Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s prisons are run by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WI DOC) through its Division of Adult Institutions, which operates 20 adult prisons; people in custody are identified by name and DOC number. The state also runs 16 minimum-security work-release “correctional centers” — a separate reintegration tier noted here but not individually covered. Where a newly sentenced person starts depends on sex: men are received at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun (which also houses the men’s central medical infirmary), and women at the Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac, the state’s women’s prison.

Wisconsin has no death penalty. It abolished capital punishment in 1853 — the first U.S. state to do so — so there is no death row and no execution chamber.

Three things set Wisconsin apart for families. Personal mail is scanned off-site: letters and photos are addressed to a vendor, TextBehind, in Phoenix, Maryland, which opens and photocopies them and forwards copies to the institution (only legal mail goes directly to the prison). Phone, tablet, and video services run through ICSolutions, while money for a person’s account goes through a separate vendor, Access Corrections — two different systems that are easy to confuse. And health care is delivered in-house by the DOC Bureau of Health Services, with a $7.50 per-visit medical co-pay.

The state is also in the middle of a prison realignment. Under a 2025 plan, the Green Bay Correctional Institution is slated to close (around 2029) and the Waupun Correctional Institution is to be converted from maximum to a medium-security vocational prison. As of mid-2026 only planning funds had been approved and both prisons remain open — confirm a person’s current institution on the WI DOC offender locator before traveling. To find someone, search the locator by name or DOC number.

Use the guides below for statewide rules, or go straight to a specific facility.