Latest news with #WisconsinWatch
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
‘It's been a living hell': Wisconsin prison phone failures leave families disconnected
This story was produced and originally published by WPR and Wisconsin Watch. Wisconsin prisoners have struggled to connect with loved ones for weeks and even months as a state contractor fails to keep up with increasing demand for its call and messaging services. The Department of Corrections last year began working with Texas-based ICSolutions, the prison system's phone provider, to make electronic tablets free for every state prisoner. The state allocated $2.5 million to cover some of the cost. The program aims to boost quality of life behind bars by making it easier for incarcerated people to connect with their loved ones and access problems began after some prisons began distributing the tablets in March 2024. The issues worsened this spring, prisoners and their family members say, spreading across institutions that imprison more than 23,000. More: Wisconsin is spending $2.5 million on new tablets in prisons. Find out what's changing and why. More: Jails around Wisconsin forgo in-person visits for video calls. How is this affecting those incarcerated? WPR and Wisconsin Watch heard from more than 25 people experiencing connection difficulties at multiple prisons. Incarcerated people described dialing a number multiple times before getting through and waiting more than an hour for calls to connect. Family members described hearing their phones ring but receiving no option to connect with the caller; some calls have dropped mid-conversation. Family members are airing frustrations in a nearly 300-member Facebook forum launched specifically to discuss the phone problems. Brenda McIntyre, incarcerated at Robert E. Ellsworth Correctional Center, traditionally calls her grandchildren every weekend. But the overwhelmed system blocked a recent check-in. ''Grandma, why didn't you call me? You said you're going to call me,'' McIntyre recalled one grandchild asking when they finally connected. Phone services somewhat improved late last week, McIntyre said. But she worries about missing updates about her sister's cancer treatment. 'It's been a living hell,' she said. Neither ICSolutions nor its parent company responded to requests for comment. But in an undated statement on its website, the company promised improvements in the 'coming weeks,' with 'significant optimization coming this summer.' The statement recommended shifting calls to 'off-peak hours' — before 5 p.m. or after 9 p.m. But family members say they are not always available at such hours. Corrections spokesperson Beth Hardtke squarely blamed ICSolutions, saying state-run infrastructure and Wi-Fi access played no role in the issue. 'To be very clear, the quality of service that ICSolutions is providing is not acceptable to the department. If reliability and customer service do not improve, the department will be forced to reevaluate our contract,' Hardtke wrote in an email. The statement from ICSolutions blamed 'unexpected challenges' from increased demand for calls. But Hardtke said the company previously assured the department it could handle higher call volume during the rollout. Prisoners in nine of Wisconsin's 36 adult institutions — including all three women's facilities — still lack tablets. The glitches affect them, too, because ICSolutions services the entire phone system, not just tablets. The corrections department is pausing tablet distribution while trying to fix the reliability problems, Hardtke said. Emily Curtis said she was cautiously excited when her incarcerated fiance gained access to a tablet at Stanley Correctional Institution. He previously could call only from the prison's landlines and during limited hours. The tablet enabled calls most anytime, even during lockdowns. For about two months, the two talked daily — right before Curtis fell asleep and right after she woke up. 'It was great,' Curtis said. 'Until everything kind of hit the fan.' Wisconsin is not the only state prison system that has issued tablets. Unlike some states, however, Wisconsin allows people to make calls from their cells and doesn't limit the number of calls they can make, Hartdke said via email. That policy, which the department communicated to ICSolutions during contract negotiations, naturally increased call volume, she added. Calls from Green Bay Correctional Institution, for instance, increased by nearly 200% after the tablet rollout, Hardtke wrote. Curtis now hears from her fiance just once daily, usually very early in the morning. Their 14-year-old son has gone weeks without talking to his dad, Curtis said, because the phone lines are too jammed once he's home from school. ICSolutions and the prison system make millions each year from phone calls. The company charges six cents a minute and shares revenue with the state, adding nearly $4 million to its general fund in recent years. Curtis said she spends roughly $250 a month on calls. Tablets present new revenue opportunities for prison contractors. An ICSolutions affiliate sold them to incarcerated Wisconsinites before the state made them free. And even with free tablets, prisoners pay for calls, messaging and other applications. The high cost of phone calls has long burdened the incarcerated and their families. The Federal Communications Commission last year responded by capping fees. Apps for TV and music aren't subject to the same regulations. That makes tablets a safer investment for prison telecommunication companies, said Wanda Bertram, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative, which focuses on solutions to mass incarceration. Incarcerated people often greet the rollout of tablets with excitement, Bertram said. But the attempt to improve virtual communication comes as Wisconsin, like other states, has restricted other communication — like physical mail. In December 2021, the corrections department began rerouting all prisoner-bound mail to Maryland, where a company called TextBehind scans each piece of mail and sends a digital copy to those incarcerated. The controversial effort aims to reduce the flow of drugs into prisons. The change delays access to mail and boosts reliance on tablets. As a result, technology glitches have bigger consequences, Betram said. Charles Gill is incarcerated at Oshkosh Correctional Institution. His fiance lives in New York, and his adult son lives in New Jersey, too far to visit in person. Gill relies largely on his tablet for communication. But online texts have been delayed by two to three days, Gill said. 'We're helpless,' Gill said. 'To be a father, not knowing what's going on with your child, to be in a relationship with someone and not knowing what's going on with them. God forbid something happens and somebody goes to the hospital, somebody gets hurt. We don't know about it, and we can't reach out to nobody and talk about it.' Gill felt particularly helpless on Easter weekend, the anniversary of his brother's death. He couldn't reach any family members. 'The phones were just destroyed on (Easter) weekend, " he said. 'You could really feel the tension in the air because people weren't able to call their families.' He worries about a repeat around Mother's Day. 'Having that ability to speak to someone who still sees you as a human being and not a number is vital,' said Marianne Oleson, the operations director for Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing of Wisconsin. That's especially the case for mothers who are incarcerated. The majority of women in prisons nationally have children under the age of 18, according to a 2016 U.S. Department of Justice report. Phone calls offer incarcerated women their only chance to act as parent, wife or daughter — ensuring their loved ones are safe, Oleson said. The faulty phone system leaves incarcerated people with tough choices. 'We even have to choose to try the phone over going to meals,' Christa Williams, who is incarcerated at Ellsworth prison, wrote in an email. Shawnda Schultz said phone failures have left her incarcerated mother in tears during recent calls. 'It bothers me because their phone calls are the one thing that (prisoners) have to keep them going in there, and it keeps us going too, because that's our mother,' Schultz said. Schultz's sister recently delivered her first baby. If the phones don't improve, she worries her mother will miss hearing updates, like when her grandchild says his first word. 'I found myself actually in tears because I'm just like, 'what if something happens to my mom?'' Schulz said. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin prison phone failures leave families disconnected
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
After deaths, advocates raise concerns at vigil outside women's prison
Kelly O'Keefe Boettcher holds a photo of Brittany Doescher at a vigil near Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac on March 22, 2025 | Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner At a vigil across the road from Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac, Wis., advocates sought to increase attention on the women's prison. 'There's been a lot of publicity with what goes on in the men's prisons in the last couple of years, but that is something that is not just within those prisons, it is at the women's prisons too,' Juli Bliefnick, who was once incarcerated at Taycheedah, said at the vigil. The small group of advocates met in a neighborhood near the prison and walked up to the facility, carrying signs bearing photos of two women. Wisconsin Watch and Wisconsin Public Radio published an article on March 11 that reported the deaths of Shawnee Reed, 36, on Feb. 23, and Brittany Doescher, 33, on March 6, following hospital stays. The women were incarcerated at Taycheedah Correctional. Bliefnick is the operations coordinator for FREE, a nonprofit addressing the gender-specific issues of women's incarceration and reentry to society. She spoke about getting 'some visibility for these women and honor[ing] their memory' and showing support for women currently incarcerated at the facility. The official causes of the deaths are still not public, according to the article. Family members said hospital staff linked the deaths to pneumonia. Following discussions with doctors, an unnamed family member of Doescher believes earlier treatment could have prevented her death. Family members said both women started mentioning health issues over the phone around a month before the article's publication on March 11. The obituary for Doescher says that she 'suffered and died from complications from pneumonia left untreated.' In a statement to Wisconsin Watch and WPR, Department of Corrections communications director Beth Hardtke said the agency was taking steps to prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses to staff and incarcerated people in a time of reportedly high numbers of respiratory illness cases in Wisconsin, the article said. She detailed actions taken by the department and said people incarcerated at Wisconsin prisons, including Taycheedah, recently received testing and treatment for Influenza A. Another advocate at the vigil, Melissa Ludin, said she is a member of FREE's board. 'And I think if anything, I think there's things that really need to be looked into with that,' she said, referring to Doescher's family saying the cause of her death was untreated pneumonia. '…Are there other women that are sick?' Cellmate homicide In July 2023, Cindy Schulz-Juedes, 68, died at Taycheedah Correctional. Taylor Sanchez, 29 and also incarcerated at Taycheedah, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide of her cellmate. A jury trial is scheduled for July and early August. In early March, the Examiner sent a records request for any reports produced by the Fond du Lac Police Department's investigation into Schulz-Juedes's death. The department denied the request on the grounds that disclosure could interfere with an ongoing prosecution or investigation. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Evers declines review in case of fired Wisconsin National Guard officer cleared in four investigations
This story was produced and originally published by Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. It was made possible by donors like you. For Col. Leslie Zyzda Martin — who was fired from the Wisconsin National Guard despite four investigations failing to substantiate allegations against her — the language in Wisconsin's military justice law is clear: Any members of the National Guard who think they have been wronged by a commander can make a complaint that must be reviewed and resolved as soon as possible by a superior officer. Yet more than a year after making such a complaint, Zyzda Martin says she is still waiting for some kind of justice. The commander whom she has accused of unceremoniously firing her, Brig. Gen. David May, is still interim head of the Wisconsin National Guard and may be retiring soon. And his boss, Gov. Tony Evers, informed Zyzda Martin in August he's declining further review, but didn't provide records of any proceedings related to the particular review she requested. Military legal experts who reviewed the provision in Article 138 of Wisconsin's military justice code agreed it compels the Guard and the governor, as commander-in-chief, to review such complaints, especially because the complaint involves an adjutant general. Whoever reviews the complaint must also provide documentation of the proceedings of that review. A lawyer who advises the Legislature agreed the law allows Zyzda Martin to appeal to the governor, but doesn't appear to provide recourse if the governor declines to act. Guard spokesperson Bridget Esser emphasized the state Department of Workforce Development Equal Rights Division determined in 2023 that the Guard did not discriminate against Zyzda Martin. That finding responded to a sex discrimination complaint Zyzda Martin filed in June 2022. She withdrew her appeal in January 2024, but continued to pursue the Article 138 complaint. The Guard said while four investigations didn't substantiate three complaints against Zyzda Martin, information gleaned from those investigations caused May to lose confidence in her ability to command. The Guard did not provide a detailed explanation for her firing when Wisconsin Watch asked, saying it was protecting Zyzda Martin's privacy even after she signed a waiver for the Guard to release her personnel records to the news outlet. Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said the Guard 'has provided legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons' for demoting and firing Zyzda Martin. 'In order for a wrong to be remedied a wrong must be identified,' Cudaback said. 'Based on a review of Zyzda Martin's complaint, supporting documents, and investigatory files of the three inspector general complaints made against her, there is no indication of any wrongful action against her.' After her firing in November 2021, Zyzda Martin worked for the South Carolina Guard, but the disciplinary letters May put in her military record from her time in Wisconsin prevented her from being promoted. Because of that, she retired in October, ending her 34-year military career. 'I still don't know what I did wrong,' Zyzda Martin said. 'I have no idea.' Last year, a Wisconsin Watch investigation highlighted Zyzda Martin's case. It was notable because the Wisconsin National Guard has been plagued for years by allegations of sexual harassment and a culture that hasn't supported women in uniform. Previous reporting on those allegations led to Evers firing former Adjutant General Donald Dunbar, but commanders who served under him, including May, have remained. Zyzda Martin suspects her termination relates to how she handled a sexting case at Volk Field and other changes she made there, including updates to the airfield's safety program after a technician died while changing light bulbs on a runway. An independent investigation into the death later found that Volk Field, at the time under May's command, was not properly staffed and had 'significant voids in safety program management, training, and compliance.' Because of the broad discretion military commanders have, retribution can be swift for those who report wrongdoing. Service members have few avenues for recourse, but Wisconsin provides one legal remedy: the Article 138 complaint. The law entitles 'any member of the state military forces' who believes they've been wronged by a commanding officer and is refused redress to 'complain to any superior commissioned officer, who shall forward the complaint to the officer exercising general court-martial jurisdiction over the officer against whom it is made.' According to the statute, which mirrors the one in the federal Uniform Code of Military Justice, the superior officer 'shall examine the complaint and take proper measures for redressing the wrong complained of; and shall, as soon as possible, send to the adjutant general a true statement of that complaint, with the proceedings.' Zyzda Martin filed an Article 138 complaint over her firing with Evers' office in November 2023. She argues Evers is the proper person to review the complaint because, as commander-in-chief of the Guard, he oversees May. Zyzda Martin also already sought redress with May and Maj. Gen. Paul Knapp, making Evers next in the chain of command. In January 2024 Evers' chief legal counsel Mel Barnes said Evers was deferring a decision on whether to look into Zyzda Martin's case to 'allow for the completion of an inquiry by the Governor's Office,' according to a letter Barnes sent to Zyzda Martin. Eight months later, Evers' office sent a letter saying it reviewed the record of her removal and was 'declining to take further action on the complaint.' But the office has produced no record of any correspondence or proceedings related to either an Article 138 review or the inquiry the governor's office said it was undertaking. The Guard confirmed there were no records of any proceedings related to any reviews or inquiries in a November email to Zyzda Martin. The Guard and Evers did not respond to Wisconsin Watch's requests for records of any proceedings. 'If there was that inquiry, I should have documents showing that,' Zyzda Martin said. 'The governor has the responsibility, law or not, to do the right thing and look into it.' Though military legal experts said Wisconsin's military justice code requires the Guard and the governor to review Article 138 complaints, there are no specifics in the statute of what the proceedings must look like. 'I don't think that the resulting reporting has to be a seven-volume magnum opus,' said Eugene Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School and co-founded the National Institute of Military Justice. 'But I think there has to be an effort to apply the mind and find the facts and explain what, if anything, the governor is going to do.' Often Article 138 complaints go nowhere, but they are a necessary step if a service member plans to take a case to court, Fidell said. 'The complaining party has a right to an up-or-down vote on a complaint and there has to be a meaningful investigation and there has to be a report generated,' Fidell said. But Wisconsin's law does not provide guidance on how such a review should be conducted, a key departure from how such complaints are handled on the federal level, said retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Chip Hodge, a military attorney, who now represents service members globally in legal cases. 'Usually the services provide procedural guidance and on implementing the law,' he said. 'I haven't seen that in Wisconsin … which leads to that ambiguity. It seems like they could be taking advantage of the ambiguity.' Lt. Col. Ryan Sweazey, a retired F-16 pilot and former inspector general in the U.S. Air Force who has worked with Zyzda Martin on her complaint, suspects that is the case. 'The governor's office said, 'We're not taking further action, you lose,' essentially, which is a violation of the Wisconsin state statute,' said Sweazey, who founded the Walk The Talk Foundation, an advocacy group helping service members navigate the military judicial system. 'The law is nice but if there is no accountability for violating the law or circumventing it, what is the point?' But David Moore, an attorney with Wisconsin's Legislative Council, a nonpartisan agency of the Wisconsin Legislature, said the law is not clear on what it compels the governor to do. 'It's not clear to me that Article 138 envisions a process for filing a complaint with the governor, but even if it does, that tees up that tricky question of 'you can take it to the governor, but does he really have to do anything?'' Moore said. 'And if he doesn't do anything, is there any recourse to that?' Although Evers is commander-in-chief of the Guard, Moore said that does not make him an officer in the context of the Article 138 statute. Also no court has clarified exactly what the law means. The investigations against Zyzda Martin were the result of complaints made through the Air Force's Office of Inspector General. In one case, even after the initial complainant voluntarily withdrew the complaint, May pushed for an investigation to continue, but the allegation still wasn't substantiated. In the end, May issued two letters of admonishment to Zyzda Martin on Nov. 8, 2021, the day she was fired. May and Knapp used information from the investigations as the basis for discipline. This 'effectively railroad(ed) her honorable career,' Zyzda Martin's attorney Toni O'Neill wrote in her Article 138 complaint. One letter said that although one investigation into Zyzda Martin's work was unsubstantiated, 13 of 26 Guard members interviewed 'noted some level of concerning conduct or negative connotations' about her approach. But Zyzda Martin says she was never told about any complaints and had little direct interaction with employees at Volk Field because everyone worked separately during the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter also said there was evidence in one investigation of an unhealthy command climate, but Zyzda Martin noted the Guard never opened a separate inquiry into those allegations as required by military law. May and Knapp fired her before their third investigation into her conduct was complete. That violates military guidance on such investigations, which directs commanders to defer discipline until an investigation is done. Zyzda Martin said May told her years ago he planned to retire in March 2025. Another source granted anonymity to share internal Guard information confirmed that's still the case and that May didn't apply to become the permanent adjutant general. Zyzda Martin now works for a defense consulting firm and said she is considering her next move to clear her name. 'If this is how the leaders of our defense treat their subordinates, can you imagine what is happening to the structure of our defense department?' Zyzda Martin said. 'If governors are going to be in charge of the military they need to be held accountable and follow their procedures.' This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Evers declines review in case of fired Wisconsin National Guard officer
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Yahoo
What is Milwaukee County's law enforcement Brady List and why does it matter?
For more than 25 years, the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office has maintained a list of law enforcement officers who have been accused of dishonesty, bias or crimes. Often known as the "Brady list," it is meant to help prosecutors fulfill their legal obligation to turn over evidence that could help defendants. But a joint Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin Watch and TMJ4 News investigation found that the list is inconsistent and incomplete, raising questions about how useful it is in practice. Here's what to know about Brady lists. The Brady list is a compilation of law enforcement officials who have been accused of lying, breaking the law, or acting in a way that erodes their credibility to be a witness. It's also sometimes known as the do-not-call list or the Brady/Giglio list. The name comes from the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland, which ruled that prosecutors cannot withhold material that might help the defense at trial. The type of misconduct that can land a law enforcement officer on the Brady list is broad, ranging from violent crimes to workplace issues. An officer does not have to be found guilty of a crime or even charged with a crime to be placed on the list. Of the names on Milwaukee County's Brady list, the majority involve criminal cases. Roughly a quarter involve internal investigations. The offenses range from crimes like domestic violence or drunken driving to integrity issues like falsifying police documents or cheating on police training tests. The District Attorney's Office is responsible for prosecuting crimes. If a law enforcement officer is referred for potential criminal charges, prosecutors would know about it because they make charging decisions. But if an officer is facing an internal violation and not a criminal charge, it is up to the officer's law enforcement agency to report the information to prosecutors, according to Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern. Not all of them. The media organizations sent records requests to 23 law enforcement agencies in the county asking for any policies governing how to handle Brady material. The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office and six other agencies provided a written policy. The Milwaukee Police Department and eight other agencies in the county said they do not have a written policy. The remaining agencies did not respond or the request remains pending. No. Being placed on the list only means that prosecutors have to disclose that officer's history to the defense. If defense attorneys wish, they can raise the officer's credibility issues with the judge. At that point, it is up to the judge to decide whether or not the officer is credible enough to testify. In rare cases, the district attorney's office has determined an officer could never be relied upon to testify. Lovern said that has only happened two or three times in the past 18 years, and those officers are no longer employed as law enforcement. Yes. Just because a law enforcement officer is on the list does not mean they are necessarily prohibited from testifying. That means they can still be useful as police officers, officials say. Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman and Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball say they carefully consider the facts and severity of each case before deciding whether to keep an officer on the force. In Wisconsin, there is no single Brady list. District attorney's offices in each county are responsible for maintaining their own lists. But there's no consistency to how prosecutors in Wisconsin maintain Brady lists. In an investigation last year, Wisconsin Watch filed records requests with prosecutors in each of the state's 72 counties. Many denied the records request or said they didn't keep track. The counties that replied disclosed a list of about 360 names. You can find Milwaukee County's Brady list here. Nearly 200 current and former law enforcement officers are on the list, which dates back about 25 years. Some are accused of multiple offenses. Of those on the list, the majority are from the Milwaukee Police Department, but nearly every suburban police department is represented. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What is Milwaukee County's police Brady list and why does it matter?
