Tiffany, Crowley Split On Future of Green Bay, Waupun Prisons

The Waupun Correctional Institution on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, in Waupun, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Wisconsin’s next governor will oversee Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections, one of the state’s largest agencies with more than 10,000 employees and an annual budget of roughly $1.8 billion.

They’ll also face decisions about what to do with aging prison facilities, many of which aren’t up to modern codes and need hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs, according to state reports.

WPR sent questions to Republican Tom Tiffany and Democrat David Crowley, asking them whether they favor closing the Waupun and Green Bay correctional institutions.

Tiffany, who represents Wisconsin’s 7th U.S. House District, and Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, are facing off in Wisconsin’s Nov. 3 race for governor. The winner will replace Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat who did not run for reelection.

Here’s what we learned.

The Green Bay Correctional Insituation in Allouez, Wis. appears in a 2014 photo. Rauglothgor/WikimediaCommons

What do candidates say about closing Green Bay Correctional?

In his statement to WPR, Tiffany said he supported closing the Green Bay Correctional Institution, a 128-year-old maximum security men’s prison located in Allouez within Brown County.

“I will work with lawmakers, corrections officials, and law enforcement to determine where we need to expand and build prison capacity so we can safely close Green Bay without releasing violent criminals back into our communities,” Tiffany said in a statement. “Every decision will be made with the safety of our communities and our corrections officers at the forefront.”

In his statement, Crowley was less direct. He said he supported “advancing” conversations about closing the Green Bay prison, but did not directly commit to having it closed.

“David Crowley knows we need to pass a real plan to ensure Wisconsin’s corrections system and facilities are safe and provide meaningful pathways to rehabilitation,” Crowley’s campaign wrote in an email. “David supports advancing the ongoing bipartisan conversations to overhaul Wisconsin’s aging prison system, close the outdated Green Bay Correctional Institution, and update facilities like the Waupun Correctional Institution.”

In 2025, the Republican-controlled state Legislature approved part of a plan that had been introduced by Evers. It called for closing the Green Bay prison. Along with support from the Democratic governor, the impending closure of the Green Bay Correctional Institution has racked up a broad coalition of support — including from prison reform advocates, the Brown County sheriff and Republican state legislators representing the Green Bay area.

The prison has been troubled by violence, and officials say its outdated design makes it harder for correctional officers to survey the facility. It is not up to modern standards from the American Correctional Association or the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The watchtower for the Green Bay Correctional Institution in Allouez, Wis. Royalbroil (CC BY)

If the Green Bay prison closes, Tiffany says state must ‘expand’ prison capacity elsewhere

Criminal justice reform advocates have called on the state to reduce its incarcerated population, so that the Green Bay prison can close without being replaced.

That’s not what Tiffany supports, as evidenced by a statement saying he wants to “expand and build prison capacity” elsewhere.

“Wisconsin has kicked the can down the road on prison reform for far too long,” Tiffany’s campaign wrote in an email. “Democrats have approached the issue by pushing to release more criminals back onto our streets.”

Earlier this year, Wisconsin’s prison population reached its highest level ever. Currently, there are roughly 23,900 adults locked up in Wisconsin’s prisons, which is more than triple where that number was in 1990.

Compared to what it was designed for, Wisconsin’s prison system is over-capacity by some 6,000 people.

There are 1,130 men incarcerated at Green Bay, making that prison over-capacity by several hundred people.

Crowley has called generally for reducing the incarcerated population through measures such as investing in mental health, drug treatment and rehabilitative programs including vocational training.

It costs Wisconsin an average of $54,627 to incarcerate one adult for a year, according to a 2025 DOC summary of operating expenses.

What deadline should be set for the Green Bay prison’s closure?

In a plan he submitted previously, Evers included a deadline to shut down the Green Bay prison by 2029. After Wisconsin’s budget was passed by the Legislature, Evers used a partial veto to remove a reference to a specific year, prompting criticism from across the political spectrum.

In his veto message at the time, Evers emphasized that the prison needs to close, but said setting a specific timeline would be irresponsible.

“I object to the Legislature assigning a date by which Green Bay Correctional Institution must be closed while providing virtually no real, meaningful, or concrete plan to do so,” he wrote.

In that message, Evers emphasized that closure plans needed to prioritize “job security” for people who work at the institution.

Neither Tiffany nor Crowley referenced a specific deadline that should be set for closing Green Bay in a response to a question from WPR.

“To establish a timeline for closing Green Bay, Tom Tiffany will work with corrections officials, law enforcement, legislators, and local communities to determine the best path forward,” Tiffany’s campaign said in a statement.

The Waupun Correctional Institution on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, in Waupun, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Where do candidates stand on closing the Waupun Correctional Institution?

The Waupun Correctional Institution is even older than the Green Bay prison. Parts of that prison, a maximum-security men’s facility, were built before the Civil War. For years, criminal justice advocates and some state legislators have been calling to close the Waupun prison.

Waupun has weathered multiple scandals, including lawsuits and inmate deaths that resulted in criminal charges against correctional workers.

In his answer to WPR, Tiffany did not address the Waupun Correctional Institution at all.

Crowley’s answer called for having conversations about updating “facilities like the Waupun Correctional Institution,” which indicates he favors refurbishing Waupun rather than closing it.

The Waupun Correctional Institution on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, in Waupun, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

As part of a half-billion dollar plan to reorganize Wisconsin’s prison system, Evers previously called for using $245 million to convert Waupun into a medium-security “vocational prison” that would be focused on job training. The Evers administration now says those projected conversion costs have climbed to $382 million. The governor blamed Republican legislators for failing to green-light the project.

“Red and blue states alike across our country have recognized that we can improve community safety, stabilize population rates, support corrections staff, and reduce the likelihood that people will reoffend,” Evers said in a statement earlier this month. “The longer Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin refuse to be willing to try to do the same, the more Wisconsinites will continue to pay, and our state’s criminal justice system will continue to fall even further behind.”

Roughly 960 men are incarcerated at Waupun.

How WPR reported this story

WPR sent the Tiffany and Crowley campaigns the following list of questions, and each campaign responded with an emailed statement.

1. Do you support closing Wisconsin’s Waupun and Green Bay prisons?

2. If you do support closure, should the state set a specific deadline for closure? What should that deadline be?

Where do Tiffany and Crowley stand on closing the Green Bay and Waupun prisons? was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.