ALLOUEZ, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Did the cell assignment for an inmate at Green Bay Correctional Institution play a role in his death at the prison late last month?
A criminal complaint filed Thursday shows Jackson Vogel, 24, admitted to targeting Micah Laureano, 19, because of his race and sexual orientation.
Vogel is charged with strangling Laureano to death and it is being considered a hate crime.
An inmate says cell assignments are to blame for the death. The state is responding to that letter, inferring the inmate’s suggestions outlined in the letter would likely be unconstitutional.
Laureano and Vogel were paired in the same cell only a few hours before Laureano was found hanging from the cell’s top bunk with his hands and ankles tied together, according to authorities.
The criminal complaint also shows Vogel admitted to a Brown County Sheriff’s sergeant he killed Laureano because he was “bored” and he “checked all the boxes”, listing derogatory terms for Laureano’s sexual orientation and race.
Vogel also stated he always thinks about killing people, referred to the killing as creating “ecstasy” – “strangling someone and then hog tying them like a pig”, and he wanted to kill Laureano the first day he met him, which was a couple days prior.
Vogel is serving a 20-year sentence for trying to kill his mother in Two Rivers in 2016.
Laureano was serving a three-year sentence for crimes in Waukesha and Columbia counties, including robbery use of force, first degree recklessly endangering safety and substantial battery.
Adam Bell, who is serving a three-year sentence at GBCI for a stalking conviction, said he “can guarantee if a white guy was put in Vogel’s cell he’d still be alive and Laureano wouldn’t have had his life taken.”
Bell also states, “staff is putting people with short time in cells with people who pretty much have life and have nothing to lose.” He also alleges staff is mixing races in cells knowing it will cause problems.
“When you get these letters from these offenders, you’ve got to remember one thing, that they’re typically not in there for missing Sunday school, okay?” said Joe Verdegan, a former corrections officer at GBCI for almost 27 years who retired in 2020, and has also written a book about his experiences at the prison.
Verdegan says there were no set guidelines for pairing inmates in cells when he worked at GBCI.
“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.
Verdegan believes Laureano and Vogel were likely paired together short term based on where in the prison the incident occurred.
The Department of Corrections says the pair had previously shared a cell without incident. The department also says neither individual had any past incidents with cellmates.
The DOC says upon intake, inmates are screened for their risk of victimization or assaultive behavior under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act. Someone who is at risk is not paired with someone assessed as being at risk of that type of behavior.
The DOC also states segregating housing units based on race, would almost certainly be unconstitutional.
“It was typical to cell up different races, different religions,” said Verdegan. “We tried to avoid that, but sometimes if we were short on bed space, sometimes we didn’t have a choice. Sometimes staff’s hands are tied, so to speak. That may have been what happened here, but I can’t say for sure.”
“I can tell you this, we’ve had two inmate on inmate deaths in two years,” said Verdegan. “That is very concerning to put it mildly.”
Verdegan is referring to an October 2022 death. Joshua Scolman was convicted of fatally stabbing Timothy Nabors as a hate crime, using a handmade knife made from a bedframe. The incident happened in a prison stairwell, not a cell.
“I worked as an extra in a cell hall and what that meant is you were like the right hand man of the sergeant,” said Verdegan when asked if there should be a set rule or standard for pairing inmates in cells. “We always tried to rely upon our common sense typically.”
The DOC says any individual who feels unsafe is able to request to be moved for their safety. Those requests are evaluated immediately, and moves are made if needed.
Neither Laureano nor Vogel requested to be moved, according to the DOC.
Vogel is scheduled to make his initial court appearance next week.
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