Hello, my name is Chad. I was incarcerated in the Wisconsin prison system for 10 years 2 and a half months. I was in 3 institutions besides the intake prison, Dodge. I spent 5 years in Stanley Correctional Institution in which I was a 4 and a half hour drive from my family. While there my son’s mother left me and my son, signing off her rights to our son. Then a few years later while still in Stanley, the institution has an OSHA problem with the stairs on the units. They have construction to offset the stairs, making every unit have 6, 3 man cells.
I was transferred to Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution in 2010. They sent me there to do programs, and didn’t get me to the AODA program until I was within 2 years of my MR. Once I completed the program and had an early PRC I was within 4 months of my MR. I received minimum custody but didn’t go to a minimum camp to be able to work or save money for release. I was released from prison Sept. of 2014 with $1,000.00 in my release account. No help was offered to me from my PO for food stamps, jobs, insurance, or anything. My family was given the burden to support me, house me, and help me.
‘I wanted to feel, to grieve my Grandma passing’
While on supervision, I was working when I found a job. I did not commit any crimes. I was put in jail on PO holds for dirty UA’s and sent to an ATR at MSDF. While I was at MSDF I was put on a “list” to see phys services because I had told them that I was having side effects to the medication I was on. Then I was called to speak to my social worker one morning, and she received an email from my PO stating my Grandma was in hospice and didn’t have much time to live. My social worker also told me that I would not be able to see my Grandma while in the program. The medication that I was on numbed my feelings, and I wanted to know how I felt, and be able to grieve my Grandma passing, so I stopped taking my medication. On Sunday, 5 days after I stopped taking my medication, I started to have dizzy spells, but I could handle them. Then 2 days later on Tuesday I started to get really dizzy and I spoke to the CIO on the unit about it. Later that day I was removed from the program, on a no fault discharge.
Conditions: No family contact, clothing shortage, no sunshine
Also at MSDF I wasn’t able to contact any of my family over the phone, until the social worker let me call my mom and the chaplain let me call my dad. The temperature in the unit and cells were very warm, I couldn’t sleep under my blankets, or a sheet on those nights. Laundry was not good, we get 2 sets of clothes and can only exchange one set of underwear, socks, and t-shirts 2 times a week. We are not able to see any sunshine due to being locked inside a building all day.
The goal: To be with his family
Now I’ve been sent back to Fond du Lac county jail waiting to see my PO and to find out what I have to do now so I can go home to be with my family. There isn’t a phys person here in the county to evaluate me or to get me on the medication that I need to be on. So here I sit again in jail, without committing a crime and not knowing what is going to happen.
closemsdf.org 