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At Waupun Correctional Institution in 2012, one inmate being transferred to the state prison’s segregation unit, commonly known as solitary confinement, was pepper-sprayed three times and shocked with a stun gun twice before the shackles could be applied.

“I’m not going to seg,” he said, according to a use-of-force report.

The prison’s segregation unit, which houses up to 180 inmates, is not a place inmates want to be. And for good reason: The unit blends severe isolation with the recurring use of force. Two inmates in segregation at Waupun, a state prison 55 miles northeast of Madison, have committed suicide in the past 18 months.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has identified 40 allegations of guard-on-inmate abuse involving 33 inmates in Waupun’s segregation unit since 2011.

Prison officials deny abuse is occurring and accuse the inmates — in Waupun because it houses some of the state’s most violent criminals — of lying. But the volume of complaints has stirred the notice of a state senator, an advocate for the disabled and a former state prison chief.