County Jail Inmates Accused of ‘Mass Refusal’ and ‘Inciting a Riot’

The Milwaukee County Jail. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Another potential riot at the Milwaukee County Jail was quelled by guards in April, Wisconsin Examiner has learned through open records requests. On April 12, correctional officers were notified of a “mass refusal,” with jail residents refusing to enter their cells. One occupant was placed on administrative segregation for attempting to incite a riot, according to emails obtained by Wisconsin Examiner.

This marks the second known instance this year that unrest has occurred within the jail. Emails sent by Sgt. Tiawana Thompson indicate that at about 12:30 pm on April 12, Officer Brenden Zollicoffer radioed the jail’s master control to report the mass refusal. According to the email exchange, Thompson arrived with Officer Billy Howled and saw that additional Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) personnel were already responding to POD 5D, where the refusal was occurring.

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“I noticed occupants either running to their cells, laying down, or standing at their cells,” Thompson wrote in the email, adding that personnel advised that occupant Corey Kirkwood had “incited a riot by closing all cell doors not allowing inmates to get into their cells.” Kirkwood, who was charged in January with sexual assault and trafficking of a minor, was one of several jail residents who appear to have been transferred to other parts of the facility after the April unrest.

Thompson’s email also reported that “due to this action, occupant Kirkwood will be placed on administrative segregation (Ad-seg), pending discipline as well as being an ongoing investigation.” Another officer was tasked with completing a rules violation report, the email stated.

The Milwaukee sheriff did not respond to questions about the incident and whether Kirkwood remains in administrative segregation, or how he was able to control whether cell doors were open or closed.

Ten days after the mass refusal, MCSO Correctional Captain Kerry Turner emailed Sgt. Thompson and asked whether paperwork for those moved to administrative segregation had been finished. Turner asked, “Also, have all violations been completed and signed off on by a supervisor? Have the occupants all received a copy of their violation? Please let me know the status of these concerns of mine.”

It’s unclear what triggered this particular mass refusal incident. Another potential riot was quelled by jail staff in mid-February after one jail occupant, 49-year-old Keenan Brown, allegedly attempted to incite a riot by “shouting to the entire housing unit that the inmates needed to stick up for themselves and that they would not be taken seriously until they started assaulting staff.” Jail staff had learned that Brown used his jail-issued tablet to contact his mother, urging her to reach out to Fox6. When jail staff talked to Brown, he said jail residents weren’t being let out of their cells enough, and that their rights were being violated. At least 20 people were transferred to other parts of the jail after that incident as well.

During the late summer of 2023, nearly 30 jail residents were charged with disorderly conduct after they barricaded themselves in a library area and refused to return to their cells. The mass action was done to protest “dissatisfaction with their gymnasium time coming to an end and expressing that, generally, they wanted more ‘open’ recreational time,” according to an MCSO press release issued weeks after the unrest occurred.

The jail has come under increasing scrutiny under multiple sheriffs in recent years. Over a 14-month period from 2022 to 2023, six people died in custody at the jail. In late May, 33-year-old Gabriel Muniz-Jimenez became the second person to die in 2025. A third party audit detected severe problems with the physical condition of the jail’s booking areas, housing units, use of force policies and practices for monitoring people placed on suicide watch. A recent review by the auditor, the Texas-based company Creative Corrections, found the jail to be in compliance with 71.2% of proposed corrective actions, with another 28.8% being in partial compliance.

Milwaukee jail residents accused of ‘mass refusal’ and ‘inciting a riot’ was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner.

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