ALLOUEZ, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The most recent death inside one of Wisconsin’s maximum-security prisons has a mother desperate for answers.
A letter Phyllis Laureano received from her son, Micah, that was written one week before his apparent murder highlights the safety concerns he had inside Green Bay Correctional Institution.
“I think the most dangerous thing right now today to be labeled is a person in our care by the Department of Corrections,” said Lonnie Story, an attorney representing the Laureano family. “There was no care or concern for Micah. This never should have happened.”
The August 27 death at GBCI has been labeled a hate crime murder — the second in two years at the prison.
It’s on top of four inmates who died in a one-year span at Waupun Correctional.
Both prisons are two of the oldest in the country and have received calls to close from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Three weeks ago, the 19-year-old Laureano was found hanging from his bunk at GBCI. His hands and feet were tied together. Authorities say it came just hours after he was put in a cell with Jackson Vogel, 24, who is serving 20 years for trying to kill his mother in Two Rivers eight years ago.
“How does this happen?” said Phyllis Laureano. “Why did it happen? For two weeks he was sitting in the same place. How do you all of a sudden decide, okay, we’re going to put you here?”
Laureano laid her son to rest earlier this month. Two days later, she pulled a four-page letter from her son out of her mailbox.
“When I received the letter, it painted even more of a picture that I didn’t know before,” said Laureano.
In part of the letter, Laureano tells his mother, “I’m praying so hard that they move me to the “MU” which is the looney bin but that’s where all the (inmates) go that are too vulnerable and overly unsafe in general population.”
Later in the letter, Laureano writes, “I miss you so much beyond belief and it hurts a lot. But 18 more months and I’ll be home to you”
“In his letter, he was just hoping that someone would help him and he had that anticipation that someone was going to be able to help him,” said Phyllis Laureano. “I don’t know what went wrong there.”
FOX 11 is waiting for answers to several questions we’ve sent to the Department of Corrections about the case — in particular, why an inmate serving 20 years for attempted homicide was paired with an inmate with 18 months remaining on a three-year sentence.
The DOC has said it won’t be commenting further at this time as the investigation into the death is ongoing.
The Brown County Sheriff’s Department, which is investigating the death, also declined to answer our questions.
Joe Verdegan, a former GBCI corrections officer of 27 years, has told us there were no set rules for pairing inmates in prison cells.
“When I was there, our bosses, our captains, our lieutenants told us we could not discriminate,” said Verdegan. “Sometimes we’d have to put rival gang members together, it didn’t matter because it was a short-term thing.”
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