The Milwaukee County Jail. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
A potential uprising in the Milwaukee County Jail in mid-February, reportedly sparked by conditions in the facility, was quelled by guards before it occurred, according to Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office emails obtained by Wisconsin Examiner.
Jail staff transported 42-year-old Keenan Brown to a segregation unit after Brown allegedly threatened to incite a riot in one of the jail’s housing units, according to sheriff’s department records.
One incident report states that Brown “was 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.” Brown, according to the report, was placed on administrative segregation as a result.
Another email, sent by a sergeant in the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Detention Services Bureau to other jail supervisors on Feb. 12, mentions that jail supervisors learned that Brown had used a tablet to message his mother with information about a potential riot and encouraged her to post the information on social media and contact Fox6 News. The email states that when jail staff spoke to Brown, he expressed concerns about jail occupants not being let out of their cells all day and his feelings that the guards were violating their rights.
Staff questioned Brown about possible threats made about inciting a riot, according to the sergeant’s email, and Brown replied that several people housed in the jail were making such comments. Emails note that Brown was moved to segregation in the jail’s POD 4D. At least 20 people were removed from POD 5D. While it appears from the emails that Brown was one of them, the sheriff’s office has not confirmed that was his previous housing. The sheriff’s office has not said whether Brown remains in the segregation unit.
When Brown was removed from his cell, according to a major incident summary obtained by Wisconsin Examiner through open records requests, he was in a wheelchair. The report says that “he stood up and got into a defensive stance and became violently aggressive with staff.” The report lists four jail guards as victims, and refers to photos and body camera footage that was captured of the cell extraction. Jail Staff used a type of pepper spray called Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) and a taser, according to the summary.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story. Court records and online booking information show that Brown was booked into the jail on April 1, 2024. He was charged with two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety with use of a dangerous weapon, using a vehicle to flee an officer, resisting an officer, and one count of second-degree recklessly endangering safety. His next court date is set for March 27, 2025.
There have been previous incidents of unrest in the jail in recent years. During the summer of 2023, over two dozen men housed in the jail barricaded themselves in a library area. The jail’s Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) was activated, and the jail was locked down.
That standoff began as a protest over conditions in the jail. It ended after correctional staff used OC spray to remove the men from the library. The unrest wasn’t made public for weeks, until the district attorney’s office filed a complaint charging the 27 men with disorderly conduct.
After the 2023 unrest was made public Sylvester Jackson, a Milwaukee-area incarceration activist, told Wisconsin Examiner that incarcerated people have turned to fomenting unrest when they don’t see other options to raise their concerns. “When you get to a point where you can’t take no more, you go to the extreme to do what you got to do to literally draw attention,” said Jackson.
The Milwaukee County Jail has been the object of growing controversy. Over a 14-month period from 2022 to 2023, six people died in custody in the jail.
Among the first to raise attention in the community was 21-year-old Brieon Green, who the sheriff’s department said died by suicide in his cell. Another death involved Cilivea Thyrion, a 20-year-old woman who died after eating pieces of an adult diaper while on suicide watch. In the days and weeks leading up to her death, Thryion made repeated attempts to inform jail staff of harassment and maltreatment she’d received from certain guards.
In 2024, an audit of the jail found that the facility “faces a complex web of challenges that jeopardize the safety and well-being of its occupant population and staff.” The audit found “unsafe restraining of occupants” who are on suicide watch, lack of supervision of people in segregation and suicide watch units, occupants who reported difficulty accessing mental health services, problems with use of force procedures, and and other issues.
On Thursday, Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball held a highly structured town hall, attended by jail command staff and with the only questions being asked by Ken Harris, a former Milwaukee police officer and host of the radio show The Truth on 101.7. Urban Milwaukee reported that Milwaukee County supervisors criticized how the town hall was conducted.
Jail command staff said during the town hall that plans are underway to retrofit existing booking rooms with individual suicide cells. The Sheriff’s Office, however, has continued to oppose implementing an expedited video release policy for critical incidents, which has been active in the City of Milwaukee for the police department. A more transparent video release policy has been a key policy demand of local activists and the families of people who’ve died in the jail.
Ball said that she hoped the town hall “was an opportunity for [the public] to express themselves.” To address issues like replacing the suicide watch areas of the booking room Ball said, “we’re going to need resources, and as a result, we will be requesting those resources…It’s going to cost a lot of money.”
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