State Prisons in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Department of Corrections Prison and Inmate Search

Wisconsin State Prisons and Juvenile Facilities

Wisconsin’s prisons are fuller than they have ever been. On September 4, 2026, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) held 23,870 people in its adult institutions, topping the state’s 2019 record and running about 6,000 people above the system’s official capacity. Wisconsin hasn’t opened a new prison in about 25 years, so the debate over how to fix that is front and center in the 2026 race for governor.

The state’s first prison opened at Waupun in 1852, four years after statehood, and is still holding prisoners today. A state prison commissioner oversaw it starting in 1853. The current Department of Corrections was created by a 1989 law and opened on January 1, 1990.

Adult institutions and correctional centers

The DOC runs about 20 prisons, called correctional institutions, plus 16 smaller minimum-security correctional centers, two of which house women. Notable facilities include:

• Waupun Correctional Institution: the oldest, a maximum-security prison for men
• Green Bay (Allouez) and Columbia (Portage): maximum-security prisons for men
• Wisconsin Secure Program Facility (Boscobel): the state’s most restrictive prison
• Taycheedah Correctional Institution (Fond du Lac): the main women’s prison, open since 1933
• Racine, Stanley, New Lisbon, Jackson (Black River Falls), Oshkosh, Fox Lake, Kettle Moraine, Redgranite, Oakhill and Prairie du Chien
• Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, mainly for people held on probation and parole violations, and the Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility

Where do new prisoners go first?

Men sentenced to prison start at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, a former state mental hospital that became a prison in 1978. There they go through assessment, classification and orientation before moving to a permanent prison. Women begin at Taycheedah. Ask the facility about visiting rules during intake, since they can differ from the rules at the permanent assignment.

How to find an inmate in Wisconsin

The DOC’s Offender Locator covers people sentenced to state prison or supervision. You’ll have to agree to the department’s legal and privacy notices before searching. Write down the person’s DOC number, which you’ll need for mail, money and visiting forms.

Trouble at Waupun and a plan to remake the system

Waupun drew national attention after four men died there between June 2023 and February 2024 during a long lockdown and severe staff shortages. On June 5, 2024, the warden and eight staff members were charged. The warden’s felony charge was later reduced, and in April 2025 he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and was fined $500.

In February 2025, Gov. Tony Evers proposed a roughly $535 million overhaul. It would close Green Bay Correctional, turn Waupun into a medium-security “vocational village,” convert the Lincoln Hills youth prison into a men’s prison and make Stanley a maximum-security site. Lawmakers approved $15 million for planning and suggested closing Green Bay by 2029, and the state building commission released the money in October 2025. In September 2026, a bipartisan draft bill was in the works to close Green Bay by 2031 and add 530 beds, at an estimated $628.7 million.

The first state to end the death penalty

Wisconsin abolished capital punishment in 1853, the first state to do so for all crimes. The state carried out only one execution, the 1851 hanging of John McCaffary in Kenosha, which helped turn public opinion against the practice. Nobody has been executed in Wisconsin since.

Wisconsin juvenile facilities

Youth committed by the courts go to the DOC’s Division of Juvenile Corrections. Its main secure campus is Lincoln Hills School (boys) and Copper Lake School (girls) in Irma, which held 73 boys and 8 girls in February 2026. The DOC also runs the Grow Academy in Oregon, a residential program, and works with the state health department at the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center in Madison.

A law signed in 2018, Act 185, ordered Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake closed by 2021 after years of abuse allegations, but delays in funding and finding sites pushed that back. Its replacements are slowly coming online. The state’s Southeast Regional Care Facility for Youth, a 32-bed secure facility for boys on Milwaukee’s Northwest Side, was set for completion in 2026. Milwaukee County’s own 32-bed Milwaukee County Center for Youth in Wauwatosa, for youth the county keeps closer to home, was set to open in spring 2026. The DOC says Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake can close once there are enough beds elsewhere. Youth awaiting court are held in county juvenile detention. Juvenile records are confidential, so families should contact the Division of Juvenile Corrections directly.

To search for an inmate or juvenile, or to learn how to visit, call, write or send money to someone in the Wisconsin Department of Corrections or Division of Juvenile Corrections, choose a facility from the list below.

Each prison you click on below will provide specific, detailed information about the facility's: 

• inmate search,
• location,
• contact information,
• directions,
• inmate visitation,
• mail,
• phone accounts,
• money accounts,
• commissary,
• texting and emailing where available, and
• inmate tablet rental where available.