By Todd Richmond
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. — A counselor at Wisconsin’s troubled youth prison has died following a fight with a 16-year-old inmate.
Corey Proulx, 49, was declared brain dead Tuesday so the family could proceed with organ donation, Lincoln County Coroner Valerie Caylor said.
Prosecutors charged the inmate in adult court on Wednesday with second-degree reckless homicide, felony murder-battery and two counts of battery by a prisoner. He could face up to 58 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
Online court records show Lincoln County Circuit Judge Galen Bayne-Allison set a $100,000 cash bond for him. A call to his attorney, listed in online court records as public defender Jessica Fehrenbach, rang unanswered on Wednesday afternoon.
The Associated Press is not naming the inmate because his attorneys could try to move the case into juvenile court, where proceedings are secret.
State Rep. Michael Schraa, chair of the Assembly’s corrections committee, issued a statement Wednesday questioning whether the Department of Corrections is operating in “crisis mode.” He promised to hold a hearing on the agency’s overall operations “as quickly as possible.”
Schraa and Sen. Van Wanggaard, who chairs the Senate judiciary committee, filed an open records request with the Department of Corrections on Wednesday for all documents connected to the fight, including audio and video recordings. Sen. Mary Felzkowski and Rep. Calvin Callahan, whose districts include the youth prison, joined the request.
The records are of “paramount interest” to the communities around the prison as well as the oversight committees, the legislators wrote.
Proulx was injured during a fight Monday night at Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake Schools, the state’s youth prison in Irma in northern Wisconsin. According to a criminal complaint, the 16-year-old inmate had been planning to attack a staff member whom he believed was abusing her power and treating him unfairly.
The 16-year-old had another inmate obtain a cup of soap, threw it at the staff member’s face and repeatedly punched her before fleeing into an outdoor courtyard.
Proulx approached the inmate, who began punching him without being provoked, according to the complaint. Video surveillance shows the inmate punch Proulx twice in the face using “full force.” Proulx went limp, fell and hit his head on the pavement. The inmate then climbed up a basketball hoop and sat on the hoop overseeing the courtyard, the complaint said.
The first staff member was taken to a hospital, treated and released. Proulx was airlifted to another hospital.
The inmate did not suffer any injuries that required medical treatment, Department of Corrections officials said Tuesday.
Gov. Tony Evers ordered U.S. and Wisconsin flags to fly at half-staff through sunset Thursday to honor Proulx.
“By all accounts, Corey was a dedicated public servant who led with kindness and compassion in his commitment toward helping and supporting the youth he worked with,” the governor said in statement.
Corrections officials said in their statement that Proulx returned to his job as a counselor at Lincoln Hills last spring after briefly leaving the facility two years before.
“It is with tremendous sadness and regret that I announce the loss of a dedicated professional, colleague, and friend in the line of duty,” said Jared Hoy, Department of Corrections (DOC) secretary. “A career in corrections, with its dual mission to protect the public and guide individuals toward rehabilitation, can be demanding and requires so many sacrifices for our staff and our families, and Corey made the ultimate sacrifice. Our DOC family is mourning Corey’s loss, and we are keeping all of his family members and friends in our thoughts.”
Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake is Wisconsin’s only youth prison.
“I am finding it difficult to keep my anger at bay as I think about why this occurred, and how it was allowed to occur,” Felzkowski, one of the legislators whose district includes the prison, said in a statement. “For far too long, I have been sounding the alarm that it was always a matter of when, and not if, a tragedy of this magnitude would occur at Lincoln Hills.”