Wisconsin's prison population heading toward record high

By Alexandria Staubach
 
Prolific overcrowding at Wisconsin’s adult institutions is nothing new, but the problem is close to setting records.
 
The state’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated in June 2023 that Wisconsin’s prison population would reach its highest peak ever, at 24,800 individuals, in July 2025.
 
While the system is not there quite yet, it is getting close. According to the Department of Corrections’ May 2 population report, a total of 23,266 persons are held in custody, with nearly every adult institution operating above capacity.
 
The highest prison population to date was in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, when the number reached 24,116 individuals, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
 
Recent prison population data show that the Department of Corrections' current stated capacity, including beds it contracts from other jurisdictions, is 17,642.
 
Dodge Correctional Institution is operating at 153% capacity, with 623 more individuals than the facility was designed to house. At Green Bay Correctional Institution, the DOC houses 382 more people than the facility was designed to house.
 
The minimum-security Oakhill Correctional Institution is operating at more than 200% capacity.
 
Waupun Correctional Institution, which made national headlines last summer over dire conditions, is the only maximum-security prison currently under capacity.
 
Overcrowding is not exclusive to men’s facilities. Taycheedah, the women’s prison, is operating at 150% of capacity, while the Robert E. Ellsworth Center, a minimum-security women’s facility, is operating at more than 214% capacity. 
 
During the pandemic, from 2021 to 2022, the average daily adult prison population dropped to 20,138.
 
The fiscal bureau anticipated significant growth from that number as courts resolved the cases that were backlogged during the pandemic.

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, Wisconsin’s prison population grew by 11% between 2021 and 2023, and growth has not meaningfully slowed since then. WJI calculates that from May 2023 to the present the growth rate remains at about 10%.
 
From May 2016 to May 2018, the growth rate was only 4%.
 
This evening WJI hosts Nicole Porter of The Sentencing Project for a talk about reducing Wisconsin’s prison population. Porter, senior director of advocacy with The Sentencing Project, will discuss current efforts to reduce the nation’s prison population, the history of decarceration, and the political climate impacting the nation’s incarceration rate.

Door admissions available at Milwaukee’s Turner Hall at 5:00 p.m. See www.wjiinc.org/events for cost and details.​