Sheriff Announces Pause in Jail Tablet Messaging

Milwaukee County Jail. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office will halt instant messaging on digital tablets issued to inmates at the Milwaukee County Jail.

Sheriff Denita Ball‘s decision to halt tablet instant messaging in the jail, which she oversees, follows Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley‘s decision to halt the service in the Community Reintegration Center (CRC), a county-run prison that falls under his authority.

During the past year, inmates at the jail have been criminally charged for using the tablets to intimidate or harass victims and witnesses. The issue became important to the race for governor in September after U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany‘s campaign seized on it to attack Crowley.

The tablets are provided through the county’s correctional telecommunications contract with ICsolutions. In the jail, they are provided to each of the roughly 20,000 people who pass through the facility each year, according to the sheriff’s office. Inmates do not have unlimited access to tablets, which are not connected to the internet and operate on a closed network managed by ICsolutions. The tablets provide access to the law library, educational materials and entertainment. To read a message from someone in a jail, a recipient would first need to accept the message and create an account.

Crowley met with Sheriff Ball Monday and discussed the tablet issue. In a statement Tuesday, Ball’s office said the pause at the jail was intended to create a consistent approach between the two correctional facilities. The jail struggles at times with overcrowding and understaffing and sometimes people in county custody are shuffled back and forth between the CRC and the jail.

“Victims and witnesses must be able to take part in the justice system without fear,” Ball said in a statement. “These tablets were put in place to help occupants stay connected to family, legal resources and support systems that can influence a reduction in recidivism. When even a small number of people misuse that access to threaten others and further break the law, we have a responsibility to act. Pausing messaging gives us the time to review our controls and reduce misuse and abuse of this technology.”

As with the new policy at the CRC, people in custody at the jail will still be able to use the tablets for other purposes. The sheriff’s office has also created a form, posted on its website, for residents to fill out if they have received unwanted contact from someone in custody at the jail.

During a press conference Tuesday, Crowley was asked about Ball’s decision.

“I welcome the temporary suspension because, again, we have to make sure that we put safeguards in place to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. I have zero tolerance for any level of witness intimidation or a victim being harassed,” Crowley said.

Crowley has not offered any specifics on what drove the decision, other than to say at a press conference Monday that, “We found out that the safeguards that were in place weren’t necessarily working the way that they should.”