Green Bay Correctional Institution | Photo by Andrew Kennard

Amidst a staffing crisis that worsened living conditions in Wisconsin prisons, the state gave corrections officers a large raise.  

The number of vacant positions for correctional officers and sergeants across adult institutions has declined over 20% from a peak of 35%. But there’s still a struggle with working conditions, former correctional officer Joe Verdegan said. 

“By its nature, with the clientele you have there, it’s a very toxic environment,” said Verdegan, who worked at Green Bay Correctional Institution from 1994 to 2020. “The toxic part of it will never change, but the problem is, you need veteran staff that can deal with it.” 

Wisconsin’s Act 10, passed in 2011, excluded many government workers from collective bargaining for anything other than inflationary increases to base wages. The law led to an exodus of veteran staff concerned about what might happen to their pensions, Verdegan wrote in a 2020 book about GBCI.

Act 10 grouped some workers together as public safety employees and others as general employees. Public safety employees’ collective bargaining rights were largely unchanged, while those of general employees were severely curtailed. 

Dane County Judge Jacob Frost struck down the law’s collective bargaining restriction, ruling that the Wisconsin Legislature didn’t have a defensible reason for excluding some public safety workers from the public safety group. 

On Wednesday, Frost put his order on hold, granting a temporary stay on his Dec 2 ruling while he considers written arguments that he should keep the ruling on hold while the Wisconsin Legislature appeals it.

Frost’s December 2 decision essentially confirmed a previous ruling released in July, in which he wrote that Act 10 violated the equal protection clause of the Wisconsin Constitution. Previous legal challenges failed to overturn the law. 

Opponents of the law celebrated what the decision might mean for employees’ power in the workplace, while supporters said Act 10 saved billions of dollars. Former Gov. Scott Walker, who signed Act 10 into law, called the decision “brazen political activism” and “an early Christmas present for the big government special interests.”

The law’s effect on retirement contributions led to an increased cost for public employees and government savings. Since employees were responsible for a larger share of pension contributions, state and local governments saved nearly $5.2 billion over the seven-year period from 2011 to 2017, according to a 2020 report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. 

The judge didn’t strike down Act 10 provisions that changed the rules for employees’ retirement contributions and health insurance premiums, an attorney representing unions in the case told Wisconsin Watch. Those provisions don’t rely on the distinction between the public safety and general employee groups, he said. 

Frost’s ruling has been appealed, and it’s expected to go to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. Its fate might depend on an upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court election and whether any justices recuse themselves. 

Frost didn’t find a legal problem with the Legislature treating the public safety group differently than the general employees group — for example, by providing them with benefits that would attract quality employees to jobs important for public safety. If teachers, administration or sanitation workers face labor unrest, their absence from work probably wouldn’t cause death or great harm, he wrote in the July ruling. 

Instead, Frost took issue with the Legislature’s decision to not include certain workers in the public safety group, including the Capitol Police, conservation wardens and correctional officers. 

Specifically referring to correctional officers, Frost wrote, “What greater threat is there to public safety than the escape of the persons that those in the public safety group arrested and brought to justice?” 

Wisconsin prisons have seen a staffing crisis, allegations of harassment 

After Act 10, GBCI staff had to contribute more to their pensions and paid higher health insurance premiums, Verdegan wrote in his book. 

“People were fleeing the prison to go drive truck, be bartenders, work in cheese factories, or even bag groceries at Woodman’s,” Verdegan wrote. 

Corrections officers were asked to put in more overtime around 2011 or 2012, former GBCI officer Jeff Hoffman told the Examiner in July. 

“From that time forward, it never got any better,” said Hoffman, who left GBCI in early 2023 after almost 23 years. “If you were there, you were going to work 16-hour shifts.” 

Staffing vacancies for correctional officers and sergeants have declined substantially from a peak of 35% in August 2023 to the current 12.9% vacancy rate.

In the DOC’s 2022 Climate and Engagement survey, over half of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the idea that their pay was fair relative to the duties they performed. Over half said that if they left DOC, it would be because of their salary and/or benefits. 

These responses were given before Wisconsin implemented a large pay raise for corrections officers. Under the pay increases, correctional officers’ wages increased from $20.29 an hour to over $30 an hour, with more pay for officers in higher-security and understaffed prisons. Wages had received a $4 boost from federal pandemic relief funds prior to the increase, the Associated Press reported. 

Verdegan wrote in his book that some supervisors would try to harass or intimidate staff. Sean Daley of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 32 made a similar remark to the Examiner in 2022. 

“It’s a tough enough job as it is,” Daley told the Examiner in 2022. “Add in that a lot of the supervisors think they’re ‘top-cops’ and spend their time tirelessly harassing staff with weak investigations and it just adds to the vacancy rates.”

Nearly half of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the statements “My supervisor cares about my interests” and “Employees are treated fairly in my work unit.” 

About 1 in 10 strongly disagreed with the statement “My supervisor treats me with dignity and respect,” with about a quarter expressing at least some disagreement. About three-quarters at least somewhat agreed that they have positive relationships with their colleagues. 

Close to 40% of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the statements “Work rule violations are not tolerated” and “I can disclose a suspected violation of a rule, law, or regulation without fear or reprisal” in the 2022 survey.  

Some individual facilities have vacancy rates for correctional officers and sergeants that are higher than the overall number for adult facilities, including  20.5% at Waupun Correctional Institution. Waupun has seen several prisoner deaths and staff charged with crimes. 

Waupun has seen an influx of staff since September, when the vacancy rate was 42%. Sarah Cooper, administrator of the DOC’s division of adult institutions, said at a public meeting in September that other staff were sent to assist Waupun. For example, Waupun also had 40 supplemental staff per pay period, she said. 

Correctional officers and sergeants are far from the only staff in Wisconsin prisons. The Department of Corrections has varying levels of vacancies of other staff. Some of the highest vacancy rates are 22% for social services and 21% for psychological services. 

Prison Policy Initiative argues for addressing staffing issues through decarceration

While Wisconsin’s large pay raises have garnered credit for bringing in new staff, the state hasn’t yet seen whether current efforts will fully staff Wisconsin prisons. A briefing published last week by the Massachusetts-based Prison Policy Initiative challenged the idea that the U.S. can solve prison staffing problems through recruitment. 

The research and advocacy group argued that decarceration would be more effective in addressing understaffing than pay raises, lowering employment requirements, offering staff wellness programs or constructing new facilities. 

The group promoted reducing the prison populations through parole, other forms of release and taking steps to decrease the number of people admitted to prison. 

As of Dec. 6, Wisconsin’s adult prisons held over 23,000 people, more than 5,000 people higher than design capacity. The adult prison population has risen over 2,500 from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2024. 

Incarcerated people face the worst harms of understaffing, the PPI argued, but they noted health risks that employees face, including injury, exposure to infectious diseases and high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. 

“Unfortunately, there’s only so much that a pay raise can do to ameliorate that,” said Wanda Bertram, communications strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative. 

A 2018 survey of Washington State Department of Corrections employees found that prison employees experience PTSD at a rate equivalent to Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans and higher than police officers. These jobs take a lot out of people, Bertram said. 

In Wisconsin’s adult prisons, 452 assaults on staff took place in fiscal year 2024, according to Department of Corrections data. The incident rate was 19.6 assaults per 1,000 incarcerated people, which is the highest it’s been since at least 2013, the earliest year available. These numbers are for adult institutions and many of the assaults involve prisoners spitting or throwing bodily substances (fewer than half involve battery, physical injury or sexual assault).

How long new staff stay in corrections also matters, and Bertram pointed to challenging turnover rates found in a 2020-2021 survey. The job isn’t for everyone, said Hoffman, the former GBCI correctional officer. 

“Historically speaking, from the time that I started there to the time that I left… if 10 new people would start at one point, usually half would quit,” Hoffman said. “Because they didn’t want to work in that environment.” 

Former officers’ thoughts on Act 10

Former correctional officer Denis O’Neill has had complicated feelings about Act 10. He said he would’ve liked to have more money in his pocket, but he said the act was for the greater good of Wisconsin and saved billions for taxpayers. 

In Verdegan’s book, O’Neill recounts the story of a fight in 2015 with an incarcerated man who was attacking a staff member. Verdegan wrote that there was “no question O’Neill was fighting for his life.” 

O’Neill left GBCI with a medical termination and had physical, cognitive and speech therapy, Verdegan wrote. He had at least four documented concussions while working at GBCI. O’Neill told the Examiner that he had to go back to doctors he was seeing and get new paperwork after the state said they didn’t receive the original documents. 

“It’s their job to make it as hard as possible as they can for you so that you get sick and tired of doing everything and you forget about it,” O’Neill said. “That’s the game I felt that was being played.”

O’Neill said he received his benefits after a state senator stepped in. He thinks the union could have taken care of the issue for him if it had not been disempowered under Act 10.

“I could’ve just continued to work on my recovery,” he said. 

Kimberly Verdegan, a former GBCI correctional officer who is married to Joe Verdegan, thinks prison jobs are less desirable than teaching jobs and that the passage of Act 10 didn’t take this into account. 

“Not to say that a teacher’s job isn’t important,” Kimberly Verdegan said. “But they have their holidays off, they go home at night. They don’t get forced to stay another shift.”

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections declined comment for this story, and AFSCME Council 32 did not respond to requests for comment. 

Update: This story has been updated with the most recent data on staff vacancies and prison assaults.

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Dane County's DAIS held an Oct. 1 rally for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

A report released Thursday from Dane County’s Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS) found that Dane County judges grant restraining orders against perpetrators of intimate partner violence in 34% of cases. 

The report found that even when a judge grants a restraining order, it is often not for the amount of time requested by the victim — despite state law requiring that the order be for the length of time requested by the petitioner. 

State law allows judges to impose restraining orders on domestic abusers for up to four years in most cases, and up to 10 years when it can be proven the abuser is especially dangerous. But in a handful of cases, the report found, a judge granted restraining orders for only two years to allow a “cooling off period” for the people involved despite “serious lethality concerns testified to in the hearing.”

Kianna Hanson, the legal advocacy program manager at DAIS, said at an event announcing the report’s findings Thursday morning that the “cooling off period” is a myth and that judges should follow the law. 

“The fallacy of the cooling off period, which some judges have cited as a reason for choosing to grant an injunction from less time than the petitioner has requested, which in domestic abuse injunction goes against [state law],” Hanson said. “This mythology around domestic abuse cases is harmful because it suggests that domestic abuse could be the result of anger or not being able to control one’s emotion, when in reality, domestic violence is most often a conscious choice that is rooted in gaining power and control over one’s partner.”

The report was completed by a team from DAIS and other community organizations to observe more than 800 hearings in Dane County Circuit Court from April 2023 to April 2024. At the Thursday morning event, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky said the report was a step toward trying to make Wisconsin’s legal system a better place for everyone involved in it. 

“What if the legal system were different? What if the legal system were the vehicle for healing and for change?” she said. “What if people left the legal system in a better place than where they entered, and I mean all of us. I mean judges and attorneys and witnesses and court reporters and victims and defendants and plaintiffs and bailiffs and advocates. What if we left work every day feeling energized and satiated and nourished instead of stressed out, depressed and exhausted, and what if the legal system itself helped us get to a better place?” 

The report found that in the vast majority of injunction hearings, 87%, the victim seeking the restraining order was there pro se, meaning they were representing themself. Just 15% of petitioners had support in court from organizations such as DAIS, who have employees who serve as court advocates to help victims navigate the legal process (but aren’t attorneys and can’t provide legal advice). 

Representation from an attorney or support from a legal advocate vastly increased the chances of a restraining order being granted, the court found. When acting on their own, petitioners had injunctions granted in 29% of cases but when assisted by an attorney or advocate, injunctions were granted 62% of the time — meaning representation increased the chances of successfully obtaining a restraining order by 114%. 

Hanson told the Wisconsin Examiner after Thursday’s event that DAIS would be able to handle more restraining order cases under its legal advocacy program, saying that because the issuance of a restraining order can be a life-or-death decision for an abuse victim, the organization would prioritize those cases. 

Domestic abuse organizations across the state face critical funding pressures after a steep decline in federal money they receive hit this fall. Advocates have warned those funding cuts could strain resources for organizations like DAIS across the state. 

The report also notes a number of comments court observers saw judges make during hearings in these cases that were interpreted as minimizing abuse, treating people of color differently and misstating the law. 

One judge, according to the report, denied an injunction over harassment, stating that he was doing so “because unwanted touching, kissing, or harassing text messages demanding explicit photos is not sexual assault,” despite state law saying it is. 

The judges are quoted anonymously in the report but DAIS staff said at Thursday’s event that in the organization’s next version of the report, it will attribute the quotes. 

Dane County Judge Julie Genovese, in attendance at the event, said during a question and answer period that she doesn’t think naming the judges will be helpful — even though the comments were made on the record in open court. 

“I’d like to say on behalf of the judges, that it would be a very helpful thing for somebody to come and present to the judges at a judge’s meeting, rather than we’re going to just identify you on our next report, to come to the judges discuss with them what are the issues, offer the training or the resources, rather than just do it in this form,” Genovese said.

Nasal Narcan, used to reverse an overdose, stock the inside of Milwaukee County's first harm reduction vending machine. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has been awarded a $7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to increase access to substance abuse treatment, the agency announced Friday. 

“Making treatment more accessible is important not only for those struggling with substance-use disorder but for public safety as well,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement acknowledging the grant. “This grant will allow for more to be done to help fight addiction.”

The Wisconsin DOJ was awarded the grant to implement the Wisconsin Deflection Initiative (WDI). The program aims to connect people struggling with substance use disorders to services before they have a crisis, an overdose or a criminal charge, according to the DOJ. 

Key components of the Wisconsin Deflection Initiative include self-referral and officer intervention programs, active outreach to at-risk individuals, better response to overdose incidents, comprehensive support services and coordination between law enforcement and treatment providers, the Wisconsin DOJ said. 

The program will be implemented across multiple Wisconsin jurisdictions and have a focus on urban, tribal and rural communities.

If programs like the Wisconsin Deflection Initiative lead to fewer people with a substance use disorder entering Wisconsin prisons, it would reduce strain on the state prison system’s programming. As of October, substance use disorder programming for incarcerated people had a waitlist of over 11,500. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections’ website says the agency tries to enroll individuals in programming close to their release date. 

“We would like to be able to serve every single person that we come into contact with at the highest level that they need in terms of intervention and more research,” Alisha Kraus, then-director of program services for adult prisons, said in an article published by PBS Wisconsin in June. “More resources would allow us to do that, more efficiently.” 

In the U.S. in 2022, nearly 108,000 people died from drug-involved overdose, including from illicit or prescription drugs. Drug overdose deaths in the United States have declined since then, but the fight against addiction continues. In Wisconsin, drug overdose deaths declined from 1,828 in 2022 to 1,771 in 2023. 

Funds directed toward fighting addiction in Wisconsin have included opioid settlement money from lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies. The Oneida Nation in northeast Wisconsin is considering an emphasis on prevention in the spending of $6.5 million in settlement money it estimates it will receive, to be allocated between 2020 and 2037, the Examiner reported last month. 

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Gov. Tony Evers kicks off a budget listening session in Appleton, Wis. on Monday, Dec. 2 | Photo by Andrew Kennard

Members of the public traveled to Einstein Middle School in Appleton Monday to tell Gov. Tony Evers about their priorities for Wisconsin’s 2025-2027 budget. 

During the first of Evers’ five planned listening sessions around the state ahead of his next budget proposal, Wisconsin residents expressed concern about the cost of housing, Wisconsin prisons and other issues in a breakout group attended by the Examiner. 

In opening remarks, Evers expressed support for addressing “long neglected” priorities and cited Wisconsin’s budget surplus of over $4 billion for the 2024 fiscal year. 

Evers said his priorities include expanding BadgerCare, legalizing marijuana, protecting access to reproductive health care, gun and justice reform, protecting the environment and investing in kids and schools. 

Local Republican state Rep. Ron Tusler (R-Harrison) has a different view on the surplus, Fox 11 reported. He wants to use it to  return money to taxpayers and provide relief from inflation.  

Members of the public split into six breakout groups. Each group focused on different topics relevant to the budget. The Examiner attended the “Strong & Safe Communities” group, which addressed issues ranging from affordable housing to Wisconsin’s prison system. 

A De Pere resident brought up the high cost of housing, saying that she and her husband are from Door County but couldn’t afford to live there even though they both work. Even in De Pere, “all the houses in my neighborhood are getting bought up and flipped,” she said. 

Tom Denk, who was formerly incarcerated, said he wants to see change in Wisconsin prisons. He said he wasn’t allowed access to enrichment  programs in prison. 

“The DOC needs more funding because their staff need to be educated. They need to have that trauma-informed care,” Denk said. “Because most people are going to get out of prison. I’m one of them.”

Substance abuse and anger management programs in the Wisconsin prison system have waitlists in the thousands. The Department of Corrections’ website says the agency tries to enroll people in programming as they get close to their release date. 

Karen Winkel, a homeless prevention specialist, said many of her clients have been recently released from the Department of Corrections or the Green Lake County Jail, with “no place to go. There’s no place to live.” 

Lisa Cruz, executive director of Multicultural Coalition, Inc., said her nonprofit is overwhelmed with serving immigrants and refugees. 

“It’s [a] humanitarian crisis,” Cruz said. “And I think we often think about that happening somewhere else, in another country, maybe in another state. It’s right here and it’s right now.”

Members of the group expressed concerns about American Rescue Plan funding running out, including funding for services for crime victims. Wisconsin passed $10 million in funding for victim services earlier this year, but providers are still facing budget cuts. 

“My agency received a 72% reduction, really impacting nearly half of our budget,” said Isabel Williston, executive director of ASTOP Sexual Abuse Center. 

Jared Hoy, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, attended the group discussion, but mostly listened since the focus was on the public’s input. 

An informational packet distributed at the event described positions the governor has taken on criminal justice. These include increasing funding for Wisconsin’s TAD (treatment alternatives and diversion) program and addressing staffing shortages that have worsened conditions in state prisons. 

Evers will introduce his budget proposal early next year, Communications Director Britt Cudaback told the Examiner in late October. In his remarks, Evers praised Wisconsin’s new legislative maps as more reflective of the “will of the people.” In last month’s election, the maps helped Democrats flip 14 previously Republican-held seats in the Legislature, narrowing Republican majorities. 

Evers’ next listening session is Wednesday evening in La Crosse, followed by Milwaukee, Ashland and a virtual session.  

Members of the public can submit comments on budget priorities through the governor’s constituent services page. 

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A Milwaukee police squad in front of the Municipal Court downtown. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Wisconsin’s municipal courts issued more than 27,000 arrest warrants and writs of commitment against people who failed to pay local ticket fines between January 2023 and August 2024, according to a report from ACLU of Wisconsin.

The extensive use of these tools, which include jailing people for failing to pay fines or forcing them to appear at a court date in 173 of the state’s 219 municipal courts (reflecting the number of courts which responded to the ACLU’s open records requests for data)  create a tiered local justice system, the report found. People who can afford a fine simply pay it and move on while those who can’t afford the fine must deal with the shockwaves a stint in jail can send through their lives. 

In 2023, the report states, Wisconsin municipal courts collected more than $35 million in fines. 

“Carceral sanctions for failure to pay municipal forfeitures create an unequal system of punishment: one for those with financial means and one for those without,” Dr. Emma Shakeshaft, the ACLU attorney who wrote the report, said in a statement. “People who are able to pay a municipal court ticket can address the citation without ever having to step in court or think about the ticket again. People who cannot pay the citation amount in full experience increased court and law enforcement involvement and a long series of harmful consequences that create barriers to well-being, employment, and community involvement.”

The report found that during the time period the ACLU assessed, Wisconsin municipal courts had more than 50,000 active warrants and commitments for people failing to pay fines. The data also showed the punitive actions were disproportionately used against people of color. In Milwaukee, which houses the state’s largest municipal court and employs three full-time judges, 71% of warrants and 49% of commitments issued between January 2023 and August 2024 were issued against Black residents. 

Even a short time in jail can have huge consequences for a person’s life, the report states, causing people to miss work or to be unable to care for family members over something as trivial as a municipal fine. 

“Monetary sanctions harm individuals and their families,” the report states. “Not only do these fines, fees, surcharges, and forfeitures have a more severe and disproportionate impact on those without access to financial resources, but they also cause harmful short- and long-term collateral consequences.”

Among the consequences of jail time for unpaid tickets are  driver’s license suspensions, caregiving emergencies, loss of employment, loss of housing and detrimental health impacts, the report found. “Overall, this leads to less household resources, limited social mobility, and negative financial consequences.”

The report also notes that using incarceration as the “teeth” of enforcement against minor violations is more expensive in the long term because of the expense to law enforcement and local jail staff.

Municipalities have a number of other tools available to collect these debts under state law, including the ability to “intercept taxes, garnish wages and levy bank accounts via the state debt collection agency, use a private debt collection agency, issue a civil judgment, transfer unclaimed property, issue a driver’s license suspension, or issue an arrest warrant for incarceration.”

A number of recommendations for municipal courts are made in the report, including eliminating the use of commitments and warrants in these cases, appointing legal counsel to people during hearings, reviewing and removing old warrants that are still active in local systems and improving data collection.

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Officer Jarid Rankila tells Erica Peters she is being detained | Screenshot via Superior Police Department body cam footage

Douglas County District Attorney Mark Fruehauf said he had “serious concerns” about the credibility of a Superior, Wisconsin police officer who has served as a witness in criminal cases. The concerns stem from discrepancies between the officer’s  incident report and body camera footage documenting an April 13, 2024 arrest. As a result, the DA  dismissed 40 cases, including 26 involving felony drug charges, where the officer served as a witness.

The concerns were raised after Officer Jarid Rankila, 26, a three-year veteran of the force, reported that a woman he arrested had injured him, kicking the door of a police car so that it closed on his hand. Body camera footage reveals Rankila saying “You almost smashed my hand in the f…ing door.” The  footage also shows him using the hand he said had been “smashed” without any apparent difficulty.

On Aug. 26, Fruehauf wrote Superior Police Chief Paul Winterscheidt about his “concerns that I have regarding the credibility of Officer Jarid Rankila, relative to the above-listed incident and the claim made therein by Officer Rankila about a hand injury he sustained during the incident.”

Chief Winterscheidt told the Examiner that Rankila had resigned from his job and that his last day on the force was Sept. 30.  

Reports

In the incident report Rankila prepared, he noted that he was called at 9:10 p.m., April 13 to the Superior Curling Club, 4700 Tower Avenue, (local media refers to this area as the Superior Fairgrounds) where a woman was “flipping over tables, yelling at people and causing a disturbance.”

The woman, Erica Peters, 40, of Appleton, was there to watch her son compete in  a cage fight.

Rankila recorded that he and two other officers arrived on the scene and that Peters appeared intoxicated and was becoming aggressive with one of the other officers. Rankila  attempted to handcuff Peters but, he reported, she resisted until, with the assistance of the other two officers, he was able to handcuff her and attempt to secure her in squad car 32.

“I walked to squad car 32 to open the rear driver’s side door for Officer’s Olson and Finger. When I did this Erica turned toward the rear driver’s side door of the squad car and kicked it shut. My right hand was in between the door and the b-piller of the squad car at the time Erica kicked it out.

“When Erica kicked the door shut on my right hand, I felt a rush of pain in my right hand…”

In his report, Rankila stated that  he stopped at the Essentia Health Emergency Room in Superior to “speak with a ER doctor about the incident and weather (sic) I should have my had (sic) examined. At that time, which was approximately 30-40 minutes after my hand was slammed in the door, I was no longer feeling pain in my right hand. My hand was tighter than normal and I noticed it was slightly swollen.

“The ER doctor listened to my recollection of the incident. He advised that I be mindful of any pain or range of motion issues with my affected hand in the coming days and weeks. The doctor stated it would not be necessary to check me into the ER for an official check-up as he would end up telling me the exact same thing and then release me.”

Peters was booked on three charges: disorderly conduct, resisting or obstructing an officer and battery to a law enforcement officer. Only the battery charge is a felony. Peters was ultimately charged only for disorderly conduct and resisting or obstructing an officer. She pled no contest to the disorderly conduct charge and the other charge was dismissed.

Fruehauf notes that on April 16 Rankila filed “a supplemental narrative report of the incident” in which Rankila reports: “I would rate my level of pain to be 8/10 (eight out of 10) when the door closed on my hand. I noticed swelling and stiffness in my hand and fingers for approximately 30 minutes following the incident.”

And Fruehauf also notes that on April 18, Rankila completed an “Employee Injury/Illness Report Form” in which he reported that  the injury included “abrasion, bruise and pain,” and stated  “I opened the door to the squad car and she kicked it closed on my hand,” and he described “severe pain in my right hand, swelling and light bruising.”

Fruehauf said a review of the reports Rankila filed without reference to any other evidence “would lead a reasonable reader (and did, in fact, lead me personally) to conclude that Officer Rankila had a car door forcibly closed or slammed shut on his hand and he suffered an injury that was evidenced by pain, swelling, bruising, and abrasions (which is what one would expect to see following a person’s hand being slammed in a car door).”

Body camera

“Officer Rankila’s body camera was recording during this incident. It is not consistent with his police reports,” said Fruehauf.

The Douglas County DA described what he saw in the footage of the reported door slamming on Rankila’s hand. “Officer Rankila’s hand is on the side of the open door, with his fingers on the outside, and the base of his palm resting on the inside of the door. He is essentially gripping the door as it is open.

“Peters, without warning aggressively and forcefully kicks the door while Officer Rankila is holding on to it. In a frame-by-frame review of the body camera footage, it appears as though Officer Rankila is able to quickly remove his hand just before the door closes on it. It certainly does not close on his fingers. At worst, if it closed on any part of his, it would have been the base of his palm.”

Close inspection of the body camera footage the Wisconsin Examiner received from the police department does not clearly show Rankila’s hand on the squad door.

 

Rankila (Winterscheidt letter)

 

Fruehauf provided the Examiner with a series of still images taken from the video that, he said, show Rankila’s hand on the door prior, during and after the door is kicked. However, the still images are not very clear.

In the report, Fruehauf noted that Rankila shouts, “Hey! Knock if off. You almost smashed my hand in the f–ing door!”

Fruehauf also pointed to video showing Rankila reenacting his hand being slammed in the door and saying, “I was holding the door open and she kicked it shut so hard that my hand went ‘boom!’”

“At this point, his entire hand is inside the vehicle such that the reenactment depicts the door appearing to close on his wrist,” said Fruehauf, adding, “This is not consistent with the actual incident as depicted on his body camera.”

Fruehauf noted other footage shows Rankila using his right hand without any apparent difficulty and also that there had not been a photo taken of Rankila’s hand to document the injury.

In his incident report, Rankila did not provide the name of the doctor who reportedly looked at his hand, but an Ashland County investigator had spoken with an ER doctor on duty that night, “who said he had a vague recollection of talking with a police officer in person or on the phone.”

GPS data on Rankila’s squad car, Fruehauf said, located it at Essentia Hospital on the night of the incident  for 2 minutes and 21 seconds.

Analysis

“Based on my review of the above information, I do not find credible the report of Officer Rankila wherein he says on April 13, 2024 his hand was slammed or smashed in a car door, resulting in injuries to include bruising, abrasions and swelling,” wrote Fruehauf.

Fruehauf raised concerns about several areas of Rankila’s report including the visit to the hospital where Fruehauf questioned how Rankila would have had enough time in less than 3 minutes to walk into the emergency room and consult a doctor, as well as the fact that he did not get the name of the physician.

“Assuming Officer Rankila did not suffer the hand injury he describes, it is also disconcerting that any falsehood would not be limited to his initial report, but was in fact repeated twice more in the two subsequent reports he wrote days later documenting said injury,” wrote Fruehauf.

Fruehauf said that prior to the reported kick, Peters had not done anything that would warrant a felony charge and that night she would have been allowed to post bail and not spend the night in jail. Because Rankila charged her with a felony, Peters wasn’t allowed to leave pending a hearing before a judge.

“Officer Rankila had every right to be upset,” wrote Fruehauf. “He had every right to bring her to jail and book her on the misdemeanor offenses she had committed. But he did not have the right to include false information in a police report that ultimately supported Peters being booked in on a felony and having to sit in custody longer than she likely would have had she been booked solely for misdemeanor behavior.”

Fruehauf also raised concerns about using Rankila to prosecute other cases.

“I have significant concerns about my office’s ability ever again to use Officer Rankila as a witness. Absent additional information that sheds light or somehow serves to explain that this is some kind of innocent mistake, I cannot in good conscience permit a case to rest on the credibility of an officer with this kind of apparent dishonesty,” he wrote.

Fruehauf said the Superior Police Department has an internal investigation underway and he requested the department provide him any “information that tends to either inculpate, or exonerate, Officer Rankila.”

He added that he has begun “dismissing cases with prejudice that rely primarily on Officer Rankila’s credibility and would require him to testify at a motion hearing or jury trial under oath.”

Charges against Rankila?

Fruehauf was asked why he hadn’t filed a charge against Rankila for intentionally falsifying a police report.

“A person is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,” he said. “Based upon my discussion of the case with Ashland County and my review of the evidence, at this time I do not believe I could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed by Mr. Rankila.  Were charges to proceed against Mr. Rankila, I would be required to prove ‘intentional falsification’ beyond a reasonable doubt at his trial, and I believe a reasonable jury, which would be instructed that it must give Mr. Rankila the benefit of every reasonable doubt, could conclude that this was not a case of intentional falsification, but rather unintentionally very poorly worded reports.”  

“At the same time,” Fruehauf said, “whether poorly written or something worse, this incident caused me serious concerns about my office’s ability to rely on Mr. Rankila’s credibility in future cases where he would be needed as a witness.  As a result, we have made the decision to dismiss pending cases where he would be a necessary witness in the future, which has resulted in dismissal of 40 such cases, primarily involving drug and traffic related offenses.”

“This was a difficult decision that results in several charged defendants who will not have their day in court,” Fruehauf added.  “But the job of the prosecutor is to do justice, and given the credibility concerns I have, I believe dismissal of those cases is necessary and in the interests of justice.”

Dismissed cases

The Wisconsin Examiner requested a list of the dismissed cases, which Fruehauf provided.

Of the 40 cases, 26 involved a felony related to a drug charge, including “methamphetamine with intent to deliver” and “cocaine with intent to deliver.”

Other felony charges dismissed included possession of firearm by a felon, bail jumping and fleeing an officer

Misdemeanors dismissed included financial card fraud and neglect of a child.

There is also one criminal traffic violation for operating while intoxicated (OWI) and three charges for operating without a license.

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Humanity Unlocked podcast series logo | Courtesy Wisconsin Humanities

“There was something happening that was bigger than anything, any one of us or any group of us was doing. It was just too big to be just about poetry. It was a voice restored,” said  Joshua Wells, a formerly incarcerated person, speaking on the Wisconsin Humanities podcast series “Humanity Unlocked.”  

Now in its second season, the podcast offers listeners the stories of those who have been through the prison system and engaged with the humanities – poetry, writing, art and college classes  – discovering not only ways to express themselves but also an identity that’s larger than their criminal records.

The goal of the series is to “focus on amplifying the human stories of incarceration and lived experiences of individuals impacted by the justice system.” A thread through the series is that the humanities matter, especially in some of the darkest places where one’s humanity seems diminished the most.

The podcasts are hosted by Adam Carr, a Milwaukee storyteller, filmmaker, radio producer and historian who sets the narrative and places interviewees’ comments in a larger context. Co-host Dasha Kelly Hamilton is a writer, performance artist and creative change agent and 2021-22 Poet Laureate of Wisconsin.

In Episode 5, “Bead by Bead,” college student James Price talks about gaining discipline from practicing Native American beading at the Stanley Correctional Institute, a discipline he draws on in his college studies. 

Commenting on the story, Hamilton said that, contrary to reductive stereotypes, people who have been incarcerated are “philosophers. There are filmmakers. There are all brands of humans in those buildings (prisons) the same way there are all brands of humans walking around free, so finding a way to feed and fuel those parts of the people in those places is essential.” 

The idea for the podcasts grew out of Hamilton’s work in a poetry exchange with people inside and outside of prison, and producer Jen Rubin’s involvement with the University of Wisconsin’s Odyssey Beyond Bars Project conducting storytelling workshops in prisons.

“I think partly things like art, poetry and storytelling and history are ways that all of us can help find meaning in our life,” said Rubin. “I think Rob (Dr. Robert S. Smith, Director of the Center for Urban Research, Teaching & Outreach, Marquette University) from Episode Five says it really well – ‘If there’s any place we need help finding meaning in our lives, it’s in mass incarceration.’”

Over two years, interviews were conducted with residents inside and out of the prison system and with those who engaged them with poetry and writing courses, publishing newspapers and newsletters, offering space for art shows and teaching college classes.

Very little time is given to why the persons are or were in prison. Most of the podcast recounts their engagement with the humanities. Robert Taliaferro, who is mainly featured in Episode 3: “Three convicts, twenty dollars and a newspaper,” spent 38 years behind bars, but the podcast focuses on his path to become editor of the leading prison newspapers in America, The Prison Mirror.

Episodes

Episode 1: “Death-defying Feats,” takes excerpts from Hamilton’s poetry seminar in the Racine Correctional Institution. She sets up the writing prompts and then we hear commentary of the residents and excerpts of their work.

Episode 2: “A Mic and Five Minutes,” is about the Wisconsin Odyssey Beyond Bars project at Oakhill Correctional Facility where incarcerated students take an English 100 story and then tell  their stories in their own voices in a five-minute presentation.

Episode 3: “Three Convicts, Twenty Dollars, and a Newspaper” tells the history of a prison newspaper from the 1880s started by members of the Jessie James Gang, and the experience of Taliaferro to become an award-winning writer, and also about Shannon Ross, who started a newsletter that reaches 30,000, including those inside and out of prison.

Episode 4: “Art Against the Odds,” details the art-making journey of residents who struggled to find both the resources and encouragement to make art in prison, and the 2023  “Art Against the Odds” show in Milwaukee featuring 250 works by those who are or were incarcerated.

Episode 5: “Bead by Bead,” is a look at the Educational Preparedness Program (EPP) at Marquette University that integrates students enrolled at the Milwaukee campus with those who have been incarcerated or are still in the system.

Episode 6: “It’s Not Just a Vote,” explores those disenfranchised from voting because of their criminal record. Convicted felons in Wisconsin cannot vote until they have served their sentence and probation and parole. There are approximately 45,000 people in the state who are waiting to be allowed to vote.

There’s also more information with each episode, including profiles and information about the criminal justice system.

The first five episodes explore how humanities have affected people’s  lives both inside and outside the system. The  sixth explores  how the legacy of being in prison continues to affect  one’s humanity by witholding the right to vote.

“If your government’s telling you that you don’t count, you know, then how are you supposed to feel like you belong in your community?” said Rubin.

Carr said the sixth episode came out of the larger discussion of recognizing people’s  humanity.“I don’t know that most people would connect this specifically with a humanities curriculum,” he said of voting. In the larger conversation about how people survive the prison system and how they recover a sense of their own humanity when they get out, he said,  “it made sense for the arc of the season.” 

Inside the podcasts

The first five episodes illuminate why engaging with the humanities is more than just a feel-good  exercise.

Peter Moreno, featured in Episode 2: “A Mic and Five Minutes,” is the director of Odyssey Beyond Bars and an attorney and former law professor, who touts the merits of bringing writing classes to inmates to tell their stories.

“When people are given a platform to express themselves and are able to convey their personal story from inside prison in a way that other people can hear and understand, boy that humanizes things in a hurry,” he said.

Mark Español recently served a nine-year prison sentence, and talked about the impact of writing a story from his life and delivering a 5-minute presentation as part of a class he took from Kevin Mullen, an assistant professor of Continuing Studies at UW-Madison and director of  adult education for the UW-Odyssey Project, the larger campaign to bring higher education to low-income adult students.

“It made me feel human again,” Español said. “It made me feel human that class, that environment that he created allows us as inmates to not only be vulnerable, but to get to know each other personally.”

Students in Odyssey Beyond Bars can write about any subject. Español chose to write about one day in his life as a 5-year-old in his apartment and walking into a room where his sister was holding her boyfriend who had been shot.

“You know for almost a decade I’ve sat in prison just wondering where I went wrong, you know, how did I get here?” he said. “It all went back to that apartment. Things that I witnessed, that I was exposed to as a child that I should have never been exposed to, and that story was one day. It sucked that I had to go through that as a 5-year-old.”

Presenting a story has a deep effect, Hamilton said. 

“It shifts the skill sets and the calculation,” she said, describing a way of calculating how to survive that is different from the skills involved in storytelling. Instead of staying in “survival mode,” being able to  able to “process a story,”  to  “convert that memory into a five-minute presentation that is engaging to someone who doesn’t know you and wasn’t at that memory – it is not a small thing.”

Carr said those in the system are often reminded that what counts most about them is their crime or “the biggest mistake you’ve ever made and nothing else,” but engaging with the humanities opens another conversation.

Much of what is offered in prison under the umbrella of rehabilitation, Hamilton said, is premised on the assumption that a  resident has a “deficit” that is addressed with counseling or parenting or financial literacy classes. The humanities operates from a different assumption.

“It’s meeting people where they’re already full,” she said. “It’s giving people an opportunity to lean into that part that doesn’t deplete, that doesn’t diminish their humanity, their creativity.” 

A touching moment in Episode 4: “Art Against the Odds” comes when former incarcerated resident, Sarah Demerath, who missed years with her 14-year-old daughter while in prison, has the opportunity to see her daughter’s reaction to Demerath’s art featured in a large gallery show.

“When we got to the gallery, I had never seen her be so proud of me,” said Demerath. “She’s an artist and she was just as excited as me and she was like, ‘That’s my mom,’ and she was watching me do the interviews with the news and she was buzzing around the entire exhibit with this huge smile. Never in my life did I ever think that my art would be in a gallery, let alone my daughter and mom would be there with me to see it and it was beautiful.”

Listen to the podcast at wisconsinhumanities.org/podcast/.

 

 

 

The Wisconsin State Capitol reflected in the glass windows of Park Bank on the Capitol Square in Madison. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

Candidates for some districts of the Wisconsin State Legislature on the eastern side of the state recently shared their positions on criminal justice issues. Their stances varied, even among candidates of the same political party. 

Two advocacy organizations, JOSHUA and the League of Women Voters, conducted interviews with the candidates. Another group, SOPHIA, held a candidate forum for Assembly candidates for the 13th, 15th and 82nd districts. The events addressed criminal justice and housing, among other issues.

David Liners, executive director of the statewide network that includes both JOSHUA and SOPHIA, said he wants to expand the group of people who are willing to hold their decision makers accountable on this issue.

“[We believe part of our mission] is to make sure that the people who are not directly impacted by the criminal legal system understand and feel what’s being done,” Liners said. “Partly because what’s being done in our prisons is being done with our money, but it’s being done in our name.” 

Both events covered the controversial Green Bay and Waupun prisons. A former Waupun warden and eight members of his staff were charged with crimes related to the treatment of incarcerated people, the Examiner reported in early June. The Examiner reported on life at GBCI in August. State lawmakers have heard testimony alleging problems in Wisconsin prisons at committee hearings. 

No Republicans attended the forum or provided an interview, but the Examiner received responses from four candidates who didn’t attend the events.

SOPHIA forum addresses electronic monitoring, Truth in Sentencing, juvenile justice 

Sarah Harrison, a Democrat running for the 15th Assembly District, expressed support for the practice of electronic monitoring in the community over maintaining the current number of people behind bars in Wisconsin facilities. Kevin Reilly, Democrat candidate for the 82nd Assembly District, also supported electronic monitoring. 

Harrison said she thinks “we need to find ways to get people into programs where they can continue being part of the community.” 

Reilly’s opponent, Rep. Scott Allen (R-Waukesha), currently represents the 97th Assembly District, but he has been redistricted into the 82nd. 

Allen told the Examiner that electronic monitoring is a tool for our courts to use, but he expressed some reservations. He said he’s been told that clever individuals have determined ways to remove the device at will. 

Allen said it seems electronic monitoring should only be used only on people who do not pose a threat to society. 

“This tool is not a panacea to the problem of overcrowding in our prisons,” Allen said. 

Reilly and Harrison expressed support for juvenile justice reform. Harrison said she supports legislation that would keep underage offenders from being tried as adults “except in some sort of extraordinary circumstances.” She instead pointed to diversion programs, counseling and drug treatment programs. 

Allen said charging minors as adults should be “rare.” He said it is “reserved for the most heinous of crimes.” 

“Charging minors as adults ought to be rare, but it should remain an option if we are going to remain mindful of the importance of public safety,” Allen said.

Candidates at the forum also discussed the elimination of parole for certain crimes under a “Truth in Sentencing” law in Wisconsin. 

Harrison wasn’t familiar with the two-decade-old law when asked a question during the forum. After hearing others talk about it, she said she would support repealing it. Reilly criticized the law.

“It’s one of those scare things that certain people are putting out there, along with several other legislations that make it difficult for the people that are really working hard to change their lives, to move forward and get out of prison… it’s one of a number of different laws that have demonized, basically, the criminal justice system,” Reilly said. 

Allen didn’t rule out reforming parole restrictions in Wisconsin. He said “our number one goal should remain public safety” and “any and all reforms should be viewed through that lens.” 

“Constituents have described to me a lack of incentive for good behavior and reform for the residents in our Department of Corrections facilities,” Allen said. “I’ve been told that there is a certain blackmail culture that allows for intimidation to occur amongst the prison population. I’m not certain what reforms would make sense at this point in time, but a comprehensive review of current practices would help.”

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) has been in negotiations with a third party, Falcon Correctional and Community Services, to conduct a review of DOC policies and procedures and offer recommendations.

Candidates respond to scrutiny of troubled prisons 

Candidates gave a variety of answers when asked about the Green Bay and Waupun prisons. 

Democrat Amaad Rivera-Wagner is running for the 90th Assembly District, which covers central Green Bay and is a likely Democratic seat, Wisconsin Watch reported. He spoke about housing people  who’ve committed crimes, creating room and space elsewhere before getting rid of GBCI and carrying out criminal justice reform, such as bail reform and legalization of marijuana. 

“I think that people in Green Bay and the Legislature can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Rivera-Wagner said. “…And we’ve seen how overcrowding at this prison has caused problems…We’ve seen the staffing there to be less than 80% full. And so we need to do something to reform that immediately.”

The current vacancy rate at GBCI for correctional officers and sergeants is 11.6%, according to DOC data. 

In a letter in May published by Fox 11, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said any plan to close GBCI “must be comprehensive and considered holistically based on the needs of Wisconsin’s adult corrections program.” He also said a new facility would not realistically be able to start accommodating incarcerated people in this decade. 

Evers said there must be “a serious conversation about criminal justice reform in Wisconsin” and a meaningful effort to find consensus on “evidence-based, science-driven measures” to reduce the number of people in Wisconsin prisons, focusing on treatment and rehabilitation. 

“Any conversation about closing GBCI must begin there,” Evers said.

Jessica Henderson, Rivera-Wagner’s Republican opponent, told the Examiner she supports closing the Green Bay and Waupun facilities “as long as it does not mean releasing violent offenders into the community.”

Henderson said there is a lack of mental health services that can lead to more people being incarcerated. She said from her experience, access to mental health care reduces incarceration. Decreasing the prison population would eliminate the need to keep Green Bay and Waupun operating, she said. 

Democrat Jamie Wall is running for Senate District 30, which covers the metropolitan Green Bay region and is a toss-up, Wisconsin Watch reported. He said closing the prisons requires determining what should happen with the incarcerated people living there, which means looking at what the prison and criminal justice systems should look like. He promoted increasing alcohol and drug treatment for nonviolent offenders. 

“Now unfortunately in Madison, all of that has been bolloxed up in partisanship,” Wall said. “And I think my opponent would contribute to that.” 

Wall’s opponent, Jim Rafter, categorized the people incarcerated in Waupun and GBCI into three groups: people serving life sentences, people with significant mental health needs and people who have committed serious crimes but have a chance at rehabilitation. He supports closing both prisons. 

“We need a facility that addresses these unique needs from day one, providing specialized programs and services,” Rafter said. “Since 90% of incarcerated individuals will eventually be released, it is critical that we provide the tools necessary to ensure their safe reintegration into our communities.”

Democrat Ryan Spaude is running for Assembly District 89, a toss-up district that includes Ashwaubenon and borders the Fox River to the east, Wisconsin Watch reported.

“We could probably talk about other facilities, but a maximum security prison cannot simply be shut down,” Spaude said. “It must be replaced.” 

One question from SOPHIA said in part that they believe by reducing crimeless revocations and increasing earned release programming and treatment alternatives, Wisconsin could reduce its prison population and close the two facilities without building a new one.

Reilly said Minnesota has the same demographics as Wisconsin but is “doing a phenomenally better job.” He echoed Henderson’s message on mental health.

“…A lot of people in prison are there because of addiction, they’re there because of mental health, they’re there because they might even be cognitively declined,” Reilly said. 

Reilly expressed support for closing the two prisons without building a new one. Allen told the Examiner over email that “a new prison needs to be built.” 

Rep. David Steffen (R-Green Bay) told the Examiner that the two prisons are too expensive, small and dangerous to continue operating. Replacing them with a modern facility would reduce operating and maintenance costs and provide a safer, more productive environment for staff and incarcerated people, he said. 

In a statement in April, Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers) said that due to Wisconsin’s budget surplus, “a plan to close GBCI and build a new prison has never had a better opportunity.”

Criminal justice was not the only topic covered by the SOPHIA forum and the interviews from JOSHUA and League of Women Voters. The candidate interviews can be viewed on LOWV’s YouTube page.

Sortwell’s office said he was unavailable and unable to comment. 

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Alternatives to incarceration drastically cut the jail population in Sawyer County, which used to have the fourth highest lock-up rate in Wisconsin | Getty Images

(This article is based on stories reported by Frank Zufall for the Sawyer County Record since 2017 and used with permission.)

In 2015 Sawyer County, a rural county in northwestern Wisconsin with a population around 18,000 at the time, had one of the highest incarceration rates in Wisconsin. 

According to a report by the Vera Institute of Justice,  Sawyer County ranked fourth in the state behind Menominee, Shawano and Forest Counties. As recently as 2019, the average number of persons in the jail each day in any month was 100.95. By August 2024, that number had fallen to 61.25. The trend is clearly downward. 

When so many county jails are bursting at the seams and struggling to recruit guards, why did Sawyer County’s jail population drop so much?

The biggest single reason is a decision made in 2017 to reconvene the county’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), a group representing judges and district attorneys along with law enforcement, probation and representatives of social services, with the goal of looking for alternatives to incarceration, focusing on programming and therapy.

Another factor that began around 2017 and gained momentum in 2018 was the pursuit of a second judge for the county. From 2014-16, Sawyer County Circuit Judge John Yackel had the highest caseload for one judge in the state. Because of the sheer volume of felony cases, many people who had charges pending waited weeks or months in jail for their court appearances.

A second judge was approved for Sawyer County and then a second courtroom was constructed for over $10 million. In August 2023, the second judge, Monica Isham, was sworn into office. 

Background

In March of 2017, Brenda Spurlock, Bayfield County Criminal Justice Coordinator, asked Sawyer County to participate in a Department of Justice planning grant called “Bridges to Treatment.” The program diverts inmates with mental illness or substance abuse from jail to community treatment programs.

The proposal, she said, called for the participants – including Bayfield and Ashland counties along with the Red Cliff, Bad River and Lac Courte Oreilles Tribal bands – to try new strategies to  divert eligible offenders into community treatment. 

“If you don’t start doing things differently, you are going to keep adding to your jail,” said Bayfield County Circuit Judge John Anderson months later at the May Bayfield County CJCC meeting after Spurlock made her pitch to the Sawyer County Public Safety Committee. 

Anderson said he was quoting a jail designer who had spoken at a jail-building committee 20 years previously.

Taking to heart the words of that consultant, Bayfield County leaders formed their CJCC to look for alternatives to jail. In 2017, Bayfield County’s jail population had fallen significantly enough that it had room to take the overflow from Sawyer County’s crowded jail.

Members of the local LCO Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, including two – Tweed Shuman and James Schlender, Jr. – both of whom were also Sawyer County supervisors in 2017 (Shuman is still in office), raised concerns about the high jail population, with over 70% of the residents being Native Americans.

In July 2017, then-Sawyer County Administrator Tom Hoff announced that Sawyer County would reconvene its CJCC, which had been disbanded for years. Hoff said the primary goal of the Sawyer County CJCC was to lower the daily jail population.

Schlender, who advocated for the CJCC and also for hiring a full-time coordinator, said the point of the council was to have the judge, district attorney, sheriff and jailer in the same room to look at trends, such as a high revocation rate for driver’s licenses, and see what could be done to ensure the same people don’t keep returning  to jail. Schlender also noted that many were in jail because of drug and alcohol problems.

“Rather than having them sit in jail with no services offered to them, maybe we can get a diversion program working with (Sawyer County) Health and Human Services and get them off to a treatment program and then you are going to see a reduction in the jail population,” he said.

County Supervisor Iras Humpreys, an advocate for reconvening the CJCC, pointed out at the July 2017 meeting that Sawyer County had spent $70,000 in 2017 to pay for housing jail residents in other counties, notably Bayfield County.

Humpreys also noted that among the 90 residents in the Sawyer County jail at the time, only 26 had been sentenced while 31 were sitting in jail because they were not able to pay for a cash bond as part of their bail.

Judge Anderson said it took years for the Bayfield County CJCC to have a positive impact because there were some stakeholders committed to the punishment mode but others to rehabilitation, and the two sides were not working together. “At first, if you said ‘evidence-based practice’ you’d see people rolling their eyes,” he said. “It took a lot of years of saying, ‘This is what the evidence is showing.’ It took a lot of years to change people’s way of thinking.”

Anderson said there are several studies on lowering recidivism that reveal what works and what doesn’t. “Boot camps are horrible,” Anderson said. “The DARE program has made no impact on recidivism. It doesn’t mean it’s bad, but if you think the DARE program has helped reduce recidivism with people who have drug and alcohol problems — zero. There are enough studies out there to prove it.”

Another “dumb idea,” he said, is to put people who can’t pay their fines in jail and even more so to send them to another county’s jail because while they are in jail they will not be able to pay the fines.

Launch

In the first months after the new program began, instead of dropping, Sawyer County’s jail population rose, hitting a record high for daily jail population in 2019 of 101.

But Judge Yackel, a member of the CJCC, was working with the CJCC coordinator to put accountability measures in place for people convicted of drug charges, including  an aggressive schedule of drug testing as a condition of their bond and as a way to keep them out of jail. In addition, the county brought  new programming to the jail residents, offering on-the-job training in the construction trades and in-house classes. 

JusticePoint: The group that made a difference

In 2018 a non-profit with expertise in criminal justice programming, JusticePoint,  did a multi-month study of Sawyer County jail residents and offered insights into the jail population.  In particular, it highlighted the high rate of unemployment of residents prior to incarceration.

Sawyer County Sheriff Doug Mrotek said he had learned about JusticePoint while attending the 2017 Wisconsin Badgers State Sheriff’s Association meeting and hearing Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney talk about its diversion and jail programming which helped reduce incarceration in his county. 

In 2020, the CJCC asked JusticePoint to help with its application for the state’s Treatment and Diversion Grant to help pay program costs  for non-violent adult offenders as an alternative to jail.

The Sawyer County CJCC also began discussions with JusticePoint to see if it would be able to run programs for the county after the retirement of the full-time criminal justice coordinator.

In January 2021, JusticePoint opened an office in the county building and began administering the county’s pretrial and diversion programs.  It also helped with programming in the jail and eventually worked with the court as it reconvened its Recovery/Drug Court, while also helping the sheriff institute a deflection program.

Many of the key stakeholders – judge, sheriff, county administrator, and jailer – give much of the credit for the lower jail census in 2024 to the staff of JusticePoint, five individuals who work mostly through the state Treatment and Diversion  grant.

“I think they’ve done an outstanding job in the last three years,” said Sheriff Mrotek.

Keeping people out of jail as they await trial 

The biggest program JusticePoint administers for Sawyer County is a pretrial program, probably the most important factor in lowering the jail census. As of Sept. 11, there were 150 individuals in a pretrial program.

Pretrial is for those who have been arrested, charged, but not convicted and are often on a cash bond as a guarantee they will continue to make court dates and follow prescribed conduct, such as being sober while on release. It wasn’t that many years ago that on average nearly a third of the jail residents in Sawyer County were those who couldn’t make their cash bond. Pretrial supervision offers accountability without a high cash bond.

To help people qualify for the pretrial program, JusticePoint staff does a risk assessment of the person reoffending and makes a report to the judge, DA, and defense attorneys.

“The basic goal, the foundational goal of pretrial, is to ensure that clients are in the court, showing up for court and are maintaining the condition of their bond,” said JusticePoint Diversion Coordinator Kari Dussi.

Becky Barry, JusticePoint’s program manager for Sawyer County, said they often spend time reviewing specific conditions the court has ordered for a bond because often their clients are not fully aware of those conditions, yet if they violate them they could end up in jail. Clients meet with staff on a regular schedule.

For those struggling to meet a condition, such as absolute sobriety, there will be case management referrals to Alcohol and Other Drug Addiction (AODA) counselors, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings or peer support – meeting with a recovering addict who has been trained to help other addicts struggling. If a person isn’t meeting the conditions of a bond, it is up to the court whether to send that person to  jail or impose a cash bond or just deliver a lecture from the judge on what is expected.

Diversion programs keep people out of jail

Another Justice Point service is a diversion program, which offers services to people charged with drug offenses or other offenses stemming from their substance use. In order for the diversion plan to proceed, the applicant has to agree to plead guilty or no contest.  If the person doesn’t complete the diversion plan, her or she will be facing punishment, but if they complete the diversion agreement, the charges are dropped.

To be eligible for diversion one must be 18 or older, a non-violent offender, have a low-moderate risk of recidivism, and be approved by the DA’s office for the voluntary program. Dussi offers an assessment of the person’s eligibility and a recommendation for the length of the program and different terms. If the DA approves, the person is accepted into the diversion program, but if the DA doesn’t approve, the case proceeds to court. One of the standard conditions of diversion is 25 hours of community service. The rest of the conditions are individualized.

“We meet people where they are at and [assess] how it’s helping them reach their goals,” said Dussi.

“If a person has alcohol or substance abuse issues, they’re probably going to AODA,” said Barry. “If they have mental health issues, they’re going to be referred to mental health; if one of their barriers is employment, they’re going to be referred for, like, transitional job skills or training.” 

A fundamental concept driving the diversion opportunity, especially for those without prior charges, is that those first few engagements with the legal system, especially jail time, can leave a permanent, negative impression resulting in future recidivism. 

“I think, as a society, we have this tendency to think that when people have criminal behavior, the answer is to throw everybody into jails, into prisons,” said Barry. 

“I think that we need to look at what the research and evidence is telling us,” she said. “When the people working in the criminal justice system continue to get the same results over and over and over, and the recidivism is not going down, what we’re doing is not working, so we need to look at evidence and start doing what that tells us is going to work.”

Sheriff Mrotek became an advocate for diversion when attending training in Eau Claire and heard the case of a woman who had helped her boyfriend elude law enforcement and was later arrested. She entered a diversion program and the charge against her wasn’t prosecuted upon successful completion of her program. The woman ended up finishing nursing school and became a registered nurse (RN).

“She really attributed the diversion opportunity to changing her life around in a positive way,” said Mrotek who noted she wouldn’t have been hired by a hospital with a felony charge on her record. “She was able to get her life straightened around and everything worked out pretty well.”

Recovery court

JusticePoint staff also work with the Sawyer County Recovery Court that reconvened in November 2023. Recovery Court is the newer edition of what used to be known as Drug Court, a special court meant to provide accountability and encouragement for those struggling with an addiction.

 “It’s for high-risk offenders and actually treatment court is also a post-sentence option, but it’s an alternative to a felony conviction, a serious felony conviction, whereas diversion is for more low-risk individuals,” Barry explained. Those in the program have a sentence imposed on them, but that sentence is stayed pending successful completion of Recovery Court.

Pre-arrest deflection

The JusticePoint staff also wrote a grant for the sheriff’s office for a deflection program with the purpose of keeping low-risk individuals out of the criminal justice system.  “It deflects them, if you will, from the criminal justice system into supportive resources and responses to mitigate risk of recidivism or become more involved in the criminal justice system,” said Dussi. 

“Law enforcement has the option to decide if they want to deflect that person instead of arresting that person,” said Barry.

In the deflection program, there are a variety of different supervision levels and options developed by peer support specialists working under the supervision of Dussi.

The premise, said Barry, “is to try to get that person services proactively and keep them out of the criminal justice system, because statistics tell us that those low-level offenders are the ones that, you know, a year down the line, two years, five years down the line, are the ones that we’re seeing in the more high-level offense areas. And so the whole purpose is to try to get them early and get them out of that risk area.”

Improved outcomes after hiring a second  judge

Starting in 2017, Judge Yackel began raising concerns at the local, regional, and state level that Sawyer County needed a second judge and second courtroom to process cases in a timely manner. The second judge was approved on the  condition that a second courtroom be constructed.  The county bonded over $10 million and began construction in 2022. Judge Monica Isham took the bench, presiding over the new courtroom in  August 2023. 

Judge Yackel said that prior to having a second judge it might have taken him months to consider whether a person should be in the diversion program and while that person was being considered they might be waiting in jail for as long as six to nine months.  Cases “would languish because we were being crushed by the amount of cases,” he said.

With two judges, Yackel said, there is more flexibility to respond to an urgent request, such as when a defense attorney asks that a client be allowed to attend in-patient treatment at a facility that has an opening with a short window for a response. “We will modify that bond to do that,” said Yackel, “and our ability to react to that is much quicker.”

In November 2023, with two judges in the county, the Sawyer Recovery Court reconvened. A lot of what Recovery Court is about is personal accountability between the two judges – Yackel and Isham – and the offenders, along with positive feedback for little steps of sobriety and stability.

Getting through the system faster

Sawyer County Administrator Andy Albarado is also pleased to see the reduced jail population. He gives much credit to the diversion program and especially the pretrial program, as well as having a second judge 

“People are able to get through the system faster,” he said, “and we’ve only had that second courtroom for a year, and I wouldn’t say that second courtroom is fully implemented. It has taken six months just to get the court calendar balanced out, to get the new judge assigned cases and get people their court dates.”

Albarado said even with two judges now available to respond to cases, there are still limiting factors such as the availability of public defenders. “People have to be represented and if it takes some time to get them a public defender assigned, they still might have to wait through the system,” he said. 

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