Blogging Blue

Being a former employee at the Milwaukee County House of Correction, I try to keep up with the latest news and happenings from that particular institution, so imagine my surprise when I opened today’s paper and saw an article about an inmate from the HOC who’s being charged with first-degree reckless homicide after being accused of supplying another inmate with prescription methadone pills, causing that inmate’s death. What’s most disturbing to me, at least at first glance, is the fact that the HOC wasn’t even licensed to distribute methadone to treat heroin withdrawal:

Methadone is frequently used to treat pain and as a non-addictive substitute to help wean heroin addicts off that drug. The House of Correction is not licensed to treat heroin withdrawal with methadone, according to the criminal complaint. It wasn’t immediately clear why Fitzpatrick was getting the methadone, but according to the complaint, he had been getting 14 pills twice a day from the medical dispensary. He traded an unspecified number of the pills to Orlowski for snack chips from the House of Correction commissary, the complaint says.

While it’s obvious to me internal House of Corrections policies regarding prescribed medications are largely to blame, both for continuing to give an inmate methadone despite not being licensed to do so and also for allowing the inmate to hoard his methadone for weeks at a time. However, I can already see who Scott Walker and HOC Superintendent Ron Malone are going to blame, in order to deflect blame away from themselves:

Attempts to revive Orlowski about 6 a.m. were unsuccessful, the criminal complaint says. A correctional officer checked on Orlowski at 4 a.m., when he was snoring loudly, and last checked on him at 5:25 a.m., the complaint says.

The Orlowski family claim says that correctional officers “refused to look at or check up” on Orlowski early that morning despite repeated pleas by other inmates.

If you’d like to read more on the foibles and follies at the Milwaukee County House of Corrections, check out a series of excellent blog entries by capper over at folkbum’s, or feel free to check out my archive.

1 Comment »

All Politics posted an entry earlier tonight highlighting the differences between Lena Taylor and Scott Walker as election day draws closer. What I found most interesting was this particular blurb:

Taylor also criticizes Walker over escapes and walk-aways from the work-release center. Walker puts the blame on judges, saying greater care was needed in who is sentenced there.

I find that particular blurb to be most interesting because it really highlights Scott Walker’s management style: when something goes wrong, blame someone else. Scott Walker’s assertion that judges - and not he as the County Executive - are to blame for poor management and security procedures at the Community Correctional Center is absolutely ludicrous.

What’s more, Walker has provided further proof that his hypocrisy and willingness to lie knows no limits, as evidenced by this ad:

Sure, it’s a mildly amusing take on the ever-popular Apple ads, but what I found most amusing about the ad is Walker’s assertion that he’s diverted money from parks and transit in order to enhance public safety - an assertion that flies in the face of the cold hard reality of things in Milwaukee County. After all, if Scott Walker’s been putting so much money into public safety, how does he explain multiple escapes from county facilities, one of which ended in a murder?

1 Comment »

Sometimes as I sit and think about the upcoming election for Milwaukee County Executive, I can’t help but wonder how how much more of a hypocrite Scott Walker could be, considering his status as one of Milwaukee County’s foremost practitioners of the dark art of hypocrisy.

After all, who can forgot these humdingers:

• Taking credit for Milwaukee County’s seven million dollar budget surplus, despite the fact that the surplus came about as the result of a budget Walker himself vetoed.
• Or how about the fact that Walker touts his concern for public safety - despite the fact that during his tenure in office the House of Corrections has been plagued by chronic understaffing, not one, but two high-profile escapes, the second of which ended with a citizen being murdered. And lest we forget Scott Walker’s plan to “keep Milwaukee safe” by closing CCC and placing the individuals confined there on GPS.
• And then there’s Walker’s hypocritical attacks against Lena Taylor for raising campaign funds from outside Milwaukee County, when Walker’s own campaign has been hitting up out of county donors for campaign contributions.

As I sit here thinking about Scott Walker’s repeated hypocrisy, I’m left to wonder if his hypocrisy knows any limits.

No Comments »

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has talked a lot about his desire to close the Community Correctional Center - Milwaukee’s Huber work release facility - and replace it with GPS monitoring for offenders who would have otherwise been housed at CCC. Walker’s touted his plan as being one that will save the County - and taxpayers - millions of dollars, but Sheriff David Clarke isn’t buying it. “If you are not going to do GPS right, I’m going to stand in the way of it,” Clarke said to the MJS. What I found most interesting was this passage from the article:

Clarke said in an interview that serious unanswered questions about the GPS system remain. To be done properly, inmates considered for GPS monitoring should be carefully pre-screened, he said. All violent and drug offenders should be excluded, Clarke said.

A successful monitoring program also should have frequent drug testing, he said. And the program needs extra law enforcement help to round up inmates who set off alarms for straying from approved travel routes to school or jobs.

All those things cost money that hasn’t been found yet, Clarke said.

That’s exactly the problem I’ve always had with Scott Walker’s plan to close CCC - the fact that it may not actually save much more money than keeping CCC open and fully staffed. Another concern of mine was also raised by Sheriff Clarke - that being the fact that offenders on GPS could still be committing new crimes while they’re being monitored, because a GPS bracelet won’t prevent someone from committing murder or dealing drugs.

Ultimately, any solution to the problems that have plagued CCC will come only after Scott Walker and Ron Malone, the Superintendent of the House of Corrections and CCC, finally admit that the problems at those two facilities aren’t simply a matter of lazy staff who don’t want to do their jobs properly. If I were running things at the HOC and CCC, my first course of action would be to change the entire culture and improve working conditions for staff, because staff who don’t like coming to work aren’t going to do their best while they’re at their jobs. There’s no denying there’s a lot of problems at the HOC and CCC, but those problems can most certainly be fixed - but only if management is willing to work collaboratively with the rank and file corrections staff to enact real changes that not only improve working conditions, but that also keep our communities safer.

GPS monitoring isn’t going to be a magic fix for what’s wrong with CCC, and if Scott Walker thinks it is, he’s fooling himself.

capper over at folkbum’s is talking about this too.

No Comments »

This past weekend, I blogged a bit about some of the crazy stuff happening at the Milwaukee County House of Corrections and its work release facility, CCC. I noted the fact that when asked about inmates being allowed to stay up until 3:30 a.m. on the weekends, Ron Malone, the Superintendent of the HOC, declined to comment, saying he wasn’t familiar with inmate hours. I noted how odd it was that the Superintendent didn’t know the policies and procedures of the facility he was charged with supervising, and so you can imagine my surprise when I happened across an article in today’s MJS that notes the inmate “all-nighters” on weekends have been cancelled, effective immediately.

What’s most curious about the change is a comment by Superintendent Malone, who said the change was made in part because of the MJS’s previous article on the inmate late nights, but also had been under consideration and would likely have been made by January in any case. So only a week ago Ron Malone said he didn’t know the inmates’ curfew on the weekends, yet now he’s saying that changing curfew had already been under consideration? What’s more, the President of the corrections officers’ union told the MJS Malone told him he was adamantly opposed to changing the policy during a recent meeting with the union.

I’m willing to bet this policy wasn’t already under review; it just got changed because the HOC’s management - and no doubt the County Executive - can ill afford more bad publicity in an election year.

No Comments »