Name/Title
Wisconsin State PrisonScope and Content
Historical information on Wisconsin State Prison for 1976 Bicentennial Celebration in Waupun, WI.
*Facts are typed and was scanned with mistakes, if any, left uncorrected. First page is a cover letter from Carl R. Manthe, Associate Warden - Treatment, Wisconsin State Prison. Mr. Manthe enclosed four pictures (old and new) for contrast to be used in conjunction with this report.
State of Wisconsin \ DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES DIVISION OF CORRECTIONS WISCONSIN STATE PRISON WAUPUN, WISCONSIN 53963
January 2, 1976
Mr. Ed Guelig
Funding Coordinator
Waupun City Hall
201 E. Main Street
Waupun, Wisconsin 53963
Dear Mr. Guelig:
I am sending you our bi-centennial report for the prison. I am also enclosing some pictures (old and new) for contrast to be used in conjunction with this report.
If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Carl R. Manthe
Associate Warden - Treatment
Wisconsin State Prison
CRM:mka
Enc.
_____________________________________________________
BI-CENTENNIAL REPORT - WISCONSIN STATE PRISON (History and Evolution)
By resolution of the Wisconsin legislature of 1851, a Board of State Prison Commissioners was appointed to provide for the location and erection of the State Prison. This Commission met at Madison on June 24, 1851 and after considering proposals offered in behalf of different locations proceeded to visit and examine the following places and vicinities: Madison, Portland, Genessee, Horicon, Kaukauna and Waupun with a view to determine the best point for location of the Prison.
After making an examination of the above places the Committee returned to Madison, and on July 4, 1851, selected and determined that Waupun was the best and most suitable for such location.
The reasons given for locating the prison at Waupun by the majority report of the Commissioners
were as follows: "Waupun is a beautiful and healthful village, located about eighteen miles southerly from Fond du Lac, upon or near the contemplated route of the Rock Valley Railroad; which, when completed, with the contemplated Fox and Wisconsin rivers improvement, will afford convenient access from almost every portion of the State. Limestone is to be found in any abundance of good quality for building purposes, which in many places appear at the surface, and generally from one to six feet below. Pure water may also be procured in abundance, by drilling from twenty to forty feet deep. Lumber and other materials needed for building, may be obtained at reasonable rates; and facilities for the furtherance of the interests of the State in the establishment and maintenance of a prison, are surpassed by no other place."
When it first "opened" as a temporary prison in 1851, the facility had one wooden building measuring 26 by 80 feet. It was three stories high and sited on five acres surrounded by a 12-foot planked fence. (Any one of the four existing cell halls could hold approximately five such buildings.) Eventually, 23 acres of land was obtained and constitutes the site for the present day prison.
By the end of 1852, the prison had an inmate population of 24 men, two women and a 12 year old boy. In 1857, a School for Boys was built and all the juveniles were transferred out of the prison. However, it wasn't until 1933 that the Wisconsin Home for Women at Taycheedah was founded, at which time the femala inmates were moved to that facility.
Today, this modern "city" has a population of 1000 men. It also has productive industries, an education system, health services, recreation programs, housing facilities, stores, churches and a multitude of support services. And, like other communities everywhere, the prison has problems with property maintenance, communications systems, replacement of aging buildings, budgeting and other administrative problems. It, too, has ordinances and regulations to keep peace and order.
Many of the "advanced" penal practices of the early 1800's such as the "silent system"--whereby, from 1851 to 1938, inmates were not permitted to talk to each other or to guards except for very special reasons--have been replaced. Modern correctional practices treat inmates as responsible citizens. In those former times, prison officers carried a heavy wooden cane with a brass tip. It was a symbol of authority and was used to signal inmates by tapping on the concrete. Today, conversations among inmates and with staff members are relaxed and normal in all but a few restricted security areas.
For recreation, the former practice of individual exercise in a cell yard has been replaced with individual and group recreation programs and competitive team sports. Here, inside the walls, also exist a thriving "city" newspaper, radio station and movie theatre.
Health services in the prison include a medical clinic and hospital, a dental office and laboratory, an optical dispensary and modern food services. A Clinical Services Bureau offers psychological, psychiatric, and social casework services to supplant the enforced silent meditation of a century ago as the method of improving an inmate's attitude or resolving personal problems.
Modern plumbing, heating and electrical systems have replaced the buckets and candles of the 1800's. Although there are no overnight accommodations, visits by families are encouraged in a modern lounge which looks like a modern hotel reception or lobby area.
The industries of this walled community offer inhabitants experience in a wide variety of job skills: machine shop, metal furniture fabrication, tailor shop, sign painting, paint manufacturing, print shop, food services and auto license shop. Some of the industries have formalized training programs using course outlines, textbooks, and audio-visual material. Others provide realistic on-the-job training.
Each shop has several different job assignments for inmates in order to maintain the skills of those who have them and to develop skills and acceptable work habits for those who don't. While the industries make little or no profit, they are productive and able to maintain themselves by selling their products on a competitive basis to government agencies and institutions throughout Wisconsin.
The education system, complete with a full-time, accredited professional teaching staff, principal and superintendent, offers high school courses in. a wide variety of subjects and an opportunity to obtain a High School Equivalency Diploma. College correspondence courses and technical training programs from correspondence schools are available to inmates who are capable of using advanced material.
Remedial education courses are a part of the regular education program. With the aid of programmed audio-visual teaching machines, a special education teacher provides individualized and group instruction for illiterate inmates. The school library, which offers a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction material to all inmates, has a circulation of over 6,000 books per month.
Religious needs of the inmate community are cared for by two full-time chaplains who conduct worship services and offer spiritual guidance. Active Alcoholic Anonymous groups meet regularly. Many group activities--school, church, Alcoholic Anonymous and several others--frequently feature guest speakers and other "outside" participants.
Staff social workers provide group and individual counseling and have developed family therapy groups in which members of a family come to the prison to meet with the social worker and their husband or father to resolve family problems.
Counselors from the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation visit the prison regularly to help develop special training and employment situations for emotionally or physically handicapped inmates. Legal services are provided by representatives of Corrections Legal Services and by students from the University's Law School.
Over the years the philosophy and administrative practices of the prison have reflected the changes in attitudes toward rehabilitation held by communities outside the walls.
Residents are no longer thought of merely as "inmates" or "prisoners" but as people, citizens with needs and rights. And among recent additions to the institution programs are work-release, off-grounds activities, creation of an inmate newspaper, expanded visiting hours, M.A.P. (Mutual Agreement Program) and T.A.P.P. (Training and Placement Program).
Education and rehabilitation have replaced obsolete concepts of repression, punishment and isolation. Yet, there must be peace and order in the community if the majority of the population are to enjoy the services and benefits that are provided by their city. The prison disciplinary committee provides control of the unruly by changes in work and school assignments or security classification.
Over the years, the addition of new programs has brought in many specialists and with them a tendency to expect that each new discipline could solve all the problems. This has proved not to be true. All social workers, teachers, officers, psychologists and other staff exercise a significant influence upon the prisoners, and it is recognized today that the combined efforts of all are required if the prison staff is to effectively achieve its major objective: a useful, productive citizen returned to the real life community outside the walls. For no matter how comfortable, modern or efficient this institution can be made, a prison is still a prison and nobody wants to live here any longer than is absolutely necessary.Acquisition
Accession
2016.0075Source or Donor
Waupun Area Chamber of CommerceAcquisition Method
Donation
