Board Gives Go-Ahead for Jail Audit

Milwaukee County Jail. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Milwaukee County Board voted to release funding Monday for a third-party audit of the Milwaukee County Jail focused on the causes of deaths, particularly suicides, at the facility.

The audit was included in the 2024 budget and is intended to produce policy recommendations that will lead to fewer deaths in the facility. Policymakers are looking for answers, and policy solutions, after a spate of deaths in the Milwaukee County Jail in recent years.

In 2023, supervisors requested a large report from the MCSO including budget data and policies and practices in the jail. The report identified low-staffing as the most acute challenge to the safe operation of the jail.

In the 2024 budget, the board increased correctional office pay to $30 an hour. This increase brings the county’s pay for corrections officers closer to the starting pay offered by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) in state prisons: $33 and hour.

The budget amendment creating the audit was sponsored by Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson, and included $250,00 for the project. Nicholson said the audit will give policymakers a review of the jail that is more comprehensive, and objective.

The audit will consider a number of things, and will likely require an “extensive records review, multiple interviews with various individuals involved with jail operations, including county employees and vendors performing work in the jail, justice system leaders and of course conversations with occupants of the facility,” said Jennifer Folliard, director of audits.

The third-party contractor will be looking into whether the jail’s training, staffing and programming; and whether it is operating within the laws and regulations of the state and federal governments. The audit will seek to identify factors contributing to suicides in the facility, and the adequacy of mental health treatment. The auditors will also compare the jail to other facilities and determine whether the MCSO is employing the best practices.

The jail is already regularly reviewed by the state DOC and a court-appointed monitor, the latter stemming from a 1996 lawsuit over constitutional violations and unsafe living conditions. “I think it’s important for any evaluation to review what’s currently in place to see if their focus is functioning as expected, and whether there are any opportunities to enhance those review layers,” Folliard said.

With the vote Monday, the board authorized county officials to begin looking for an independent auditor based on the scope of work Folliard presented them.

Folliard told the board she could not say, for certain, how long the audit would take. But, based upon the timeline of an audit of the Community Reintegration Center more than a decade ago, she said it would likely not be a timeline measured in years. “Probably months and not years,” she said, “but probably not weeks.”