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Wisconsin

Wisconsin splits corrections officer standards by employer: the Law Enforcement Standards Board (LESB) certifies county jail and juvenile detention officers, while the Department of Corrections (DOC) trains state prison officers and sets and inspects jail standards. Since 2023 the State has let counties put jailers in the protective retirement category, doubled state payment for jail recertification training, required prison officers to be trained to recognize active psychosis and made emergency transfer mandatory for dangerous people still in active psychosis after 72 hours, made disarming a correctional officer a felony, and required annual training for probation and parole agents.

Sources checked
Part of
Corrections Ledger

At a glance

Certifying body
Split by employer. County jail officers and juvenile detention officers are certified by the LESB, staffed by the Department of Justice, which also certifies police (see the Officer Ledger page). State prison correctional officers are not LESB-certified: the Board sets preparatory training admission standards “but not for department of corrections correctional officers” (165.85(3)(am)), and DOC runs and approves their preservice training (301.28). Probation and parole agents are DOC employees trained by DOC.
Statute
Jail officers: Wis. Stat. 165.85 and Wis. Admin. Code LES 1 to 6. State correctional officers: Wis. Stat. 301.28 (preservice training), 301.285 (in-service), 302.07 to 302.10 (order, treatment, solitary). Jails: 301.37 (DOC standards and inspection), 302.40 and 302.41, ch. DOC 350. Community supervision: chs. DOC 328 and 331.
Minimum standards
Jail and secure detention recruits must meet LESB qualifications: a driver’s license before completing preparatory training, age 18, no unpardoned felony conviction, a high school diploma or equivalent, good character shown by fingerprinting and a sworn background investigation, a physician’s examination, and an oral interview. The two-year college requirement applies only to police (LES 2.01(1)). No state correctional officer may be permanently appointed without completing DOC-approved preservice training (301.28(2)(b)); other qualifications come from DOC and the state civil service.
Basic training
Jail officers: the LESB preparatory program “shall include not less than 160 hours of training.” A recruit may work as a jail officer only on a temporary or probationary basis until trained and certified, for at most 12 months unless extended for good cause (165.85(4)(b)). State correctional officers: DOC-approved preservice training before permanent appointment, which since March 29, 2024 must cover identifying and reporting symptoms of active psychosis (301.28(3)). DOC’s careers page describes “a paid seven week academy which includes on the job training at a correctional institution”; no rule or statute sets its hours.
In-service training
Jail officers must complete at least 24 hours of recertification training each fiscal year after the year of certification (165.85(4)(b)6.). The State pays the employing agency at least $320 per officer per year for that training, for costs incurred from July 1, 2024 (165.85(5)(b)). DOC “may conduct a program of in-service training” for state correctional officers (301.285); no statute sets hours. Probation and parole agents: annual training required since July 1, 2026 (DOC 328.29).
Decertification
For jail and juvenile detention officers, see the Officer Ledger page: the LESB may decertify on the grounds in 165.85(3)(cm), and decertification is mandatory only for failure to pay court-ordered support (165.85(3m)(a)). Procedures are in ch. LES 6. State prison correctional officers are not LESB-certified, so decertification does not reach them. No public decertification list was found.
Jail standards
DOC “shall fix reasonable standards and regulations for the design, construction, repair, and maintenance” of jails, houses of correction, lockups, Huber facilities, and juvenile detention facilities, reviews building plans, and inspects each facility before occupancy “and at least annually thereafter.” If ordered corrections are not started within 6 months, DOC must suspend state aid and prohibit use of the building (301.37(1) to (3)). The standards also apply to tribal jails used for county prisoners (301.37(4)). Operating standards are in ch. DOC 350; for example, restraints may never be used as punishment (DOC 350.23).
Probation and parole officers
DOC’s Division of Community Corrections supervises adult probation, parole, and extended supervision; agents are state employees, not LESB-certified, and are in the protective occupation retirement category (40.02(48)(am)14.). Supervision rules are in ch. DOC 328, including custody and detention (DOC 328.27) and short-term sanctions (DOC 328.27(7)) under an evidence-based response-to-violations requirement in place since 2019 and expanded on July 1, 2026, plus a new annual agent-training duty (DOC 328.29). Revocation procedures are in ch. DOC 331.
Restrictive housing
Statute sets a time limit only for jails. A prison inmate “may be confined to a solitary cell, under the care and advice of the physician,” with no cap (302.10). A jail inmate may be held in solitary confinement for rule violations “under the care and advice of a physician, but not over 10 days” (302.40). By rule, the most serious prison offenses carry up to 360 days of disciplinary separation (Table DOC 303.72); the warden reviews each inmate in disciplinary separation at least every 30 days, and inmates may shower at least once every 4 days (ch. DOC 303). DOC policies that may set shorter limits were not checked.
Corrections use of force
By rule for state prisons, corporal punishment is forbidden. Staff may use non-deadly force only when they reasonably believe it is immediately necessary to prevent death or injury, regain control, prevent escape, move or control an inmate, prevent property damage, or enforce a rule or order. Deadly force is allowed only when immediately necessary to prevent death or bodily injury, prevent property damage that may cause either, regain control of an institution, or prevent escape or apprehend an escapee, and not where it substantially endangers innocent third parties (DOC 306.07(4), (5)). A five-member firearm review panel, two of them public members, investigates any death or injury from a firearm discharge (DOC 306.08); mechanical restraints are regulated (DOC 306.10, 306.11). Statute: “There shall be no corporal or other painful and unusual punishment inflicted upon inmates” (302.08). No statute on restraining pregnant incarcerated people was found.

Changes, 2023 to 2026

  • Annual agent training and a structured response to supervision violations

    Clearinghouse Rule CR 25-033, amending ch. DOC 328 (Register June 2026 No. 846)Effective July 1, 2026

    New DOC 328.29: “The department shall provide annual training to agents in risk reduction, intervention techniques, and skill development in evidence-based practices.” The rule expands the evidence-based response requirement that DOC 328.27(7)(d) has carried since 2019. It now lists intervention responses for common violation types, a decision guideline weighing risk level and violation severity, sanctions that are “swift, certain and proportionate,” and four response tiers (low, medium, high, and very high). New (7)(e) requires an annual review of sanctions for disparities, effectiveness, and effect on revocations. Short-term sanctions remain capped at 90 days of confinement. The rule also adds DOC 328.04(4) to (7), on administrative and minimum supervision and on contracting with vendors to supervise people at those levels.

    For corrections staff: Agents now receive required annual training and must apply tiered responses when sanctioning violations.

    CR 25-033 history Ch. DOC 328

  • New felony: disarming a correctional officer of a weapon or equipment

    2025 Wis. Act 244 (2025 SB 533), amending and creating Wis. Stat. 941.21Published April 10, 2026; effective April 11, 2026 (day after publication under s. 991.11; computed)

    Section 941.21 had covered only disarming a peace officer. It is now a Class H felony to intentionally take from a correctional officer acting in an official capacity, without consent, a dangerous weapon, a chemical spray device, or “equipment”: any issued item designed or intended to cause bodily harm, restraint, or incapacitation, or that the officer could use to communicate, call for help, or enter locked areas, such as radios and keys. “Correctional officer” covers state and local officers who supervise and discipline inmates, including jail officers, and juvenile correctional officers.

    For corrections staff: Taking your radio, keys, restraints, or OC spray is a felony, as is taking a weapon.

    2025 Wis. Act 244

  • Budget funds planning for a DOC realignment leading to closure of Green Bay Correctional by 2029

    2025 Wis. Act 15 (biennial budget), section 9104(7)(a)Published July 3, 2025; effective July 4, 2025 (day after publication under s. 991.11; computed)

    The Building Commission must allocate $15,000,000 from the building program for preliminary plans and specifications “for construction projects contributing to a department of corrections realignment and leading to the closure of the Green Bay Correctional Institute by 2029.” The same section funds planning for other DOC projects, including a 16-bed Grow Academy facility, housing unit work at Fox Lake, and water treatment at Jackson. This is planning money, not a closure order.

    For corrections staff: The Legislature has funded planning toward closing Green Bay Correctional by 2029.

    2025 Wis. Act 15

  • Active psychosis: officer training, and mandatory emergency transfer from prisons and jails

    2023 Wis. Act 229 (2023 SB 722), creating Wis. Stat. 301.28(3) and 51.37(5)(bm) and amending 51.37(5)Published March 28, 2024; effective March 29, 2024 (day after publication under s. 991.11; computed)

    DOC-approved preservice training for state correctional officers must include “a requirement that each correctional officer be trained to identify symptoms of active psychosis” and to report them to the superintendent and medical staff. “Active psychosis” is a severe condition with symptoms such as hallucinations or delusions (51.01(1d)). A prisoner or jail inmate in active psychosis who is dangerous and not stabilized after 72 hours must be transferred: DOC (for prisons) and the sheriff or other keeper (for jails) “shall authorize the emergency transfer” to a state treatment facility or, for people sentenced to prison, the Wisconsin Resource Center (51.37(5)(b)). Before the act, emergency transfer was discretionary. If a person is not transferred within 48 hours of an authorized emergency transfer, a health care professional at the sending institution must evaluate the person every 24 hours until transfer. Licensed nurses and physician assistants, as well as physicians and psychologists, may now make the report that starts a mental health transfer (51.37(5)(a)).

    For corrections staff: Prison officers must be trained to spot and report active psychosis, and in jails the sheriff must authorize emergency transfer of a dangerous person still in active psychosis after 72 hours.

    2023 Wis. Act 229 Wis. Stat. ch. 301

  • State payment for annual recertification training doubled to $320 per officer

    2023 Wis. Act 227 (2023 SB 573), amending Wis. Stat. 165.85(5)(b)Published March 28, 2024; effective March 29, 2024 (day after publication under s. 991.11; computed); the new amount first applies to training costs incurred on July 1, 2024

    Payment of approved expenses for annual recertification training, made to the agency that employs the officer, “shall include at least $160 $320 per officer.” The act changes “reimbursement” to “payment” and pays law enforcement agencies rather than political subdivisions. The new amount “first applies to training costs incurred on July 1, 2024.” Jail officers must complete 24 hours of recertification training a year (165.85(4)(b)6.).

    For corrections staff: Your jail receives at least $320 a year in state money per officer toward your 24 hours of annual recertification training.

    2023 Wis. Act 227

  • Counties may classify jailers as protective occupation participants for retirement

    2023 Wis. Act 4 (2023 AB 28), creating Wis. Stat. 40.02(48)(am)23. and (b)5., 59.52(8m), and 111.70(4)(bn)Published April 7, 2023; effective January 1, 2024 (“the January 1 after publication”; computed)

    The act creates the “county jailer” category: a county employee whose principal duties involve supervising, controlling, or maintaining a jail or the people confined in it, as assigned by the sheriff, sworn or not, full-time or not. County jailers join the list of protective occupation participants, and an employer may classify a jailer as protective without the usual finding that the job involves active law enforcement. Protective service credit applies only to jail service on or after the effective date. A jailer not already protective on the effective date had 60 days to opt out in writing, and in counties that had not classified jailers as protective, new hires have an irrevocable 60-day opt-out (59.52(8m)). For collective bargaining, a county jailer is a general municipal employee unless the county already treated jailers as public safety employees (111.70(4)(bn)).

    For corrections staff: Unless you opted out, jail service from 2024 can earn protective-category retirement credit, the same category as deputies.

    2023 Wis. Act 4

Enacted, not yet in force, pending, and bills that did not pass

No enacted corrections law awaits its effective date. 2025 Wis. Act 233 (Medicaid prerelease coverage) requires the Department of Health Services to request a federal waiver by January 1, 2027; it does not change staff duties.

CR 25-085, a DOC rule on custody and detention, was received by the Legislative Council on November 6, 2025 and withdrawn on August 5, 2026 (CR 25-085 history).

These bills were not enacted: 2023 AB 939/SB 904 and 2025 AB 725, AB 740, and SB 744 (solitary confinement and restricted movement); 2025 AB 773/SB 755 (treatment of pregnant or postpartum people in prison or jail); 2023 AB 1222/SB 1111 and 2025 AB 738/SB 730 (decertification and use of force, covering jail officers); and 2023 AB 426/SB 417 (eligibility for appointment as a law enforcement or correctional officer). Sources: 2025 Assembly bills, 2025 Senate bills.

The Act 4, Act 15, Act 227, Act 229, and Act 244 effective dates are computed from publication dates under the acts’ own terms or s. 991.11.

Checked and unchanged

  • Wis. Stat. 301.37 (DOC jail standards and inspection): last amended by 2019 Act 8. 302.10 and 302.40 (solitary confinement): history notes end at 1989 Act 31.
  • Ch. DOC 306 (use of force in prisons): last amended by CR 17-026, effective July 1, 2018. Ch. DOC 303 (discipline and disciplinary separation): last amended by CR 16-054, effective April 1, 2018.
  • Not counted: 2023 Act 19 and 2025 Act 15 amended 165.85, but the provisions found concern training fund mechanics and appropriations, not jail officer standards. Other budget provisions on DOC pay were not reviewed.

Bills in the legislature

Bills in the current session whose title concerns corrections officers, jails, probation and parole, and conditions of confinement, found automatically in LegiScan's copy of the legislature's records and refreshed daily (last on October 21, 2026). This list is not reviewed by an editor and is not a summary of the bills; each links to the legislature's own page, which controls. Bills that become law are added to the dated entries above once checked.

16 more bills

The law, section by section

Every section of the statutes and rules this page relies on that could be read from an official source, 228 in all, each linked to the official text. Headings are copied from the official tables of contents, checked October 21, 2026.

Wisconsin Statutes: law enforcement standards (jail officers), corrections officer training, jail standards, and treatment of prisoners (selected sections of chapters 165, 301, and 302)Statute · 12 sections

Official text current through Wisconsin Legislature: "2023-24 Wisconsin Statutes updated through 2025 Wis. Act 247 and through all Supreme Court Orders and Controlled Substances Board Orders filed before and in effect on October 1, 2026" (read 2026-10-21). Partial lists: only the sections the page cites are listed from chapters 165, 301, and 302 (302.095, between 302.09 and 302.10, is included). The heading for 301.37 is the catchline on its official section page, because the chapter 301 table of contents loads past 301.315 only by scrolling. 165.85 and 165.86 are also in the Officer Ledger library. Wis. Stat. 165.85, 165.86, 301.28, 301.285, 301.37, 302.07-302.10, 302.40, 302.41, official text

CHAPTER 165. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (SECTIONS 165.85 AND 165.86)

  • 165.85 Law enforcement standards board
  • 165.86 Law enforcement training

CHAPTER 301. CORRECTIONS (SECTIONS 301.28, 301.285, AND 301.37)

  • 301.28 Training of correctional officers
  • 301.285 In-service and work experience training
  • 301.37 County buildings; establishment, approval, inspection

CHAPTER 302. PRISONS; STATE, COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL (SELECTED SECTIONS)

  • 302.07 Maintenance of order
  • 302.08 Humane treatment and punishment
  • 302.09 Labor and communications
  • 302.095 Delivering articles to inmate
  • 302.10 Solitary confinement
  • 302.40 Discipline; solitary confinement
  • 302.41 Care of prisoners
Wisconsin Administrative Code, chapters LES 1 to 6 and DOC 303, 306, 328, 331, and 350Rules · 216 sections

Official text current through Wisconsin Administrative Code (Legislative Reference Bureau, updated monthly) chapter pages, read 2026-10-21. LES 1 to 6 are also in the Officer Ledger library. Repealed sections are omitted. The page cites Table DOC 303.72, a table within chapter DOC 303 rather than a section. Wis. Admin. Code LES 1-6; DOC 303, 306, 328, 331, 350, official text

CHAPTER LES 1

CHAPTER LES 2

  • LES 2.01 Minimum qualifications for recruitment
  • LES 2.02 Pre-employment drug testing

CHAPTER LES 3

  • LES 3.01 Minimum standards for preparatory training
  • LES 3.02 Advisory curriculum committee
  • LES 3.03 Instructional goals
  • LES 3.04 Instructional goals
  • LES 3.05 Waiver of training requirements for recertification
  • LES 3.06 Additional orientation
  • LES 3.07 Law enforcement pursuit standards and related training

CHAPTER LES 4

CHAPTER LES 5

CHAPTER LES 6

CHAPTER DOC 303

CHAPTER DOC 306

CHAPTER DOC 328

CHAPTER DOC 331

CHAPTER DOC 350

USCLI's source monitor re-reads the 16 official sources cited on this page around the clock; 2 answered unchanged at their latest check. The oldest of those checks was on October 21, 2026.

Last updated October 21, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “Wisconsin corrections law: Corrections Ledger,” uscli.org/corrections-tracker/wisconsin (last updated October 21, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.