This journey has gone a long ways with when I first started this project. Beginning of paper, my question was why did Jeffrey Dahmer only choose African American men to rape and what made him want to do this to people. As I started finding out more about Dahmer, I realized that if I stuck to that question, I wouldn’t get a major answer because no one besides Dahmer himself could’ve told us why he chose those particular men. After that, I kept on searching for more and more information and what might I want to answer about Dahmer. That is when I found documents about when he was in jail, how he got killed, and what the prison had to do with his killing. I realized that talking about Dahmer and the connection with the institution would be something I would be interested in. My research question was now, what policies and rules were changed at the Columbia Correctional Institution after Jeffrey Dahmer was killed there. My understanding of this question is over the level of what I thought it would be when I started out. The information I found about when he was there and what happened was excellent. Not only did I find the sources, they were primary sources that came from the institution itself and workers who were there at the time of the happening. Once I did all my research, I got the answer to my question. Columbia Correctional Institution changed the visibility, listening, and monitoring capability to enhance security. Adding special procedures for inmates was also something they started doing. Different areas of the prison got different changes to help enhance the safety of inmates. Not only did they change rules within the institution, but also a bill was passed saying that anyone convicting “murders would be imprisoned for life with no possibility of parole under a bill” (1).

My next source that I chose came from the Supervisor’s Manual of Wisconsin. I chose two chapters to talk about because after finding out how Dahmer was killed, I thought it’d be important to know how Colombia’s Correctional Institution polices were before they changed them. I also put these two chapters together because they connect with each other and it would make more sense to do that than to separate them. Chapter 101 talks about the work rules from September 1990 while chapter 403 talks about employee discipline from 1992.

The authors of these documents are the committee of the Department of Corrections. These are reliable become they come from the supervisor’s manual that comes from the state of Wisconsin.  The audience is workers who want to find out what their rules and discipline is for their job along with supervisors who are using these rules to keep their employees in place. The purpose of these documents are to inform and knowledge their readers about the work rules and employee discipline.

Chapter 101 states what is prohibited to do while at work. Some things it brings up are things like language use, unauthorized weapons, alcohol and drug use, stealing, injuring inmates, inappropriate dressing, violating health and safety procedures, moving of materials without permission, not reporting a bribe, not giving complete information when asked, letting inmates enter areas they’re not supposed to be in, and not inspecting packages brought into work areas. Some other procedures that are forbidden are “unauthorized solicitation for any purpose while on duty or on state property” and “ Failure to give proper notice when unable to report for or continue duty as scheduled, tardiness, excessive absenteeism, or abuse of sick leave privileges” (Chapter 101, 2). Now that we know the rules, chapter 403 talks about what happens when rules are disobeyed. Specific rules and steps are to be followed when work rules are disobeyed. There is a disciplinary system which depending on how serious a workers punishment is, they could be counseled, get a verbal warning, get written up, suspension without pay, or get discharged (Chptr 403, 3).  Also when a worker fails to follow rules, there are steps in the disciplinary process. Step 1 is for the manager to investigate right away and gather all facts together (Chptr 403, 4).  There is a list of questions that must be answered but following that the worker who disobeyed the rules has to get an investigatory interview, which is when they get asked questions about what happened. If an Employee wants someone to represent them, it is allowed for them to do such thing (Chptr 403, 5). Interviews must be scheduled and done in private. While getting interviewed, writing down the employee’s response, having a typed up summary, and no tapings are some things that must be remembered (Chptr 403, 7).  Step 2 is to have a pre-disciplinary hearing, which is a meeting with the worker. These hearings are similar to the investigatory interview. After this due process, step 3 is to give the right punishment to their given action.

Finding out what the rules and discipline is helped me gain knowledge on Colombia’s correctional institution regulations.  I trust everything that the sources had to offer because the information was given straight from a supervisor’s manual that they actually used during that time.

This source helped me with my question by giving me the awareness of the institutions rules and employee discipline. I found out what was prohibited and what their consequences would be if they were to break a rule. This supervisor’s manual had a lot of value to me because now that I know the rules before Dahmer’s death, I can go on further into my research and find out what was changed after his incident. All this reading is shaping my thinking because it’s making me find information that isn’t that easy to find and challenging me to do more work, along with having more questions on the employee’s who were in charge of Dahmer and Scarver at the time.

Citation:

Supervisor’s Manual. “State of Wisconsin, Department of Corrections.” Chapter 101.  Print. 2.  Wisconsin. Department of Corrections. Legal Counsel’s subject files, 1979-1999. University of Wisconsin – Madison. Madison, WI.

Supervisor’s Manual. “State of Wisconsin, Department of Corrections.” Chapter 403.  Print. 12. Wisconsin. Department of Corrections. Legal Counsel’s subject files, 1979-1999. University of Wisconsin – Madison. Madison, WI.

My second source that I decided to use was a Memorandum that came from the Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution from June 20, 1995. I used this particular source because after finding out about more about Dahmer, I realized there was no correlation on why he was killing African American men. I thought it would be interesting to find out on how he died in the cell and then research how the prison changed its policies after the death of Jeffrey Dahmer.

This memorandum was written from Marianne A. Cooke, Warden of Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution. This source came from the institutions’ committee, which makes it reliable because they only wrote down the facts of what happened on the day of November 28, 1994 when Dahmer was killed. The audience for this document is for people who want to know exactly how Dahmer was killed and for workers who can use the information to help make the prison safer for inmates. The purpose of this memorandum is to talk about the facts and circumstances about murder that happened.

The death of Dahmer was on November 28,1994 on a Monday morning in the locker room of the prison around 8:10am (3).  Donovan Dittberner and Robert Theiler, gym officers, along with recreation director Jim Spangberg, were leading Dahmer to the gym so he can do his work tasks (3). The officers took personal calls between 7:58am and 8:13am (4), which left the inmates all alone with no one to watch them. Murderer Christopher Scarver thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to strike at Dahmer. Scarver spontaneously grabbed a tool from the weight room, hid it in his winter coat, walked over to Dahmer, and banged him numerous times to his head (4). Scarver after that actually killed another inmate, Jesse Anderson. After those two killings, he put the weapon back in his coat, walked back over to the gym where he got the tool and placed it back where he got it (4). During this happening, two other inmates were in the gym, which caused suspicion if they knew what Scarvers plan was. Later throughout the investigation, Scarver confessed that no one knew of his plan and he actually did it randomly and did not plan the whole thing only because he wanted to kill them because he believed they weren’t worthy of a life (4).  Ambulances came to try and help inmates, but as Dahmer was being taken to the hospital he died right as they got there (5).  This raised many questions on department policies, on whether they were allowed to be in the same room, and if these deaths would’ve happened if the officers were doing their job and watching over their men. As I kept on reading I found out that this was the first murder at the institution. Not only that, but the officers were violating the rules of watching over them, which makes them responsible. They knew what they were doing, and they knew that when they left the room, they should’ve called another worker to watch over the inmates. In the end, they still concluded that these killings still could’ve happened even if they were doing their tasks.

Reading this memorandum, it helped me know exactly what happened when Dahmer was killed. I believe what they were telling their readers because when you’re in that position of having to talk about what occurred, you don’t have the option of saying anything you want to say. Something that I not doubt but question is how the security guards didn’t hear anything or slightly see anything happen even when they were out for personal reasons.  By reading this source, it led me to finding out how he was killed without anyone being able to stop it and the many other questions that were brought up regarding the murder. This source has a lot of value to me because now I know how some of the policies were before they changed them and it will help me understand why they changed the things they did because I know what went wrong in the prison. This source is missing how they changed their policies after this event, but it only wants me to research more and find out about the before and after regulations in Colombia Correctional Institution.

Reading all these different documents are shaping my thinking because it’s making me want to find out more about his death, as in finding pictures that show me where this took place and about the policies that were changed. When I first started this project, I never thought that I would be researching on what policies were changed because of this event.