Just days before he was set to retire from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC), Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI) Warden Randall Hepp was arrested on June 5, 2024, along with eight other staffers charged in the deaths of two state prisoners. Hepp and six of the other employees were charged in the death of Donald W. Maier, 62, on February 22, 2024. Hepp and three staffers also face charges related to the death of Cameron Williams, 24, on October 30, 2023.

As PLN reported, the lockup has been under lockdown since March 2023, conditions challenged in a putative class-action lawsuit filed in October 2023. [See: PLN, Apr. 2024, p.11.] That same month a drug overdose caused a burst blood vessel in Williams’ brain that triggered his fatal stroke. But before he collapsed in a prisoner shower, according to the criminal investigation by Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt, WCI staffers repeatedly spotted Williams throwing up—and did nothing. The prisoner asked to go to a hospital, but nurse Gwendolyn Vick dismissed his repeated complaints as those of a “frequent flyer” to her infirmary. She was charged with abuse of residents of penal facilities, along with two guards, Sgt. Tanner Leopold and Lt. Brandon Fisher.

Schmidt’s investigation also found that jailers turned off the water to Maier’s cell after he flooded it and never told him it was back on before he died five days later. Though he begged for “water, water, water, all the water in the world,” he got nothing to eat or drink, even after he was spied licking from the toilet. Guards also turned away a doctor who came to visit him. As a result, Maier’s death was ruled a homicide. Four employees were charged with abuse of residents of penal facilities: guards Jamall Rabb Russell, 39, Sgt. Alexander John Hollfelder, 31, and Lt. Brandon James Fisher, 29, as well as nurse Jessica Ann Hosfelt, 47. Russell was also charged with misconduct in public office, the same count handed to Hepp and two other guards, Sarah Anne Margaret Ransbottom, 35, and Sgt. Jeramie Heyward Chalker, 41.

No staff charges were filed in two other recent WCI deaths. One of those who died, 60-year-old Dean Hoffman, got into an altercation with guards in June 2023 and ended up in solitary confinement, where he hanged himself nine days later using his socks and torn bedsheets. A lawsuit filed for Hoffman’s children by attorney Lonnie Story on February 6, 2024, faulted prison officials for failing to provide vitally needed medication and treatment, noting that “[t]here is no record of Mr. Hoffmann receiving any psychological services while in solitary confinement,” despite mental health needs that had been documented by DOC. See: Est. of Hoffmann v. Wisc. Dep’t of Corr., USDC (E.D. Wisc.), Case No. 2:24-cv-00160.

On June 6, 2024, Story also filed a suit in the other death of Tyshun Lemons, 30, from a fentanyl overdose on October 2, 2023. See: Lemons v. Wisc. Dep’t of Corr., USDC (E.D. Wisc.), Case No. 2:24-cv-00703. No charges have been filed in that death, either. The attorney earlier filed a suit over Williams’ death for his mother, Raven Anderson, on May 7, 2024. See: Anderson v. Wisc. Dep’t of Corr., USDC (E.D. Wisc.), Case No. 2:24-cv-00563.

A Round of Finger-Pointing

Schmidt said the deaths “infuriated” him. But a call he made to DOC Secretary Kevin Carr resulted only in the prison chief’s resignation on March 8, 2024. “I did not find that to be a coincidence,” Schmidt said. New DOC Secretary Jared Hoy said that nine employees have been fired so far and another 20 remain under investigation, including “at least eight” already on leave. On June 5, 2024, after the Sheriff filed charges and closed his investigation, Gov. Tony Evers (D) called for him to leave it open, saying “there must be accountability and justice.”

The charges came on the heels of an April 2024 report by the DOC Committee on Inmate and Youth Deaths (COIYD), revealing that 55 prisoners died in custody during 2023. Seven more prisoners died in January 2024, keeping the average above one death per week. Almost half the deaths—26 out of 55—were “unanticipated,” a category that included suicides, homicides, fatal overdoses and other unexpected medical crises. The remaining “anticipated” deaths followed late-stage illnesses for which the prisoners were being treated. (DOC’s Behavioral Health Services medical director makes categorization determinations.) Most of those who died were over 50 (75%), though that group accounts for just 25% of the state prison population. About 72% were White, while 22% were Black and 5.5% were American Indian or Alaskan Native. Some 20% were identified as Hispanic. On top of the four deaths at WCI, the maximum-security Dodge Correctional Institution recorded almost half of the 55 deaths. The prison serves as the central intake center for men and also houses the central medical center for in-patient and outpatient care.

COIYD meets quarterly and releases its report annually, though waiting so long to release a few details about prisoner deaths earned it criticism. “They will withhold as much information as they can,” said the executive director of nonprofit advocacy group WISDOM, David Liners. “It’s a pattern in [DOC] that they don’t readily come forth with information like this — about when people have died and how they’ve died.”

Additional sources: ABC News, CNN, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, WSAW, WISN, Wisconsin Examiner

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