from inside – ABOLISHmke

Update—GBCI Guards Murder: No Charges, No Acknowledgement

New GBCI hires from a 2018 recruitment drive.

On May 13th 2021, Restrictive Housing Unit (RHU) staff and guards at Green Bay CI murdered someone. We have heard from a few people who are also being held at GBCI that his name was Antonio Whatley. Despite having called GBCI, sent email inquiries to its administrators and the sheriff’s department, and filed records requests (for the victim’s name and DOC number, as well as daily shift logs), we have yet to receive any information about this from the DOC.
The information we have received we are going to share here, but in the interest of protecting the people who are helping us stay informed, we will be publishing their words anonymously. They have several reasons to be concerned for their safety—both in general, and specifically when they are sharing information the guards don’t want to be shared. Retaliation that prisoners experience from guards is real, torturous, and potentially deadly.

How the DOC is turning GBCI into a Supermax

Cell extraction team in Green Bay CI’s Restrictive Housing Unit (RHU). Video still from Wisconsin Watch, 2017.

By Mattew McAfee

I’d like to discuss how GBCI is being turned into the new supermax of Wisconsin.

How is that you ask?

Well the new renovations of the cages they keep us locked in for this is not a house, room, place, cell, or any other odd terms they use to describe the living conditions they lock us up to die in. Though most of us will be getting out, people like me who have to live in here every day, till our last breath—it is a living hell.

Horrible Treatment at Columbia CI

Columbia CI staff after assaulting Kuan Barnett in October 2018

by Christopher Dawson at Columbia CI.

The way staff at Columbia CI (CCI) treat us with such disrespect is out of control. One will never actually know how we get treated without being here in real life to see for yourself. I’ve been in CCI for over 2 years now out of the 9 years I’ve been incarcerated. This is the worst I’ve ever seen. The staff will lie to you or to the higher-ups when brought to their attention. They will yell at you as if you are some animal and not a person, even if you’re not in the wrong and they are. It’s their way or nothing, like it or not, right or wrong. They do not care. They have the worst communication skills I’ve ever experienced in my entire life, not only in prison but EVER.

Guards go out of their way to make it hard for us. They abuse their power in so many ways. The things they do are so confusing to us, but who are we to try to ask a question?? All we get is total disrespect and told in an aggressive tone “GO LOCK IN NOW”.

COVID Spreader Shakedown at Racine CI

Warden Paul Kemper standing outside his prison.

Staff at the prison in Racine (RCI) are forcing captives to congregate in the gym, and then going cell to cell spreading covid19 by tossing everyone’s property. They do not change gloves between cells, and at least one of the tossed units has gone on isolation quarantine.

Coronavirus is still present in Racine, and at RCI. The pandemic hasn’t magically stopped spreading via surfaces, so guards rifling through everything in an infected but asymptomatic person’s cell will carry virus particles to every cell they shake down subsequently. Read the details about the shakedowns in the message we got from someone held at RCI at the end of this post. Continue reading “COVID Spreader Shakedown at Racine CI”

Assaults at Columbia CI

CW- prison violence, suicide.

For the second winter in a row, people held at Columbia CI have defended themselves against the daily violence of incarceration in that facility. We do not know many details yet, but we’re hearing that on Dec 30 and 31, three staff were severely beaten. The preceding incidents for these specific assaults remain unreported at this time, but we do know that prison is a site of daily violence and dehumanization, and in the face of these events, we affirm our belief that any act of resistance by any incarcerated person against staff is always an act of defense. Our message to DOC guards is simple: if you do not want to get hurt at your job, do not take a job based on routinely hurting people. Eventually, someone will fight back.