An audit of the Milwaukee County Jail found problems. What progress has been made since then?

Yahoo

24-05-2025

Milwaukee County has taken steps to improve conditions at its jail, including ending the use of unsafe restraint practices and updating suicide prevention protocols, according to a recently released report from an outside evaluator.
The progress report was a follow-up to an audit commissioned by the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors and prompted by six in-custody deaths between 2022 and 2023, including two confirmed suicides.
The original audit, dated October 2024, was critical of the jail conditions. It found suicide watch practices termed "dangerous," challenges administering mental health care, poor leadership oversight and an ongoing critical staffing shortage and inmate crowding.
The new report, dated May 20, provided an update on progress made between January and April of this year.
Here's what to know about the final report:
Texas-based firm Creative Corrections produced the audit and the 47-page final report.
The report was a "collaborative effort" between the company, the jail and Wellpath, which is the health care provider in the jail, the report says.
The key areas of concern were security, training, safety, food service, facility maintenance, occupant handbook information, medical services, mental health and communication with other county departments.
The report found "measurable and meaningful progress" in addressing problems that had been identified in the original report.
"Key improvements include the elimination of unsafe restraint practices, updated suicide prevention protocols, strengthened supervision, improved compliance reviews, and targeted mental health and suicide awareness training," the report states.
About 71% of the 52 actionable items identified in the corrective action plan had been fully resolved while the remaining 29% are partially compliant and being addressed, according to the report.
Areas of concern that are only partially compliant include:
Removing bench restraints.
Adding holding cells.
Funding new protective gear and less-lethal munitions for jail staff. Less-lethal munitions typically refers to pepper spray and similar law enforcement tools.
Upgrading suicide watch cells.
Posting daily food menus in housing units and on occupants' tablets.
Removing all graffiti.
Filling certain positions to ensure around-the-clock mental health coverage.
Auditors remain confident the jail will continue to improve — "provided that appropriate structural and fiscal support remains in place," the report says.
They specifically emphasized the need for continued funding and support for infrastructure changes, such as renovations to the cells.
The report also found that the county could move faster to reduce overcrowding and improve conditions of confinement by expanding the Community Reintegration Center's acceptance criteria to include pretrial female occupants.
Yes.
Monitoring by the state's Department of Corrections Office of Detention Facilities and court monitoring under the Christensen Consent Decree will continue, according to a memo from county Director of Audits Jennifer Folliard Folliard.
Medical care at the jail and the Community Reintegration Center will continue to be monitored by NCCHC Resources, she wrote.
Alison Dirr can be reached at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County Jail conditions improve since audit but work remains