Lauren Justice
State inmates once again decorated the Christmas tree in the Capitol Rotunda this year.
Anyone passing through the Capitol last week could not have missed this year’s Christmas tree, which towers 40 feet high in the Rotunda.
Less noticeable were the three men who spent most of the week decorating the tree with thousands of lights and handmade ornaments. Dressed in drab, baggy sweatshirts, dark pants and simple knit hats, they went about their work hidden among the boughs of the huge balsam fir tree.
The three will not be pulling a paycheck for their efforts — they are prisoners.
For the 10th year, the state Department of Administration turned to inmates from the Oakhill Correctional Institution in Oregon, a minimum-security facility just south of Madison, to decorate the Capitol tree. The same crew of inmates also decorated the Christmas tree and the exterior of the Governor’s Mansion in Maple Bluff.
Although the state gets free labor out of the trio, it did not appear to be forced.
“I felt blessed” to be able work on the tree, says a shorter, white male with a bald head and big, red beard. “I loved every minute of it.”
Joy Staab, a spokeswoman with the state’s Department of Corrections, requested Isthmus not use the names or show the faces of any of the inmates. She explains that there wasn’t time to notify any of the inmates’ victims that they may appear in the newspaper for this story.
Decorating the tree is a choice gig for inmates who are allowed outside the prison on work details, Staab says.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Staab says. “Our inmates benefit from community service, and they feel very proud when they can give back to their communities.”
Aside from stringing lights, the inmates delicately hang upwards of 3,000 ornaments made by children around the state.
Many of the ornaments include Green Bay Packers and UW Badgers logos. Some include pictures of the kids who made them. All of them resonate with the inmates.
“It’s a beautiful thing when you step back and look at it — with all the ornaments kids made from around the state,” says the inmate with a red beard. “I have small children, and this made me think of them — they need their dad.”
The others were also reminded of their own families.
“I always helped my mom with the tree, and when I told her I was working on this one, she said, ‘I wish you were here to help me decorate mine this year,’” said a second inmate, a short black man also with a beard and shaved head. “Hearing that gave me reason to make sure this is my last Christmas locked up.”
The third inmate, a tall, slender black man, told family he was working on this project during a recent call home to Milwaukee. “When my daughter sees it on the news, she’ll know I decorated it,” he says.
Despite their efforts, the three inmates will only see the tree lit if they happen to catch it on the news.
When the tree lighting ceremony took place on Friday, they were already on to another job.
As children are counting the days down to Christmas, these three inmates returned to their cells to continue counting their days to freedom.
Height of Capitol tree: just under 40 feet
Number of lights: 2,000
Handmade ornaments: 3,000
State DOA staff directing the inmates: 2
Corrections officers on site to supervise: 1
Days it takes to hang the lights and ornaments: 2.5
Weeks the tree will stay up once lit: 5
Stars on the tree skirt: 72 (one for each of the state’s counties)
