ALLOUEZ, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Dante Cottingham spent over a decade of his life inside the Green Bay Correctional Institution while serving part of his sentence for being party to a homicide.
“There is absolutely no feeling that you have any kind of hope. And I can’t say enough how significant that is.”
Cottingham served 11 of the 27-year sentence in Allouez in the 1990s. Yet many of the conditions he says he struggled with continue to affect inmates today.
“A nightmare of prison that people think of — this is it,” former inmate Bobby Ayala said. “There were mice running around my feet.”
Cottingham and Ayala are not alone. On Thursday night, they were joined by dozens of others: former inmates, family members of current inmates and community members, all protesting GBCI’s continued operation.
“It’s a relic,” Ayala said. “It’s not for rehabilitation. It’s over 100 years old. Did we believe 100 years ago about rehabilitation? No. This is not it. This is torture. Men are dying in there.”
Ayala also spent time inside GBCI. Now, he and Cottingham are members of EXPO — or Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing. Members of the group hope no one else will have to endure what they did.
“They use a lot of different tactics to control you,” Cottingham said. “All the prisons in the state do that. This one here’s just worse because of how old it is and how much longer the culture had to foster to be bad. It’s a horrible culture.”
State-funded studies have shown the 125-year-old prison should be shut down. It currently is only 60% staffed and has been, on average, over 100 inmates over capacity.
“If you commit a crime, you deserve to be separated,” Cottingham said. “But being separated and being tortured are two different things and nobody deserves to be tortured.”
“There are people in this community that have compassion, that want the return of our citizens back to our society in the correct way,” Ayala said.
Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections has previously confirmed the prison has been on what they call a “modified movement” since mid-June due to inmate assaults. The state said it is gradually bringing activities back that have been restricted.
Thursday’s protest is the first of what could end up being a weekly occurrence.
Current and former inmates of Green Bay Correctional Institution have voiced concerns with the facility for years.
Those calls recently intensified with inmates and family members saying there’s been little or no recreation time and a decrease in showers, visits, and educational opportunities.
