Supervisor Questions Jail Audit Contract

Milwaukee County Jail. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Milwaukee County Board will vote on a proposed auditor for the Milwaukee County Jail next week.

After a competitive bidding process that began earlier this year, county officials selected Creative Corrections, LLC. for the audit. The firm is based in Beaumont, Texas and conducts audits and inspections of corrections facilities and practices all over the U.S. and internationally — through work with the U.S. State Department.

The county board set the audit in motion last year, setting approximately $250,000 aside in the 2024 budget. Supervisors have sought answers and policy recommendations following a series of deaths in the Milwaukee County Jail. Having selected Creative Corrections, county officials are asking the board to release the funding so a contract can be drawn up and the firm can begin auditing the jail.

The firm plans to have actionable recommendations for policymakers within six months of their first inspection, as Creative Corrections president Jeanine Hadnot told supervisors on the Finance Committee Thursday.

Creative Corrections has been in business for approximately 20 years and has conducted more than 1,800 facility inspections and more than 100 death investigations, Hadnot said.

“Our whole goal is to look at the inhumane living conditions at these facilities, shortages of staff, medical care, mental health, overcrowding,” Hadnot said. “There are a plethora of things that needs to be looked at in corrections across the nation.”

The Finance Committee unanimously approved releasing the funding for a contract with Creative Corrections.

Questions About Bidding Process, Creative Corrections

Not everyone is satisfied with Creative Corrections, though.

Sup. Justin Bielinski has questioned whether the county should reconsider the audit contract. He pointed out that, based on the scoring sheets produced by the county’s procurement division, the scores for the top bidders were very close.

The second-place bidder was The CNA Corporation, a consultancy and research firm based in Arlington, Virginia. It advertises services and expertise geared toward the military, law enforcement and international security. Like Creative Corrections, The CNA Corporation has contracts with the federal government, including the Department of Defense.

Bielinski noted that The CNA Corporation scored higher in some areas, but Creative Correction’s lower cost seemed to have put its bid over the top.

“My inclination is to favor the one that scored the highest on content, on experience, on the actual questionnaire they filled out and not just on cost,” Bielinski said, when the issue was before the board’s Committee on Audit earlier this month.

While cost was a factor, the panel that reviewed the proposals was very impressed with Creative Corrections, said Suzanne Carter, county purchasing manager. The organization has significant experience with mental health and suicide prevention in corrections settings, she said.

“That was one of the things that really impressed the panel about Creative,” Carter told the Audit Committee.

When the board asked the county’s Audit Division to develop parameters for an audit, among the primary concerns were mental health policies and any factors contributing to suicides.

“So our division believes that we have responded to what the county board wanted,” said Jennifer Folliard, Audits Division director.

Bielinski also asked Hadnot about her firm’s work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the Audit Committee meeting, noting that the federal agency’s detention facilities have been notorious for their terrible conditions. Specifically, he asked for an example of their work leading to change.

Hadnot offered a recent example, where their inspection of a juvenile detention facility for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) led the agency to install private bathrooms; before that the children were forced to use the bathroom in front of others.

Bielinski asked what the process would be to select a different contractor, or if the board did not approve releasing the funds to Creative Corrections.

Folliard said her division would not return to the board with another contractor or RFP unless the board took a separate legislative action. In other words, the board would have to start the process over, Acting Corporation Counsel Scott Brown told supervisors.

“I don’t think it would just go to another bidder, we would go back to the drawing board,” he said.

Kerrie Hirte, the mother of Cilivea Sunray Thyrion, who committed suicide at the Milwaukee County Jail in 2022, asked the board not to rush a decision on the audit contractor. “I’m willing to be patient, because this needs to be done correctly,” she said.

Sup. Willie Johnson, Jr. said he didn’t think the audit was being rushed, and that many of the questions Hirte wants answers to could be answered by the audit that may soon begin.

“It is an outside firm,” he said. “That firm would come in to look at what happens here to find out what’s happening as relates to policies, procedures, the operations of the jail.”

Sup. Steve Taylor said outside groups and individuals were already challenging the results of an audit that had not occurred yet. “We don’t even have anything yet, and it’s been discredited,” he said.

The board’s goal is to prevent future deaths in custody, Sup. Anne O’Connor said. “I’m inclined to vote to move ahead so that we can at least start getting some information.”

O’Connor noted that the Creative Corrections proposal includes a preliminary report during the first two months of the audit process, and said she hopes the board will have an opportunity to begin providing some “checks and balances” and “inquire deeper” into the policies of the jail.

Hadnot said Creative Corrections wants to help the county make whatever changes are necessary to improve conditions at the jail, but that ultimately it will be up to policymakers — in this case the board and the Milwaukee County Sheriff‘s Office — to implement any recommendations.

“I just want to say for the record that I will remain committed to seeing the actions recommended [are]  followed through,”  O’Connor said.