By Scott Bauer and Todd Richmond, AP

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The former warden at a maximum security Wisconsin prison where multiple inmates have died over the last year pleaded not guilty on Aug. 6 to a misconduct charge as legislators intensified their scrutiny of the state’s troubled corrections system.

Five inmates have died at Waupun Correctional Institution since June 2023. The latest, Christopher McDonald, was found dead at the facility on the morning of Aug. 5, according to the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators believe McDonald killed himself. Online court records indicate a judge sentenced him to two 999-year sentences in 1993 for being a party to homicide.

Prosecutors charged former Waupun Correctional Institute Warden Randall Hepp with felony misconduct in office in June in connection with the deaths of an inmate who died of a stroke in October and another inmate who died in February of malnutrition and dehydration.

Hepp pleaded not guilty during an arraignment in Dodge County Circuit Court on Aug. 6, according to online records. His attorney, Robert Webb, declined to comment.

Eight other Waupun staff members have been charged with inmate abuse and misconduct in connection with the two deaths. Hepp quit his job days before he was charged.

The other two inmates died by suicide and a drug overdose, respectively. No one has been charged in connection with those deaths, but federal investigators are looking into a suspected smuggling ring at Waupun and a federal lawsuit inmates filed in October alleging inhumane conditions at the prison is still pending.

The compounding problems at Waupun are only part of the Department of Corrections’ troubles. While Hepp was entering his plea on Aug. 6, the state Senate’s judiciary committee was grilling top agency leaders about a counselor’s death at the state’s youth prison.

According to prosecutors, a 16-year-old inmate punched Corey Proulx during a fight at the facility in northern Wisconsin in June, causing Proulx’s head to hit the concrete pavement. The boy and a 17-year-old inmate have both been charged in connection with the death.

The juvenile prison has been under intense scrutiny for years amid abuse allegations and lawsuits by people incarcerated there. In 2017, the state paid more than $25 million to settle a lawsuit and a federal judge appointed a monitor to oversee conditions at the facility. The monitor, who continues to report on conditions at the prison, has said the situation is improving.

During a hearing near the prison in Merrill, committee members pressed Corrections Secretary Jared Hoy about how much leeway counselors have to defend themselves, questioning at one point whether Proulx could have used pepper spray on his attacker.

Hoy, wearing a black-and-silver lapel ribbon emblazoned with Proulx’s name, said that the court settlement prohibits pepper spray and limits the use of mechanical restraints. But counselors can use as much force as necessary to protect themselves, he said.

He tried to paint a positive picture of life at the prison, saying counselors have adopted a gentler approach with inmates geared more toward rehabilitation than punishment and relationships with them have improved.

State Sen. Mary Felzkowski, a Republican whose district includes the youth prison, would have none of it. She said staffers feel as if they’re not allowed to defend themselves and fear retribution if they complain.

“We need to find out what went wrong, because we have two lives ended,” she said.

She said that she planned to write a letter to U.S. District Judge James Peterson in Madison and ask him to amend the settlement to allow counselors to use pepper spray again.

Families of inmates and former prison workers previously urged lawmakers at a July hearing to fix what they said were systemic problems in Wisconsin’s prison system.

Republican legislators have been blasting Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration for years over chronic guard shortages at Wisconsin’s prisons and have been pushing him to close an aging maximum security prison in Green Bay.

Evers has upped guard salaries in an attempt to generate more hires but has refused to entertain closing the Green Bay facility, saying he won’t consider it without a broader plan to find places to house those inmates.