05/27/2026
Wisconsin’s prison population is heading toward a record high, driven in large part by a surge in the number of women behind bars.
In the last decade, the state’s female prison population grew by 17%, while the male prison population barely budged. Meanwhile, the state has less space to house female prisoners than it did in 2011, when the women’s prisons were already crowded. That’s made Wisconsin’s women’s prisons some of the most crowded in the system, with two now housing more than twice as many women as they were designed for.
Overcrowding can mean waiting longer for limited spots in education and treatment programs. Sometimes, it means sleeping in a gym or a converted office.
For years, Wisconsin Watch has reported on conditions inside the state’s packed prisons, and on the policies that have landed more people behind bars. Now, we’ve made a new tracker that shows how the population of each prison has changed over time, and how far it is above that facility’s design capacity.
Read more about prison overcrowding from Paul Kiefer, Natalie Yahr and Addie Costello:
https://wisconsinwatch.org/2026/05/wisconsin-prison-population-record-women-men-trend-tracker-correctional-institution/
