Advocates: Close state detention facility in Milwaukee

National group curates stories from the inside

When Sharyl McFarland’s son was 17, he spent three weeks at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility.

Before she was allowed inside to see him, McFarland was searched three times. By the time she was cleared, only 10 minutes of her visit remained. And when she got to the visiting area, she was greeted not by her son, but by a fuzzy image of him on a video screen, she said.

She hadn’t been told ahead of time that visitors to the secure detention facility may have contact with their loved ones only via video.

“I could hear my son, but I couldn’t see him, and that really bothered me,” said McFarland, who was among several speakers at a Tuesday event designed to raise awareness about the conditions at the secure detention facility, a holding site for people alleged to have violated probation or parole.

The event, which took place at Marquette University, was organized by Mass Story Lab, a national organization that uses first-person storytelling to promote human rights, and by the Wisconsin chapter of Ex-Prisoners Organizing, a group working to reduce mass incarceration and to eliminate discrimination against formerly incarcerated people.

The group of ex-prisoners is leading a campaign to demand the closure of the secure detention facility. The center opened in 2001 with the intent of easing crowding in county jails. It has the capacity for about 1,000 inmates at any given time.

Piper Anderson, the creator of Mass Story Lab, said she had been working with inmates at Rikers Island in New York since 2001. By comparison, some of the things she’d heard about the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility were shocking.

“I thought I’d heard everything, but I was blown away by what I heard about MSDF,” she said.

Because the detention facility was not designed for long stays, there are few classes or job training programs. Most of the facility is not air-conditioned. Prisoners are sometimes confined to their cells 22 hours a day. Many inmates there suffer from mental illness.

Crowding also is a problem, former prisoners said. Cells designed for one person are occupied by three. Two sleep in bunk beds and one must sleep in a plastic tub known as a boat that is stored under the bunk bed during the day.

“You have to sleep with your head three feet from the toilet while your

roommate uses the toilet,” said Carl Fields, vice president of Ex-Prisoners Organizing in Wisconsin.

The Department of Corrections lists an average stay of 60 to 90 days for people sent to the detention facility as an alternative to having their supervision revoked. The department’s website does not provide estimates for those at the facility for other reasons, and there is no set limit for how long someone may be housed there.

Violating probation or parole may include doing things such as accepting a job without permission, using a cellphone or computer without authorization, or leaving their home county. Some people sent to the holding site may have been suspected of criminal activity, but not charged. Others may have been charged, but not convicted.

At least 17 people have died at the secure detention facility since 2001, according to Ex-Prisoners Organizing.

Tristan Cook, Department of Corrections spokesman, disputed the group’s assertions, issuing a lengthy statement that said, in part: “DOC is focused on public safety and MSDF plays a key role in protecting the public by taking individuals off the street who have committed new crimes or violated the rules of their supervision.”

He went on to say: “Community supervision is focused on providing resources so offenders can be successful in the community. It is the offender’s decision to make positive choices that leads to their success on community supervision.”

One the people who have died in the facility was Jeremy Cunningham, 34. His cellmate used an emergency button to call for help as Cunningham suffered a seizure in 2011. The sergeant who answered the call did not come to check on Cunningham, and by the next morning he was dead.

The Journal Sentinel also has uncovered several instances of guards there abusing inmates with mental illnesses. In March 2016, two guards resigned and one was fired after the news organization obtained a recording of them antagonizing a man and threatening to withhold his medication.

A captain there was demoted to sergeant and suspended for 10 days after using a Taser on one mentally ill woman and forcing another face-first against a shower wall.

“DOC is focused on public safety and MSDF plays a key role in protecting the public by taking individuals off the street who have committed new crimes or violated the rules of their supervision.” TRISTAN COOK DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS SPOKESMAN