Administrative Confinement in WISCONSIN-a dirty little secret

atWhat is AC? How does it differ from regular segregation?

                      AC or administrative confinement is a non-punitive status that has no end date. There need be no rule violation and no conduct reports. The prisoners are reviewed every 6 months and the inmates say this is a formality, there is no real questioning en on AC in wisconsin for decades. In contrast, segregation is a punative status and has definite time limits and is in response to a rule infraction and resulting conduct report. In 2015,DOC segregation rules were amended and now, where rules are followed, prisoners spend less time than formerly in seg.

• Administrative Confinement( AC) is rules by DOC308. The changed rules in 2015 had no effect on AC prisoners 
• Segregation is ruled by DOC 303 and there are many levels.

  The two 308 sections that catch most prisoners are (2a) below And (2C).
                                                                 
The prisoner can be entombed in AC  has a "history of Violence"(2a below), it could be something that he did 30 plus years ago. We know the prisoner is not his/her crime. The DOC does not and will not take prisoners effort and changes made into consideration.
example: LaRon McKinley GBCI lock
  The other section that catches prisoners is (2c below)
"An inmate's activity gives a staff member reason to believe that his/her continued presence in general population will result in a riot or disturbance"

Politically savvy prisoners and natural leaders fall into this category, for other prisoners gravitate to  these leaders and  gravitate concerted actions ensue> an example is Inmate a. who went from AC to general population in GBCI and within a short time had organized a work stoppage, perfectly within the DOC rules, in order to get better conditions.

The DOC locked down the prison and using confidential informants (CI) racked up a long list of infractions and weapons and organizing prisoners were sent back to AC. C.I.s or confidential informants, are often used and prisoners think they are mostly made up, as they never can confront them nor see the accusation and they are  basic to AC placement. Through open records we asked for a list of weapons and other things found during GBCI lockdown. Even with lawyer help, we could not get the information...

Look at 2(a)and (c)

Above are confidential Informant (C.I.)rules

Before 2000, the opening  of Supermax and starting of Truth in Sentencing(TIS), Administrative Confinement rules were more restrictive and we had only about 12 prisoners on AC. With the prison boom and billions of federal dollars flooding the states, Wisconsin decided it needed a supermax too and this is the reason for the AC rule changes. Now they could fill the Supermax by simply sweeping the general population of anyone practically, provided they did not have strong advocates.Within a few years we have more than 350 prisoners on AC. Those rules are still in effect today and need to be changed.