Green Bay prison is overrun with mice, inmate advocates say
MADISON - Inmate advocates are sounding the alarm over an ongoing rodent problem in one of Wisconsin's oldest prisons — an issue they say has forced inmates to roll towels up and place them between their door and the floor to keep mice from scurrying around their cell at night.
Dant'e Cottingham, the interim associate director of Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing, or EXPO, said inmates are dealing with an infestation of mice at the Green Bay Correctional Institution — an issue that only gets worse at night.
Cottingham, who works as an advocate for incarcerated people and previously served 11 years in the Green Bay facility, said that mice have been an issue for years. He said families have started reaching out to the Department of Corrections and the prison itself asking for the issue to be handled, but a few mouse traps aren't going to solve the issue.
"They said they've taken certain measures, they put out some mouse traps," Cottingham said. "Putting up mousetraps is not going to solve this problem at all."
Complaints about rodents within the facility come after a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked that the state shut down the outdated facility, but that proposal was not supported in the biennial budget proposed by Gov. Tony Evers or the changes made by the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Kevin Hoffman, the deputy director of communications for the Department of Corrections, contended the rodent issue has been handled.
"Complaints originated from two cell halls. Pest control was brought in and they continue to come in regularly to make sure this has been resolved," Hoffman said. "Persons in our care also have been asked to keep their cells clean and to stop feeding mice."
Since pest control was called, the mice haven't been as pervasive, he said.
"In the last month, they’ve only received a few complaints but have found no evidence that this issue persists," Hoffman said.
The facility has had a pest control company coming in regularly for years, Hoffman said, but another company was brought in in June to help with the mouse problem
Green Bay Correctional, in Allouez, was a bicycle factory when the state purchased it and began operating it as a prison in the 1890s. It's been continuously operating since then, and is now a maximum security facility.
Designed for 749 inmates, the prison housed 950 inmates as of June 30, according to the DOC website. GBCI is more expensive to operate than a modern facility would be. But it's well-known that Wisconsin prisons have little extra space for more inmates, so closing GBCI would mean the state would have to find housing for the inmates currently housed in Allouez.
The facility has faced other issues in addition to overcrowding and its age in recent years as well.
The prison was the scene of a homicide in October when one inmate killed another. It also has been the scene of corrections officers being assaulted by inmates; an officer was unable to work after he was assaulted by an inmate who threw a kettle of scalding water on the staffer in a kitchen area in 2016.
Cottingham said that despite DOC's insistence that the problem has been handled, those residing at the Green Bay facility are still dealing with issues. And the solution isn't just bringing in an exterminator or placing some traps.
"There's only one solution, if you go in there, you can see it in the structure, you can see it in the paint, you'll see it in the people and the staff," he said. "And that is to close it down."
Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on Twitter at @SchulteLaura.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Green Bay prison is overrun with mice, advocates say
