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A seventh inmate has died at Wisconsin’s oldest jail, lower than a 12 months after the then-warden and a number of members of his employees have been charged with misconduct and felony inmate abuse.
The state Division of Corrections offender web site notes that 23-year-old Damien Evans died Tuesday at the Waupun Correctional Establishment. The location doesn’t provide any particulars. A Corrections spokesperson didn’t instantly return a message Wednesday. Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt mentioned in an e-mail to The Related Press that his company is investigating Evans’ dying however he had no info to share.
On-line court docket information point out Evans was sentenced in 2019 to seven years in jail for armed theft and a further two years to be served concurrently for bail leaping. Each circumstances have been filed in Racine County.
Evans is the seventh Waupun inmate to have died in custody since June 2023. One killed himself, one died of a fentanyl overdose, one died of a stroke, and one died of dehydration and malnutrition. One other inmate, 66-year-old Jay Adkins, died in Could. A sixth prisoner, 57-year-old Christopher McDonald, died in August.
The Dodge County Sheriff’s Workplace has mentioned McDonald’s dying seems to have been a suicide. He was sentenced to 999 years after pleading no contest to being a celebration to first-degree intentional murder in 1992. Schmidt didn’t instantly reply to follow-up emails Wednesday afternoon looking for updates on the investigations into Adkins’ and McDonald’s deaths.
Prosecutors final 12 months charged warden Randall Hepp with misconduct and eight members of his employees with felony inmate abuse in reference to the deaths of two of the prisoners, Cameron Williams and Donald Maier. Three of the eight employees members additionally have been charged with misconduct. Hepp subsequently retired.
In accordance with prison complaints, Williams died of a stroke in October 2023. His physique went undiscovered for not less than 12 hours.
Maier died of dehydration and malnutrition. He had extreme psychological well being issues however both refused or wasn’t given his remedy within the eight days main as much as his February 2024 dying.
Federal investigators even have been trying into an alleged smuggling ring involving Waupun jail workers. Gov. Tony Evers workplace has mentioned the probe has resulted within the suspension of practically a dozen workers. A former jail employee pleaded responsible in September to smuggling cellphones, tobacco and medicines into the ability in trade for cash.
Waupun inmates have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging mistreatment and a scarcity of well being care.
The utmost-security jail was constructed within the 1850s. Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike have been calling for years to shut it. Issues about native job losses and the price of constructing a substitute jail have stymied progress.
Evers, a Democrat, final month proposed a multitiered, $500 million plan for the state’s prisons that features changing Waupun to a medium-security middle targeted on job coaching for inmates.
This story has been up to date to right that Evans is the seventh inmate to die at Waupun Correctional Establishment since June 2023, as a substitute of the sixth inmate, and to right that one inmate killed himself, not two.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative tales and Friday information roundup. This story is revealed in partnership with The Related Press.
