Man killed in Washington County Jail ID’d
The man who was killed by an inmate in the Washington County Jail last week has been identified by his family as Jalen Proft, 23, of Germantown.
Proft had been staying at the jail on a probation hold from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections for two days when he was brutally attacked in his cell by another inmate on Aug. 17, the sheriff’s office said. He died four days later, according to an obituary.
“As a family, we are looking for answers from Hartford police and the Washington County Sheriff ’s Office about the facts of the case,” Proft’s sister, Magdalia Proft-Maikowski, said in a statement to the Journal Sentinel. “Our son and brother was the victim and our family would like answers and full accountability. We would also ask for privacy at this time.”
Proft comes from a family of 13 siblings. His sister described him as a “kind and gentle soul and is greatly missed.”
She declined to elaborate on the involvement of the Hartford Police Department.
Chief Scott MacFarlan did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.
Washington County Sheriff Martin Schulteis said Monday two internal investigations have been launched — one by the Department of Corrections, as required by state law, and another by the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office, at his request.
No staff members have been suspended or placed on administrative leave in connection with the incident, Schulteis said.
Proft’s identification comes as the Washington County Sheriff ’s Office had refused to identify the victim. Lt. Jason Guslick said Monday the family was “strongly asking that we not release his name.”
The medical examiner’s office and district attorney’s office in Washington County, as well as the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, also either declined to name Proft or deferred to the sheriff ’s office, which is leading the
investigation into the homicide.
Guslick also cited Marsy’s Law — a state constitutional amendment voters approved in 2020 that added some protections for crime victims — as further grounds to withhold the name.
But according to an advisory from the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Marsy’s Law did not change how public officials choose to release information about crime victims. They are still expected to perform a balancing test, weighing the presumed benefits of openness against other public policy interests.
“I don’t see… any protections that attend to the naming of victims from Marsy’s Law,” said Bill Lueders, the president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council. “I don’t think you can justify that under our law. We can’t have a society in which people can be killed secretly. It’s too important. At least the name of a person that’s killed in a public institution like a prison would have to be released.
“There may be some details that could be withheld from the public, but you can’t have people being killed secretly — not in prison, not in society.”
The suspect in the case, George Telford Jr., 31, of Fargo, N.D., has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide and battery by prisoners.
Proft had been staying at the jail on a probation hold from the Wisconsin Department of Correction for two days when he was attacked in his cell by another inmate on Aug. 17, according to the sheriff ’s office. The victim died several days later.
The two were staying in neighboring cells and sat next to each other during lunch the day of the attack, but no altercations occurred prior to, according to the criminal complaint. The victim had been lying in his bed while Telford paced around outside the cells before walking into the victim’s cell and attacking him, the complaint said.
The incident was caught on surveillance cameras and showed Telford stomping on the victim’s head 28 times with full force before guards could intervene, the complaint said.