Pubdate: Thu, 23 Jul 1998
Source: Wisconsin State Journal (WI) 
Contact 1:  
Contact 2: Editor, Wisconsin State Journal, POB 8058, Madison, WI 53708
Website: http://www.madison.com/
Author: Scott Milfred Wisconsin State Journal

PRISONERS IN PROTEST DRAW STIFF PENALTIES

Peaceful criticism met with solitary confinement

About 150 prisoners who sat down in a Fox Lake prison yard to protest the
state's policy of shipping inmates out of state are being punished with four
months to a year of solitary confinement and other restrictions. Those who
demonstrated June 28 at Fox Lake Correctional Institution will get fewer
visits and phone calls, less recreation and be allowed fewer possessions in
their cells. Their time segregated from the general prison population also
will not count as time served toward their sentences, said Bill Clausius,
spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.

''It's appropriate discipline for this kind of bad behavior,'' Clausius said
Wednesday, adding that those being punished can reduce time in solitary
confinement by not causing further problems.

Clausius acknowledged that the three-hour demonstration was peaceful.

''That's how it ended because of the excellent work of the correctional
staff,'' Clausius said. ''But it could have incited something worse. We take
this type of thing very seriously.''

Family members of at least one of the protesters, however, say the
punishment is too severe, and the out-of-state policy is flawed.

''They weren't violent at all,'' said Janet O'Kane of Madison, whose son,
Jody O'Kane, participated in the sit-down. ''It was a peaceful sit-down just
like in the '60s. Their whole point was to be heard, and so far they haven't
been heard at all.''

About 1,600 Wisconsin inmates are being held at prisons and jails in Texas,
Tennessee, Oklahoma and Minnesota to ease crowding here. The DOC expects to
send another 1,100 to Tennessee between now and September and may ask for
more transfers early next year.

The state's prison system is about 4,000 inmates above its rated capacity.
The net prison population in Wisconsin increases by about 200 inmates every
month, Clausius said.

Many prisoners and their families have spoken against out-of-state
transfers, saying the distance cuts vital family ties that help rehabilitate
criminals.

''Jody has done nothing but try to help himself,'' said Jason O'Kane, Jody's
brother. ''Now they're trying to take all that away.''

Reports differ on how many prisoners participated in the protest at Fox
Lake. The DOC initially reported that about 155 demonstrated. Two prisoners
who were there say several hundred began the protest, though some left the
field before it ended.

More than 150 prisoners who protested were moved to four other state prisons
in Oshkosh, Portage and Waupun. The protesters have been segregated from the
general prison population, and at least a dozen were sent to Oklahoma as
originally planned.

''Misbehavior does not automatically disqualify them from moving out of
state, for a common sense reason,'' Clausius said. ''If inmates decided that
was the way to not go out of state, all of them would be misbehaving.''

Many of the protesters were not scheduled to be moved out of state but could
eventually have to go.

O'Kane, who is serving time for a string of sex assaults in the mid-'80s,
was told he'd be sent to Tennessee, his family said.

The DOC would not let O'Kane be interviewed this week. He states in letters
to his family that he deserves to be in prison. But he'd gladly serve extra
time in Wisconsin prisons to avoid being sent out of state.

Like many of those being transferred more than 1,000 miles away, O'Kane has
largely behaved during his more than 10 years in prison. He has earned a
high school diploma and credits toward a college degree.

O'Kane's mother has health problems that limit how far she can travel. The
family had been making weekly visits to Fox Lake, but now those visits are
limited and could be cut off completely if he is transferred to Tennessee as
expected.

''I spent 13 years being good, trying to do the right thing in prison, and
now all of a sudden, as a reward for that, they want to send me to Tennessee
somewhere,'' Jody O'Kane wrote in a recent letter to his family. ''So what
if I have to spend 20 years in prison. At least I can spend it in Wisconsin
where I can see you and spend as much time with you on visits as I can. It
is much better than going down there.'' 

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Checked-by: Melodi Cornett