, where guards *** and *** tightly held *** in a kneeling position, one named *** cut off *** clothing then felt around and at *** genitals and anus, all while *** held to tazer to *** and threatened to use it if *** resisted. Then *** spent a little over 12 hours in a cold filthy cell, with no clothing, no bedding, no soap, nor any cleaning supplies. He filed the suit I wrote about this: Hamlin v. Holon, et. al. W.D. Case No. 13-C4-202-bbc

-3 Jan 2013, while Marvin *** was handcuffed behind his back or in front (not sure), guard *** yanked on the tether attached from the handcuffs to the door, ligating and lacerating *** hands and wrists, pulling *** arms out of a slot in the cell door. Then *** put all of his weight, it seemed to *** on *** arms. *** weighed at least 300 pounds at that time. Lt.*** then responded, put *** in a choke hold and brought *** to the floor, further ligating and lacerating *** wrists, because the tether connecting *** cuffed wrists to the cell's door was not long enough to allow *** to go all the way to the floor. *** was then dragged to the main floors strip cages, threatened with a tazer by Lt. *** held by Moungey and another guard while a guard named *** cut off *** clothing, groped around the kneeling *** anus and genitals, then *** was put in a cold , filthy cell without clothing, bedding, etc. Of course C.R. # 1910040 was issued to *** in an attempt to entirely blame *** for the abuse the followed his initial refusal to go in the cell.

-10 Jan 2013, William *** was removed by his cell by a group of guards led by Lt. *** after staff closed all of the windows on the doors of others prisoner's cells. *** was tethered to a strip-cage (shower stall door by the handcuffs on his wrists behind his back. Then the Lt. ordered *** to do the impossible, given the short length of the tether, "Lay down". *** lay as low as he could, told them the strap was too short to let him lay all the way down. Then laceration of *** wrists, resulting in a terrifying scream from counts "You're breaking my fucking arm!" Again a staff- assisted strip search was done, lef by the Lt... freezing, filthy cell, etc. C.R. #2343988 and Incident Report (I.R.) #61231 were wrote in relation to this situation, to try and shift blame onto counts.

Keep in mind that these are only the incidents I could learn from my cell in lower A-wing of the Seg. complex. Things were happening in upper A-wing and elsewhere in the Seg. complex (which has more than 180 cells ) and throughout the prison that I knew and know nothing about. I actually spoke to the prisoners I'm writing about, each of whom gave me permission to reveal their identities.

-12 Feb 2013, *** slammed Marcus ***, a slightly built black guy, face-first into Scott *** cell door then choked *** bent *** handcuffed wrists (again, ligating and lacerating them). Other guards arrived, supervised by *** roughed *** up some more, the Lt. tazed *** a couple times, then a staff assisted seual assault (let's call what it is) was done on Haynes.... cold, filthy cell with nothing... C.R.#2343777 was written by *** containing blatant lies (e.g. that *** was eyeing *** threateningly and had made loud, aggressive remarks).

-6 March 2013, a Lt. who'se name I missed, during a search of all Seg. cells, shortly after the 21 Feb suicide of Maurice *** (he hung himself, in cell A-101, while I was in A-110), led a cell extraction on James ***. Dehler was paranoid after Child's suicide, thought the search was to steal his notes about *** suicide, so refused to exit his filthy cell. We all thought Jimmy Dean, what we call *** was nuts ( see my post #125 p.2 for details). Despite Jimmy's numerous similar conflicts with staff and disorganised behaviour, no psych. staff were called nor intervened. Jimmy was beat, removed from his cell, manhandled in every possible way, tazed, sexually assaulted, many times before and since then. He looked like the comedian Gallagher before, but now has a large pink scar from the top of his head to behind his eye (on the right, as I recall), from a staff-stomping that was inflicted on him after the 6 March one.

-8 March 2013, Guard ***made some homosexual remarks to Laron ***, on C-wing. Then *** (noted earlier) told *** staff were gonna kill *** for having stabbed and otherwise assaulted WDOC staff many years ago. This happened during shower time. It led up to *** stomping on *** shackles and then standing on the chains, severly ligating and lacerating *** ankles, while Stanieck punched *** in the neck, chest and ribs, as *** (who is slightly built and over age 55) was handcuffed, shackled, and tethered to a strip cage door. You know the rest....

what many of the forenoted prisoners have in common is, that at least the the time they were abused, they were not acting rationally. So I conclude, as a lay person with much experience providing psych care (to a mom and little brother with PTSP, Multiple Personality Disorder, and Severe Depression ) as a teenager and much self-study of psychology. Prisoners who are universally deemed to be "nuts" here (e.g. Mr. *** noted above and Richard *** who told everyone on lower and that he's diagnosed with ADHD, Borderline PD, Bi-Polar Disorder, and many other disorders, has been subjected to (so he says) "dozens" of uses of force, sexual assaults, etc. as happened to the forenoted prisoners - which you think would alert WCI staff that Mr. *** who is built like a young Harry Potter, is nuts and maybe shouldn't be beat on and semi-raped until a shrink tried to intervene!

But no, thick skinned guards prefer using force and degredation to treat insanity and emotional disturbances.... and rehabilitate, or, more accurately, DEhabilitate. Many prisoners may be crazy, or stupid, or both, but not so much of either that they don't know crap when it's flung on them. The lesson that they learn is that the system is brutal and calloused, if not outright unjust. So why should they, prisoners respect that system? Voila recidivism.

For those of you readers who's like to do something about this forenoted abuse, you can. Please refer the following persons to this post, etc...:

Attorneys: dfathi@npp-aclu.org ; garvey@gmmattorneys.com ; cwiseman@hotmail.com ; cpetersen@lasmilwaukee.com ; robin@theshellowgroup.com ; camilla.tubbs@yale.edu ; DrTomZander@aol.com ; mike_margolis@hotmail.com ; s-provenzano@northwestern.edu ; macdon@chorus.net ; Kmstreit@facstaff.wisc.edu

Media: info@ap.org ; editor@usnews.com ; haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk ; letters@time.com ; eoesch@wkow.com ' jsedit@journalsentinel.com ; pbrinkman@madison.com ; wsjopine@madison.com ; info@prisonlegalnews.org ; comments@wpt.org ; nightly@abc.com, etc.

Activists: alyssam@communityjusticeinc.org ; jehrlich@mw.nccd-crc.org ; mwiza@curative.org ; Katherine.Munck@Justiveworksltd.org ; Kim@wisconsincatholic.org ; drwaite@hotmail.com ; sinclaire@salvationsisters.org ; ghn03£cs.com ; alor@intervarsity.org ; swansol@mwt.net ; newmanclub@uwplatt.edu

-finish-

Hench, mon amies, hench!

Lovingly Yours,
Nate

This may be freely copied, distributed, announced, etc.

Tell the attorneys we seek their representation on a class action and to contact me about this.

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f.n.1 For a carefully prepared analysis of this phenomenon, check out "Is Prison Increasing Crime?" 2008 Wis. L. Rev. 1049 (2008) by Martin H. Pritkin of Whittier Law School