AG Schimel Should Go To Jail

Yeah, I know that’s a provocative headline and no I don’t really think that Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel has done anything that deserves incarceration.

But I am embarrassed that I haven’t written about this subject before. Four people have died while incarcerated in the Milwaukee County Jail in 2016. The jail run by County Sheriff David Clarke. Now deaths by inmates in custody in county jails do happen from time to time…but four is a pretty egregious number in less than a year. And two of them are particularly troubling. One male inmate with mental health issues died from dehydration after having the water turned off in his cell. The other was a newborn who didn’t survive the night when jail personnel ignored the mother’s statement that she was going into labor. By the time they checked her in the morning the baby was dead.

But as far as the public can tell nobody is investigating it. A recent law was passed in Wisconsin that requires that investigations of civilian deaths in police custody or by a police officer be carried out by an outside law enforcement agency. Unfortunately when this bill passed it intentionally excluded deaths of inmates in county jails. So the investigative agency for these four death in the Milwaukee County Jail are being carried out by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department, the same department that runs the jail.

There have been a number of calls for outside investigations from the media and the families involved. There have been a number of calls for Sheriff Clarke’s resignation by elected officials. But nothing is moving forward as far as we can tell.

So I would request that AG Schimel send a team to Milwaukee and visit the jail and investigate these four deaths in particular and the general overall handling of the jail. And if anything is amiss to bring charges against those responsible. It’s been long enough without action and the Wisconsin Dept of Justice is the appropriate agency.

Side note to the state legislature: Fix the loophole that allows deaths in custody at county jails to be investigated by the jailors!

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7 thoughts on “AG Schimel Should Go To Jail

    1. They are very hypocritical about the “pro life” thing.

      I met a woman a few months back who said her grandmother had emigrated from Syria as a refugee in the early 1900’s. She spoke to our local GOP rep about it, regarding the refugee situation today, and his retort was, “Why do they want to come here?”

      He was one of the ones who had signed the statement telling the federal government not to send refugees to Wisconsin. These Syrians are getting slaughtered, and he doesn’t get it. Yet he touts how he’s signed bills to “protect the unborn” because he’s “pro-life.”

  1. Relying on my memory, when the “outside investigator,” legislation was first implemented, (Walker’s first two years?) two retired Milwaukee detectives/investigators were then assigned to the WI DOJ to fill the positions.

    Shortly thereafter these former Milwaukee LE officers were brought back home under their new DOJ job titles to investigate a police officer shooting of a civilian of color as one of the first cases to be reviewed under the new legislation.

    Not sure of the current personnel assigned to this duty in the WI DOJ. I wonder though, if the intent of an, “outside,” investigator amounts to much more than window dressing in any eventual effectiveness reviewing these prison deaths in Milwaukee Co.

    Perhaps a Federal investigation of some sort would be more truly independent and warranted. Maybe a MSM “journalist,” will ask the question.

  2. Schimel is too busy to investigate this. He has more important things to due to sue the EPA for daring to be part of doing something about Global Warming.

  3. Appalling, Ed! But I’m not moving back to Wisconsin t help address this and so many other issues brought about by Walker’s administration.

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