Tiffany: Why Did It Take an Election for David Crowley to Protect Victims From Their Jailed Attackers?
WAUSAU, WI – Tom Tiffany criticized Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley for waiting months to address reports of inmates using tablets to threaten and intimidate victims and witnesses from jail.
Since May, Crowley has been aware of inmates misusing the tablet program he approved. Despite these reports, Crowley continued to defend the program as “best practices” rather than immediately implementing changes to protect victims. Last week, he would not commit to making any changes when asked.
“Why did it take an election for David Crowley to protect victims from their attackers? Since May, he has known about reports of inmates using the tablets he approved to threaten victims. Yet he continued to defend the program as ‘best practice,’ even as an accused triple murderer and an alleged domestic abuser used them to intimidate victims and witnesses from jail. David Crowley will only protect victims when it benefits him. As governor, it won’t take me five months to act,” said Tom Tiffany.
Victims from David Crowley’s tablet program:
- In May, Amier Jones Jr. attempted to contact his domestic abuse victim more than 1,500 times from jail and used his tablet to threaten a police officer.
- In August, reports revealed that accused triple murderer Thomas Zollicoffer used his tablet to threaten witnesses.
- In September, it was revealed that Damian Cosme-Torres used his tablet to intimidate his 19-year-old victim.
- In October, we learned that Kahnye Ali-Powells used his Crowley-approved tablet to intimidate the woman he is accused of strangling, sending her 164 messages.
Tom Tiffany has continuously raised serious concerns about how inmates are able to misuse these tablets. In August, Judge David Borowski went off on Crowley’s tablet program, questioning why anyone would ever give inmates tablets.
Tiffany has called for ending free tablets for inmates, prohibiting violent offenders from accessing the devices, and requiring monitored, paid access for eligible nonviolent offenders.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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