Lawmakers show no urgency to fix Wisconsin’s troubled prison system

Where is the urgency? It has been nearly one month since the warden of Wisconsin’s Waupun prison and members of his staff were arrested and charged with misconduct in public office. The charges came after a 62-year-old inmate died of dehydration after being placed on water restriction. Another inmate died of an overdose, but wasn’t found for at least 12 hours. Prison staff were fudging the reports of their hourly check on him. These are just the latest examples of a Shawshank-style prison system Wisconsin seems to be running, but our lawmakers continue to ignore the problem. They have not taken up a single piece of legislation to try to fix the state’s troubled prison system. Instead, they decided back in March to give themselves the rest of the year off. They should get their butts back to Madison and figure out a fix. An audit of how the system is run would be a good start, but our elected officials also need to come up with a plan to modernize the system, and close Waupun, which is more than a century old. Instead, those whose salaries we pay are playing golf or campaigning. Add fixing the prison system to the long list of important issues our lawmakers are ignoring.