WAUPUN — Having clean water come out of the faucet is something most people take for granted.
Several inmates alerted our Lighthouse team to share that isn’t the case at the Waupun Correctional Institution. One provided video proof.
TMJ4 asked a corrections supervisor at the prison to review the video. He confirmed it shows what’s inside Waupun Correctional inmate cells.
It’s a frustrating sight right out of the faucet. Inmates say brown water is turning a basic human right into a potential health concern.
"Sometimes it just comes out rusty like that forever,” an inmate said. "We complain about it all the time, plenty of complaints about the water.”
Watch: Inmates raise concerns about brown tap water at Waupun Correctional Institution
The inmate who shared the video wants to remain anonymous out of fear he could be punished because cell phones are prohibited in the prison. TMJ4 verified the inmate is being held at the Waupun Correctional Institution.
"You wake up every day, got to drink that water, you've gotta cook your food with that water, you gotta shower with that water,” he said.
He calls it a disturbing reality for every Waupun inmate who can’t afford bottled water that’s sold through the commissary.
"It makes you don’t even wanna live sometimes,” he said. “You just feel less than life.”
We spent time outside the Waupun Correctional Institution. Every corrections officer we saw walk into work was carrying their own water bottle. Some told TMJ4 off-camera it’s because they’re unwilling to drink the prison’s tap water which comes from underground wells.
We took the video to the city of Waupun’s Mayor Rohn Bishop.
“It looks almost like tea or apple juice,” he said. “It looks disgusting. It almost looks like wastewater.”
“What do you think makes it that color?” TMJ4 reporter Ben Jordan asked.
“I think it’s the rock content of our city,” Bishop replied. “Waupun sits on a high level of rock.”
The problem isn’t just the discoloration of the tap water.
A Wisconsin Watch investigation in 2016 found Waupun Correctional water samples exceeded federal standards several times for lead and copper since 2008.
More recently, TMJ4 discovered the Wisconsin Department of Corrections issued warnings for high radium levels in the prison’s water.
Once again, that violates state and federal safe drinking water standards.
D.O.C. documents say elevated radium levels can result in an “increased risk of bone cancer.”
“Out of all the issues this prison’s dealing with, where would you rank the water problem?” Jordan asked.
"It’s the easiest one to solve. That’s why it’s the most frustrating. The prisoners who live in there, and I know a lot of people will say, ‘they’re prisoners. They’re in there for a reason’. And there’s truth to that. I’m not some bleeding heart that thinks the prisoners should be treated special, but they shouldn’t be given water that’s that bad.”
The Department of Corrections denied our interview request. Instead, a spokesperson emailed a statement that reads in part, “DOC has been working with the Department of Natural Resources to address concerns about levels of radium in the water, which have at times exceeded allowable levels.”
The statement goes on to say, "When taps are not turned on for a long time – such as in parts of the institution that are not currently in use – it is not uncommon for the water to be discolored until the taps are run for a few moments to flush sediments out of the system."
The inmate who sent us the video says the brown water isn’t just in empty parts of the prison. It’s something he says he deals with in his cell every day.
He says the water does eventually clear up, but only if he runs the faucet for five to ten minutes.
The Department of Corrections says it’s actively making improvements to upgrade Waupun Correctional’s water system by building a new water treatment plant at a cost to taxpayers of $7.4 million.
Mayor Bishop says a much simpler and more effective solution is switching over to city water. Something he says is already connected to the prison.
"The city of Waupun is the only city in the state of Wisconsin that operates a reverse osmosis water treatment system meaning that the residents of Waupun actually have the best drinking water in the state,” he said.
Bishop thinks it would be a win-win scenario for both the prison and the city.
“The state doesn’t have to build a water plant, the prisons get better water and the city of Waupun gets a little bit of revenue off of it.”
The Department of Corrections says that option would end up costing taxpayers more in the long run.
“I really just want people to see how we really get treated in here,” the inmate said.
The anonymous inmate is advocating for the quickest solution, so fellow prisoners no longer need to worry about what’s in their water and why it’s not clear.
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