ALLOUEZ — The 125-year-old, maximum-security Green Bay Correctional Institution has been the subject of debate from Green Bay to Madison, with local leaders calling for its closure.
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections says GBCI returned to normal operations at the end of last month following the end of COVID-19 protocols.
But inmates we've talked to since say it's anything but normal.
"I haven't been out at all today," inmate Jose Bonilla said. "My door has not opened at all today."
Jose Bonilla has been incarcerated for more than 20 years — 10 of those at GBCI, convicted of shooting at and injuring two men at a Milwaukee house party in 2004.
Both inmates and former guards describe a number of chronic issues, including food, mental health, staffing, drug abuse and time out of cells.
"These people aren't in here for missing Sunday school," former corrections officer Joe Verdegan said. "They've done, in some cases, some pretty heinous things, but at the same time, you treat them with respect to the best of your ability, and you take that approach day-by-day."
According to the DOC, inmates get at least four hours of recreation a week.
"Our recs — rec's being cut in half, because they're not letting the amount of people that would normally go out," Bonilla said. "Two tiers at a time? They're only letting one out at a time."
Bonilla's cellmate, Gatlin Behnken, has been in the prison since 2021, convicted on drug charges.
He says rec is often the only time inmates get out their cells.
"I haven't been to the servery in over two years," Behnken said. "I have not been down there. There is no actual hot food that we get right off right out of the pan."
The DOC refutes this complaint about food, with its deputy communications director Kevin Hoffman writing, in part: "For the most part, the meals are served hot. Bagged meals, which are not served hot, may be used on weekends or at other times."
Jeff Hoffman was a corrections officer at GBCI for more than 20 years until he retired last year.
He says the prison started serving more and more pre-packaged meals in the last decade.
"We used to have a breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner meal that they would serve down in the dining hall," Jeff Hoffman said. "And that started disappearing after a while, because we didn't have the proper staff to run it."
Verdegan, the other longtime guard, retired in 2020. He and Hoffman say many of the prison's issues are due to lower staff numbers and lower staff morale.
"The guy in the tower right now is here on his day off because he asked to take that day, his day off, so he doesn't get forced into overtime he may not want," Verdegan said.
He added that some of the guard towers were unmanned during his tenure, though cameras were added.
Hoffman says guards were constantly fatigued.
"We took great pride in what we did," Hoffman said. "The last few years that I was there — for most of us, really, that had all gone."
Hoffman and Verdegan attribute the decline to a 2011 Wisconsin law called Act 10.
They say it caused corrections officers to quit or retire before they had to pay for benefits.
Last month a judge in Dane County ruled the law unconstitutional.
Act 10 aimed to address the state's budget deficit, and limits collective bargaining for public workers. So we asked a state legislator, who voted for Act 10, about the law.
"Do you think that was an unintended consequence of Act 10 and what the legislature envisioned for that law?"
"I don't. I don't think so," District 1 Republican State Senator André Jacque said. "I think that, obviously, we're in a tremendous workforce shortage right now, in all areas, and certainly that extends to protected status."
Numbers prior to 2018 are not available, but in late 2023, 41% of correction officers' jobs at GBCI were vacant. That number is now down to 15% of jobs open — since a new pay package was introduced in October of last year.
Hoffman and Verdegan say the rapid turnover may result in a lack of training, with rookie officers often training new rookie officers.
Verdegan also says the understaffing in the late 2010s and early 2020s took a toll on inmates.
"Dealing with mental illness is the biggest change I saw, in the last five years, and it continues to this day," Verdegan said. "If a lot of inmates now don't get their way, they will go to self-harm right away."
That's proven true. NBC 26 has obtained documents detailing two suicide attempts within the prison in 2021 alone.
One of those attempts was by inmate Paul Lynch, who was convicted of first degree attempted homicide in 2015.
"They're complacent, smug, combative, vindictive," Lynch said. "I mean, it's just that there's no government here, for the staff."
The former corrections officers admit relationships with inmates could be strained.
"When they're active, and their minds are busy, and they're physically doing stuff with their hands, there's less time for idleness," Verdegan said. "When they're idle, and nothing's new, that's when they start acting out and doing stupid things, like self-harm and assaulting staff, when they get the chance."
And for inmates like Bonilla — the recent improvements have not come quickly enough.
"I'm fortunate to have the support that I do," Bonilla said. "I'm fortunate to be as strong-minded as I am. But for those who don't have that, the guys who struggle with mental health issues that are undiagnosed — I mean, just come in and don't know how this should be. Like, this is torture on a mental level. This is torture."
Another issue the inmates spoke about was the lack of addiction treatment. The DOC says "GBCI is currently working to set up a substance use disorder treatment program," that it says should open early next year.
