Board Extends Racine Jail Transfer Contract

Milwaukee County Jail. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Milwaukee County Board is keeping the door open for Milwaukee County jail transfers to Racine County.

The board approved the extension of a contract between Milwaukee and Racine counties Thursday that allows the Milwaukee County Sheriff‘s Office (MCSO) to move inmates to Racine when the facility is above its legal capacity.

The board first approved the agreement in 2022, and allocated funding to pay the $70-per-day fee for each person transferred to Racine. The MCSO told supervisors that it hasn’t had to transfer anyone to Racine recently, but that it needs to agreement in place as a contingency. The county’s Community Reintegration Center (CRC) has been accepting all of the jail’s overflow lately, as has historically been the practice.

In 2022, CRC Superintendent Chantell Jewell said she did not have enough staff to safely open more dormitories for jail overflow. But staffing has recently improved at the CRC, as well as the jail.

The jail has a court-ordered capacity of 960 people in-custody at any given time. This limit is the result of a legal settlement more than 20 years ago for a lawsuit against the jail and the MCSO. The jail processes and releases approximately 15,000 people a year, according to the MCSO, and on any given day the facility can exceed its capacity with new people arrested and brought to the jail by municipal police departments in the county.

Sup. Liz Sumner, chair of the Finance Committee, said that if a transfer became necessary, it would be an immediate need, and the board doesn’t work that quickly. “We meet once a month,” she noted.

Sup. Ryan Clancy argued against the agreement, saying that judges will be more likely to order people placed in-custody at the jail with the extra beds available. “It’s going to increase the amount of mass incarceration that we already engage in,” he said.

With the court-mandated facility capacity, and the staffing challenges both the jail and CRC have faced in recent years, Sup. Willie Johnson, Jr. said the contract is needed: “It is very important to continue this agreement with Racine County, very important, because on any given day, it is not known who is going to be arrested, who’s going to be brought to the county jail for processing.”

During the pandemic, courts stopped ordering people charged with misdemeanors to custody in the jail as the facility struggled with overcrowding and short-staffing. Staffing has improved at the jail, which is now 74% staffed. And the CRC, which accepts jail overflow, is now staffed at approximately 83%.