MADISON, Wis. — Cameron Williams died inside the Waupun prison on Oct. 30, 2023. Raven Anderson is the mother of Cameron.
“That is just, that is him and as you can see, his brother Jerimiah looks just like him,” said Anderson while looking at Williams’ childhood photos.
Williams died after a blood vessel in his brain burst, resulting in a fatal stroke.
At the time of Williams’ death, he was serving three years in Waupun prison for burglary.
According to the Associated Press, Williams had bounced around the corrections system ever since he was convicted in 2019 of theft and bail jumping.
Williams had been at Waupun prison for a year before he died.
During that time, Anderson said she was not able to visit him because the prison was in a lockdown and visitations were not allowed.
“We talked about family counseling and what we were going to do when he got out and it just never happened. It was like a dream that did not come true,” said Anderson.
The day that prison staff found Williams’ body, Anderson said she first got a call from Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt.
Then she got a call from an inmate at Waupun who was a friend of her son.
“I haven’t seen a dead body since 2005 and the fact that we had to see this man’s dead body on the hallway floor sprawled out,” said the inmate.
Schmidt investigated four deaths that occurred in the prison and during a press conference on June 5, he announced his findings.
“Laying in a bed with no response, or movement during a medical pass, that was passed on to the next shift regarding strange behavior and labored breathing, but no action was taken,” said Schmidt, regarding Williams’ death.
Schmidt said that Williams had been dead in his cell for 12 hours before he was found.
During the inmate’s call to Anderson after her son died, he said some of the same things the sheriff said.
“He looked like he was dying in there. He was telling me the whole time, ‘I am dying, something is wrong, take me to the hospital’ and they would not take him to the hospital,” said the inmate.
Anderson is currently working with attorney Lonnie Story. She has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Department of Corrections and multiple prison staff.
“It progressed to the point of where he was vomiting blood and no medical, no significant medical care was provided to him,” said Story.
Story said the Dodge County Sheriff’s investigation proves what happened in Waupun was wrong and inhumane.
“There is no doubt in my mind that a jury would see it my way as far as Williams goes and the other two cases,” said Story.
Anderson said the stress from her son’s death has forced her to quit her job.
“All of this is just disturbing,” said Anderson. “I am usually not able to sit up here and talk because that’s murder. It’s murder, simple as that. I can’t put this no other way, but this is murder.”
Anderson said her son struggled with mental health issues his entire life and if she wins the lawsuit, she plans to open a mental health support center in his name.