Rolland Pushes Plan to Restore Jail Visitation

Milwaukee County Jail. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee County Supervisor Shawn Rolland has sponsored legislation providing funding for a project that could lead to in-person visitation returning to the Milwaukee County Jail.

Rolland’s resolution would take approximately $151,000 from the county’s rainy day account and use it to fund a feasibility study to develop a plan for reopening in-person visitation at the jail.

In May 2022, the county board approved legislation committing the body to doing what it could to restore in-person visitation at the jail. Later that year, Jail Commander Aaron Dobson went to the board with a report stating that the visitation area had fallen into disrepair after 20 years without use and was beyond the ability of the county’s facilities staff to renovate.

Dobson and the Milwaukee County Sheriff‘s Office (MCSO) recommended a “feasibility study” to plan and design renovations so that the county board would have estimates to consider.

That report never made it out of the Committee on Judiciary Law Enforcement and General Services. Sup. Ryan Clancy, chair of the committee, expressed his displeasure with the report, chiding Dobson and the MCSO for the contents of the report and for offering the agency’s opinion on in-person visitation as a policy at the jail.

The committee held the report back from the full board. At the time Clancy said the report “did not do what we intended for it to do,” adding “it’s something that we owe the public a robust discussion on.” Nothing has happened since.

Rolland is bringing the issue back. He told his colleagues on the board’s Finance Committee that after discussions with the MCSO, it seemed the original lowest quotes for the work won’t actually pay for what needs to be done. He noted that Milwaukee-based Venture Architects, which specializes in secure and criminal justice facilities, quoted the MCSO $151,000 for the study. It was one of two firms that responded to a Request for Information released by the county.

“As this goes forward, my expectation is that this is a project that looks at what gives us the ability to reopen visitation within the jail, to be able to have families reconnect with people in the jail,” Rolland said. “And not any other bells and whistles beyond that, we don’t need gold-plated toilets or anything like that; we’re just trying to see what it would take to get in-person visitation open.”

Rolland noted that conditions at the jail have frequently been in the news lately. In August, more than two dozen men held at the jail barricaded themselves in a library for two hours. During the past 15 months, there have been four deaths in the jail.

“So this will hopefully put us on a path to improving conditions,” Rolland said.

There has not been in-person visitation at the jail since 2002. It was eliminated during former Sheriff David Clarke‘s first term. Since then, the only way for people held in the jail to communicate with the outside world has been to pay for video and phone calls.

The jail remains understaffed by nearly 100 positions. In 2022, when MCSO recommended the feasibility study, it added that it would need more staff to operate a new visitation center.