A former inmate of the Green Bay Correctional Institution pleads not guilty today to charges stemming from an attack on three prison staff members back in September of 2015. The man who’s facing five felony charges for the crime, James Luke, had his attorney asking for a mental evaluation regarding his current condition.
Of the four inmate assaults in the last year on staff members at the Green Bay Correctional Institution that the public is aware of just two of them involved inmates attacking staff for at least the second time.
Now it's no secret here that working in a maximum security prison has its own set of dangers. But as more officers are expected to work double shifts with some expecting 1,000 plus hours of overtime by year’s end, this job has been described as less appealing than it once was by many. And some believe the quality of some staff that are willing to fill vacancies at state run prisons, just aren't qualified.
"So it's a vicious cycle. You want more people there but you want to make sure they can do the job when they get there…. as I left corrections on Friday an officer stopped me and said he still fears that someday that somebody's going to die because we aren't taking the proper precautions to make it work," says State Senator Dave Hansen an outspoken advocate of prison employees.
State Senator Dave Hansen has been pushing for the Department of Corrections to make changes so that officers can have more input on safety decisions with management.
He tells NBC26 that communication between the DOC and his office has come to a standstill in recent months but he's still optimistic that together they can make state prisons safer.
