AG Josh Kaul speaks at a town hall in Green Bay. | Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul spoke to a crowd at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay last Thursday about crime victims’ services and Wisconsin’s response to actions taken by the Trump administration.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
Kaul said many programs are being changed drastically. He discussed possible impacts of Social Security staff cuts as an example and encouraged people to reach out to the Wisconsin Department of Justice and share how these policy changes are affecting them.
Last month, Kaul unsuccessfully attempted to block Elon Musk from handing out $1 million checks at an event supporting Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, who lost the recent election to Susan Crawford. The state Supreme Court turned down Kaul’s petition.
In Kaul’s opinion, “having rules that regulate petitions that are circulated right before an election, having rules that make clear that inducements to register to vote are problematic would be helpful,” he said. “And I think having statutes that make clear what it means to induce somebody to vote would be helpful.”
Kaul also described his pitch for money for services for crime victims in the state budget. Lower allocations from the federal Victims of Crime Act left providers scrambling, and Kaul said some providers have cut back on their hours and some have cut back on services.
“Crime victim services, for those of you who aren’t familiar, can make a critical difference in the lives of people who are victims of crime,” Kaul said. “…They can help ensure that the victim’s rights are protected.”
Crime victim services can also help lead a person “to want to work with law enforcement and hold a perpetrator accountable, and that makes all of us safer,” he said.
“So, essentially, what we’re talking about at the current level of funding is programs being stretched to the breaking point,” Kaul said. “That’s something I’ve heard from victim advocates.”
In November, Wisconsin Innocence Project co-founder Keith Findley (left) spoke about wrongful convictions at an annual banquet in Menasha, Wisconsin organized by the advocacy organization ESTHER. Findley stands next to Jarrett Adams, whom Findley helped free after Adams was sentenced to 28 years in prison. Photo by Andrew Kennard
The exoneration of David and Robert Bintz in a 1987 murder case has increased attention on what happens in Wisconsin after defendants’ convictions are overturned and they are released from prison.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
The Wisconsin Claims Board considers compensation claims by innocent people who were convicted of a crime. The board can award up to $25,000, not including attorneys’ fees, and not more than $5,000 for every year of wrongful imprisonment. It can recommend that the state Legislature award additional compensation.
Re-entering society
Exonerated people often experience more difficulty accessing services to help them reenter society than people who were released on probation or parole, according to Rachel Burg, co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project.
State programs work with people on probation or parole before release, Burg said, and include pre-release job training, assistance with applications to public benefits and general release planning. After release, a person may have court or supervision-mandated programs, such as school or work requirements.
“By no means am I saying being on probation or parole is easy or conducive to successfully reentering society, but in theory there is access to resources that are not available to the wrongfully convicted,” Burg said in an email to the Examiner.
Exonerated people don’t have probation officers making sure they have their identification cards and get set up for Medicaid, she said, or parole agents helping with job applications.
A guilty person gets more support from the state than an innocent person who was exonerated, Keith Findley, co-founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project and an emeritus law professor at UW-Madison, said in an interview in November.
“They’ve spent often decades in prison, had their livelihoods taken away from them, their relationships, their homes, their professions, their good names,” Findley said. “And then when we discover we got it wrong and made a mistake, we just open the door and say, ‘OK, have a good life,’ with nothing more from the state.”
Findley said Wisconsin could create a state forensic science commission, as well as conviction integrity units (CIUs) in prosecutors’ offices. In neighboring Michigan, the CIU in the state attorney general’s office investigates claims of innocence that are accompanied by new evidence.
Paths to compensation
Exonerees in the U.S. may receive compensation through a civil lawsuit, a private bill passed by a state legislature or a state law, if the state has a compensation statute.
Wisconsin’s compensation cap for wrongfully convicted people is one of the lowest caps in the country. The rare exception to the cap is if the Wisconsin Legislature approves a higher amount.
The Wisconsin Claims Board decides whether to grant compensation to an exonerated person and can recommend that the Legislature award an amount higher than the $25,000 cap.
The members of the Wisconsin Claims Board come from the Wisconsin Senate, the Wisconsin Assembly, the governor’s office, the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Wisconsin Department of Administration. Currently, the legislative representatives are Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Green Lake) and Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto).
How much does Wisconsin pay wrongly convicted people?
Wisconsin pays an average of about $4,200 per year of wrongful incarceration to those who filed and received compensation, according to an analysis of data collected by the National Registry of Exonerations, Wisconsin Watch reported.
A bipartisan bill that would have increased the $25,000 cap to $1 million passed the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2016, the Capital Times reported. It didn’t become law. The bill would have also granted assistance for transitioning back into society and up to 10 years in the state’s health insurance program for public employees.
There were 39 states, along with the District of Columbia, with compensation statutes for wrongful imprisonment as of March.
Some states’ compensation statutes allow exonerees to receive services, like assistance with tuition, job search and housing, Rachel Burg of the Wisconsin Innocence Project said.
As of July 2023, 62 Wisconsin exonerees were wrongly convicted in state courts since 1989 and potentially eligible for compensation, according to a research paper that used information from the National Registry of Exonerations. Jeffrey Gutman of George Washington University Law School published “Compensation under the Microscope: Wisconsin” in 2022, and it was updated in 2023.
As of July 2023, 25 of the 62 had filed claims. 17 of 25 applicants were granted compensation, and 8 were denied.
Gutman wrote that Wisconsin’s filing rate was significantly below a national average of 58% and said that “Wisconsin’s low compensation is a logical explanation.”
In Findley’s view, Wisconsin’s compensation plan for exonerees “puts a very high burden” on innocent people to prove their innocence.
Wisconsin’s compensation statute does not give compensation to people because they show their conviction was overturned, the claims board said when it denied compensation to Lavontae Stinson in a 2024 decision.
Stinson’s conviction was overturned due to ineffective assistance of his legal counsel, the claims board said. For this to happen, Stinson had to show there was a “reasonable probability” that more effective counsel would have led to a different result.
According to the board’s decision, the Milwaukee County District Attorney decided not to retry Stinson because the state could not meet its burden of proof. According to the DA, additional information from Stinson’s post-conviction counsel “cast some doubt on whether Stinson was involved at all in the crimes for which he was sent to prison.”
To receive compensation, Stinson had to meet a different standard — proving his innocence with “clear and convincing” evidence — and the board ruled his arguments and evidence did not meet the standard.
Rare compensation from the Legislature
In 2014, then-Gov. Scott Walker signed abill granting Robert Lee Stinson an additional $90,000. In the end, Stinson was awarded the $115,000 he had requested from the Wisconsin State Claims Board — $5,000 for each year of his imprisonment.
Gutman’s “Compensation Under the Microscope” reported 17 cases of exonerees receiving state compensation, going back to 1989. Stinson’s case appeared to be the only example of the Wisconsin Legislature ordering additional compensation for a wrongfully convicted person following a claims board recommendation, he wrote.
Stinson spent over two decades incarcerated for a conviction based on flawed evidence, FOX6 Milwaukee reported. He settled litigation with the city of Milwaukee for $7.5 million.
Jarrett Adams, an attorney working with David and Robert Bintz, didn’t yet know if the brothers could make a claim for a federal lawsuit, he told the Examiner in late February. Wisconsin’s compensation statute might be the brothers’ only opportunity for compensation, he said.
In the case of Daryl Holloway, the claims board recommended an additional $975,000 in March 2022, Gutman wrote, and the Legislature hadn’t acted on the recommendation as of June 2023.
After a 3-2 vote, in a Jan. 30 decision, the board awarded Gabriel Lugo $25,000 in compensation, not including attorneys’ fees.
Lugo had been sentenced to 30 years in prison for a 2008 shooting and released in 2023 after his conviction was vacated. The board recommended that the Legislature award Lugo an additional $750,000.
This is Part Two in a series on wrongful convictions. Read Part One here.
David Bintz, who was wrongly incarcerated, stands outside Mountains of Hope, the nonprofit where he finally found temporary housing after trying local shelters. | Photo courtesy Jarrett Adams Law
Robert Bintz wishes he couldrecover time lost behind bars.
In September, the convictions of Robert and his brother David Bintz in the 1987 murder of Sandra Lison were overturned. The brothers left prison more two decades after they were convicted.
“I missed my mom, before she died,” Robert Bintz told the Examiner in November. His mother passed away while he was incarcerated. “I missed my niece, Hannah. Got killed by a horrible car accident… I missed my job I once had.”
Upon his release from prison, Robert didn’t receive any reentry assistance from the state, according to his compensation request to the Wisconsin Claims Board in February. His sister isn’t able to meet his complex needs, the request said.
The brothers are seeking $2 million apiece from the state for their imprisonment. Their compensation requests cite high anticipated costs for health care.
“He’s 68 years old,” Isaiah Eastling, Robert’s nephew, told the Examiner in November. “It’s not fair for him to have to go and get a job like all of us, and just to try to get back into society like that. That’s impossible.”
Wisconsin law caps compensation for wrongful imprisonment at $25,000, unless the state Legislature grants more compensation, which is rare.
To award money, the Wisconsin Claims Board must find that evidence of innocence is “clear and convincing” and that the petitioner did not contribute to bring about their conviction and imprisonment by something they did or failed to do.
Jarrett Adams, an attorney working with the Bintz brothers, doesn’t yet know if they have a claim for a federal lawsuit, he said in late February. He said the brothers might not have an opportunity to get compensation if the state does not award it.
Robert’s sister, Cindy Eastling, said Robert called her every week when he was in prison. But she “had no idea that he had all these health issues.”
With little time to prepare, Eastling wasn’t ready for Robert’s arrival, she told the Examiner in November. His eye and arm were bruised, and he later told her he was beat up, she said.
He requires around-the-clock care and 20 daily medications for physical and mental health conditions, which worsened without sufficient medical attention in the prison system, according to his compensation claim. Eastling said her brothers will probably need assistance for the rest of their lives, and that they could be taken advantage of on their own.
“Bobby knows I love him, but it really took a toll on me,” Eastling said. “…I wasn’t prepared, and then the way he showed up, he looked absolutely horrible… he looks so much [healthier] now. We’re doing one physical problem at a time.”
Eastling said Robert’s asthma had improved. He used to use a nebulizer multiple times a day, she said. When Eastling spoke to the Examiner, he hadn’t used it in three weeks.
“Honestly, it scared me,” Eastling said. “I thought one morning I’d wake up and he’d be dead.”
Cindy Eastling, Isaiah Eastling, Robert “Bobby” Bintz and David Bintz (from left to right). Photo courtesy of Carla Broadnax of Jarrett Adams Law.
The brothers have health care coverage, but it’s a challenge at times, Carla Broadnax of Jarrett Adams Law said in late February.
Broadnax said that “accessing consistent care is persistently tricky, partially due to the cost associated with transportation, medical appointments, and necessary medications.”
Housing has been an issue for both brothers, according to the compensation requests filed in February. After trying to find housing at shelters, David found a place to stay in Appleton through the help of a local nonprofit.
David’s shared housing situation is temporary and not sufficient to meet his needs, as of his compensation request. Robert’s request said he hasn’t been able to acquire housing that can assist him with the round-the-clock support needed.
Cindy Eastling thinks the system should work faster to support her brothers in the short term. A GoFundMefor David Bintz raised $4,165, with a $10,000 goal. Robert’s GoFundMe raised $12,829 with a $20,000 goal. David’s compensation request said his monthly disability and social security payments cover only his most basic needs.
“This leaves everybody scrambling, [when] somebody like David and Robert gets out,” Adams said. “Everybody’s just trying to do what they can.”
Adams himself was once incarcerated and released after his conviction was overturned,and he co-founded the organization Life After Justice, which supports wrongfully convicted people. In late February, he said the brothers are receiving mental health care through the organization.
Jarrett Adams autographed his book, Redeeming Justice, at a banquet in Menasha, Wisconsin in November by the advocacy organization ESTHER. Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner
“…He’s holding back a lot of things, I can tell,” Cindy Eastling said about Robert Bintz. “And he’s always happy, but bad things happened to him in there.”
How were the Bintz brothers prosecuted?
In 1999, the brothers were charged with the 1987 murder of Sandra Lison, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.Testing of semen from a rape kit found that it didn’t belong to the brothers, and blood found under Lison’s body was not theirs.
Additional DNA testing obtained by the Wisconsin Innocence Project in 2006 confirmed that blood found on Lison’s dress came from the same male whose sperm was found in the rape kit, according to the exonerations registry. A motion for a new trial was denied.
The Brown County Attorney’s Office prosecuted the brothers with a theoryof robbery and murder. After the brothers’ exoneration in September, Brown County District Attorney David Lasee spoke to NBC 26.
“The prosecutors and the law enforcement officers were handling this case at the outset, followed the evidence that they had at that time, and that conviction was sound,” Lasee said.
Evidence against the brothers included statements from incarcerated people who said David had admitted to the crime.
In an interview with detectives, David Bintz eventually agreed to a statement that he and his brother were involved and that his brother had strangled Lison, according to David’s page in the National Registry of Exonerations. At the same time, he gave contradictory statements that he wasn’t involved and was home at the time of the crime.
David Bintz’s request for compensation claims that Bintz, who was intellectually disabled, was interrogated for over six hours, “depriving him of food, water and restroom breaks in clear violation of his rights.”
“During the interrogation, David Bintz maintained his innocence, but after several hours, he made confused and contradictory statements — some of which confirmed Swendby’s allegations, others which stressed his innocence,” the request states.
The request says David was coerced by the pressure and tactics of the detectives and signed a false statement implicating himself and Robert Bintz in Lison’s murder.
The Examiner asked Jarrett Adams Law about the sources the firm used for a section of the compensation request about the confession. Facts in the firm’s complaint, findings from investigative reports and communication with the Bintz brothers provided the context and basis for that part of the request, Broadnax said.
The brothers had multiple convictions prior to their convictions in Lison’s murder, according to Brown County court records. In 1997, David was sentenced to prison for sexual assault.
Jarrett Adams said that the identity of Lison’s attacker is now known and “nothing else matters but that. It wasn’t them.”
Last year, investigative genetic genealogy linked crime scene evidence to three male children of a couple in the Green Bay area. In August, the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory determined that substances at the crime scene pointed conclusively to William Hendricks, who had a history of violent sexual attacks before his death in 2000.
“The notion that Ms. Lison was having a secret sexual relationship with a recently-released convicted rapist is utterly implausible,” the Great North Innocence Project said in a motion to vacate Robert Bintz’s conviction, according to the exonerations registry.
Life after exoneration
If the Bintz brothers receive compensation from the state, they have ideas for how to use it beyond paying for health care expenses. In late February, Broadnax told the Examiner about the brothers’ plans.
David Bintz in front of his card designs |Photo courtesy Jarrett Adams Law
They both want to own a home, she said. In an interview with the Examiner, David talked about helping others.“I’d help a couple people out that ain’t got nothing,” he said.
Robert wants to travel and see the world, and David wants to eat home-cooked food, Broadnax said.
“The food was straight garbage,” David said of the food in prison. “Half [the] time, I didn’t eat the food. I just bought stuff off canteen if I could.”
David has been making cards, Broadnax said. He sends cards to about four to five incarcerated people, and also uses his cards and designs to help with the decor at Mountains of Hope, the nonprofit through which he found a place to stay.
“That was my hobby,” David said. “When I knew I was getting out, he wanted me to leave all my art supplies behind. I said ‘No, I’m not leaving my stuff behind. I’m still going to do this when I get out.’”
Robert "RJay" Fisher shows off a recording studio that is part of the Green Bay Office of Violence Prevention's new location. Fisher is a violence interrupter with the office. (Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner)
Robert “RJay” Fisher has personal experience with the damage gun violence can cause. His work with Green Bay’s Office of Violence Prevention aims to keep others from experiencing the same harm.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
Fisher said that “having a brother who is now incarcerated for a situation that happened in Green Bay, that was pretty tough for me. And I know what type of trauma I experienced from that. I had a brother who was shot here on the west side of Green Bay, about 11 years ago. And so, I remember getting those calls, and having to deal with those emotions, and what that felt like.”
He said other family members have been shot. ”I also have lost a lot of friends due to gun violence,” said Fisher. “And just recently, two years ago, I lost my uncle, one of my only uncles, due to gun violence.”
Fisher is a violence interrupter at the Office of Violence Prevention, where he builds relationships with community members and tries to prevent violence before it happens.
The office listens to “rumblings in the community,” Fisher said. When they hear something from social media or word of mouth, it’s their job to put out the fire.
Fisher said he’s been in the community for a long time and worked for the Green Bay Area Public School District. He said his relationships and people’s respect for him enable him “to intervene in those situations and start conversations.”
“And then if they’re open [to it], I try to either meet with them or bring them into the space,” he said. “That’s why it’s critical to have a home base.”
Green Bay’s Office of Violence Prevention was formed in 2023 after the city was awarded a grant from the Medical College of Wisconsin. On Monday, the office held the grand opening of its new location on the east side of Green Bay.
Director Andrea Kressin described it as a safe space where relationship building and coaching can happen. This is important for the office’s prevention work to support people who are at the highest risk of engaging in violence or deter them from engaging in further violence, she said.
Police officers operated at the office’s old location, and high-risk individuals might not have a good relationship with police, Fisher said.
“We kind of take them out of their environment, and bring them in a calm, safe space where we can then use our CBT [cognitive behavioral therapy] strategies to kind of help them rewire the way they think,” Fisher said.
In its 2023 crime report, the Green Bay Police Department reported six homicides and a 17% decrease in assault offenses, which included gun violence.
In its 2024 crime report, the department reported four fewer homicides, but also reported a rise in crimes against persons of around 18%. Some of the offenses that led to the increase included aggravated assault, simple assault and kidnapping/abduction.
The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform partnered with Green Bay Police and other local community corrections agencies to study shootings and homicides in Green Bay between 2019 and 2021. The analysis found that in Green Bay “most gun violence is tightly concentrated on a small number of very high risk young Black male adults that share a common set of risk factors.”
These risk factors included involvement in street crews/groups and significant criminal justice history, according to the analysis. The analysis found that shootings were often caused by a “petty conflict over a young woman, a simple argument, or a feud on social media.” People involved in groups or gangs were also involved in a range of other criminal activities, such as selling drugs or robbery, which made them more likely to be involved in violence.
One of the report’s recommendations was that the city of Green Bay should invest in development and expansion of community-based violence intervention services.
Kressin said the Office of Violence Prevention has played a part in contributing to a short-term reduction in the number of homicides as well as shots-fired incidents in the community.
When a violent incident happens and has the potential to lead to retaliation in the community, a primary role of the office is to intervene, Kressin said. She also said the office has built partnerships with community organizations, participated in community events, hosted community conversations in Spanish and English and knocked on doors.
Fisher said the Green Bay Police Department shares information with the Office of Violence Prevention. The department can give information to Kressin, and the office can make a plan to get involved. The goal is to minimize and defuse a situation so they don’t have to contact the police, but the office will contact the police to avoid someone getting hurt, Fisher said.
The new location includes a recording studio, lending library, video production tools and interactive workshops aimed at building life skills in collaboration with community organizations, the office said in a statement.
Kressin said participants can learn about music production and build relationships with violence interrupters. One of the interrupters is working with podcasting and videography, and the Office of Violence Prevention is getting started with the rollout, she said.
Green Bay Police Chief Chris Davis was one of the speakers at the grand opening’s press conference.
“Our police officers in our organization have been able to make some really great relationships, and a lot of us, myself included, have been able to see tangible results in real people’s lives as a result of that work together,” Davis said. “And so we’re looking forward to what the future holds for this program and for this community.”
Fox Lake Correctional Institution was the site of a meeting the Wisconsin Department of Corrections held this week with friends and family of incarcerated people. (Wisconsin Department of Corrections photo)
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections held its first friends and family forum at Fox Lake Correctional Institution on Wednesday. The event was closed to the press, but multiple attendees shared their reactions with the Examiner.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
DOC Secretary Jared Hoy and much of the department’s leadership team met with over 40 friends and family members, according to a DOC press release.
“Family and friends play a huge role in determining whether an individual succeeds in the community,” Hoy said. “With DOC’s mission of safety and rehabilitation, we need to partner with families and friends throughout the process. Their support is crucial to success with rehabilitation.”
Rebecca Aubart, executive director of the prison reform advocacy group Ladies of SCI, said the event gave her hope.
“We have been a lost, hopeless group of people without a voice for decades,” Aubart said. “And they acknowledged us, they were respectful and kind and compassionate to us. And they gave us hope. The dangerous thing about this is, if you crush our hope, we are going to be devastated and come in full force with whatever we could possibly do to make sure that everybody knows they did not follow through on anything.”
People who attended the event broke into small groups to talk about topics such as strengthening families, treatment and health care, classification and life in DOC facilities, complaint systems and reentry, the DOC’s statement said. DOC staff were there to listen and take note of suggestions.
Amy Rolack said her husband is incarcerated at Fox Lake Correctional Institution. She said she told DOC staff at the forum that her husband was told it would be a year and a half before he would be seen for dental care.
“I think that it was a really good meeting as far as who all attended it and who were all able to hear all of these loved ones talking about their experiences in each different facility,” Rolack said.
Betty Ziehme described it as a successful first meeting.
“I don’t think they were shocked by what they heard,” Ziehme said. “I think that they are aware that there’s issues, and I think they’re looking for input, and that they want to make some corrections. And I have to be hopeful.”
People who attended the event “made valuable suggestions” regarding visiting experiences and helping support families new to the Department of Corrections, Hoy said, according to DOC.
In an interview with the Examiner, Aubart mentioned the idea of having family orientations. She also pointed to neighboring Minnesota, where the Office of the Ombudsperson for Corrections (OBFC) — a prison oversight body — collaborated with the Minnesota Department of Corrections on a pilot project intended to strengthen loved ones’ support of incarcerated people.
The project included virtual meetings for family and friends of incarcerated people for two prisons. One of the prisons was an intake facility where most incarcerated people would only stay a few months before being transferred to a different facility. In that group, OBFC presented on topics families identified as being helpful, and afterward, staff members gave updates related to the facility and participants asked questions.
An OBFC report found the meetings were a helpful resource for families and facility staff developed a better understanding of difficulties experienced by families navigating the correctional system.
Prior to the pilot project, a 2021 Minnesota OBFC report found that families “face a wide array of barriers in supporting and staying connected with their loved one while they are incarcerated.”
After the small groups, Hoy answered some of the questions friends and family had submitted in advance. The answers to additional questions will be available on the DOC’s friends and family webpage in the coming days.
Hoy said it is important for the department to consider the opinions, ideas and feelings of people directly impacted by their work.
Attendance at forums is limited to friends and family members of people who are currently incarcerated or on active community supervision, a DOC webpage says. The DOC’s website includes an email where questions could be submitted virtually.
The forum was “the first in a series of efforts designed to continue improving communication” between the department and the loved ones of incarcerated people and people on supervision, according to DOC.
The department stated that it will continue to receive feedback from attendees for potential forums in the future or other events. Hoy said the department wants to know what family and friends want from events like this.
AG Josh Kaul speaks at a town hall in Green Bay. | Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul spoke to a crowd at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay last Thursday about crime victims’ services and Wisconsin’s response to actions taken by the Trump administration.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
Kaul said many programs are being changed drastically. He discussed possible impacts of Social Security staff cuts as an example and encouraged people to reach out to the Wisconsin Department of Justice and share how these policy changes are affecting them.
Last month, Kaul unsuccessfully attempted to block Elon Musk from handing out $1 million checks at an event supporting Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, who lost the recent election to Susan Crawford. The state Supreme Court turned down Kaul’s petition.
In Kaul’s opinion, “having rules that regulate petitions that are circulated right before an election, having rules that make clear that inducements to register to vote are problematic would be helpful,” he said. “And I think having statutes that make clear what it means to induce somebody to vote would be helpful.”
Kaul also described his pitch for money for services for crime victims in the state budget. Lower allocations from the federal Victims of Crime Act left providers scrambling, and Kaul said some providers have cut back on their hours and some have cut back on services.
“Crime victim services, for those of you who aren’t familiar, can make a critical difference in the lives of people who are victims of crime,” Kaul said. “…They can help ensure that the victim’s rights are protected.”
Crime victim services can also help lead a person “to want to work with law enforcement and hold a perpetrator accountable, and that makes all of us safer,” he said.
“So, essentially, what we’re talking about at the current level of funding is programs being stretched to the breaking point,” Kaul said. “That’s something I’ve heard from victim advocates.”
In November, Wisconsin Innocence Project co-founder Keith Findley (left) spoke about wrongful convictions at an annual banquet in Menasha, Wisconsin organized by the advocacy organization ESTHER. Findley stands next to Jarrett Adams, whom Findley helped free after Adams was sentenced to 28 years in prison. Photo by Andrew Kennard
The exoneration of David and Robert Bintz in a 1987 murder case has increased attention on what happens in Wisconsin after defendants’ convictions are overturned and they are released from prison.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
The Wisconsin Claims Board considers compensation claims by innocent people who were convicted of a crime. The board can award up to $25,000, not including attorneys’ fees, and not more than $5,000 for every year of wrongful imprisonment. It can recommend that the state Legislature award additional compensation.
Re-entering society
Exonerated people often experience more difficulty accessing services to help them reenter society than people who were released on probation or parole, according to Rachel Burg, co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project.
State programs work with people on probation or parole before release, Burg said, and include pre-release job training, assistance with applications to public benefits and general release planning. After release, a person may have court or supervision-mandated programs, such as school or work requirements.
“By no means am I saying being on probation or parole is easy or conducive to successfully reentering society, but in theory there is access to resources that are not available to the wrongfully convicted,” Burg said in an email to the Examiner.
Exonerated people don’t have probation officers making sure they have their identification cards and get set up for Medicaid, she said, or parole agents helping with job applications.
A guilty person gets more support from the state than an innocent person who was exonerated, Keith Findley, co-founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project and an emeritus law professor at UW-Madison, said in an interview in November.
“They’ve spent often decades in prison, had their livelihoods taken away from them, their relationships, their homes, their professions, their good names,” Findley said. “And then when we discover we got it wrong and made a mistake, we just open the door and say, ‘OK, have a good life,’ with nothing more from the state.”
Findley said Wisconsin could create a state forensic science commission, as well as conviction integrity units (CIUs) in prosecutors’ offices. In neighboring Michigan, the CIU in the state attorney general’s office investigates claims of innocence that are accompanied by new evidence.
Paths to compensation
Exonerees in the U.S. may receive compensation through a civil lawsuit, a private bill passed by a state legislature or a state law, if the state has a compensation statute.
Wisconsin’s compensation cap for wrongfully convicted people is one of the lowest caps in the country. The rare exception to the cap is if the Wisconsin Legislature approves a higher amount.
The Wisconsin Claims Board decides whether to grant compensation to an exonerated person and can recommend that the Legislature award an amount higher than the $25,000 cap.
The members of the Wisconsin Claims Board come from the Wisconsin Senate, the Wisconsin Assembly, the governor’s office, the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Wisconsin Department of Administration. Currently, the legislative representatives are Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Green Lake) and Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto).
How much does Wisconsin pay wrongly convicted people?
Wisconsin pays an average of about $4,200 per year of wrongful incarceration to those who filed and received compensation, according to an analysis of data collected by the National Registry of Exonerations, Wisconsin Watch reported.
A bipartisan bill that would have increased the $25,000 cap to $1 million passed the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2016, the Capital Times reported. It didn’t become law. The bill would have also granted assistance for transitioning back into society and up to 10 years in the state’s health insurance program for public employees.
There were 39 states, along with the District of Columbia, with compensation statutes for wrongful imprisonment as of March.
Some states’ compensation statutes allow exonerees to receive services, like assistance with tuition, job search and housing, Rachel Burg of the Wisconsin Innocence Project said.
As of July 2023, 62 Wisconsin exonerees were wrongly convicted in state courts since 1989 and potentially eligible for compensation, according to a research paper that used information from the National Registry of Exonerations. Jeffrey Gutman of George Washington University Law School published “Compensation under the Microscope: Wisconsin” in 2022, and it was updated in 2023.
As of July 2023, 25 of the 62 had filed claims. 17 of 25 applicants were granted compensation, and 8 were denied.
Gutman wrote that Wisconsin’s filing rate was significantly below a national average of 58% and said that “Wisconsin’s low compensation is a logical explanation.”
In Findley’s view, Wisconsin’s compensation plan for exonerees “puts a very high burden” on innocent people to prove their innocence.
Wisconsin’s compensation statute does not give compensation to people because they show their conviction was overturned, the claims board said when it denied compensation to Lavontae Stinson in a 2024 decision.
Stinson’s conviction was overturned due to ineffective assistance of his legal counsel, the claims board said. For this to happen, Stinson had to show there was a “reasonable probability” that more effective counsel would have led to a different result.
According to the board’s decision, the Milwaukee County District Attorney decided not to retry Stinson because the state could not meet its burden of proof. According to the DA, additional information from Stinson’s post-conviction counsel “cast some doubt on whether Stinson was involved at all in the crimes for which he was sent to prison.”
To receive compensation, Stinson had to meet a different standard — proving his innocence with “clear and convincing” evidence — and the board ruled his arguments and evidence did not meet the standard.
Rare compensation from the Legislature
In 2014, then-Gov. Scott Walker signed abill granting Robert Lee Stinson an additional $90,000. In the end, Stinson was awarded the $115,000 he had requested from the Wisconsin State Claims Board — $5,000 for each year of his imprisonment.
Gutman’s “Compensation Under the Microscope” reported 17 cases of exonerees receiving state compensation, going back to 1989. Stinson’s case appeared to be the only example of the Wisconsin Legislature ordering additional compensation for a wrongfully convicted person following a claims board recommendation, he wrote.
Stinson spent over two decades incarcerated for a conviction based on flawed evidence, FOX6 Milwaukee reported. He settled litigation with the city of Milwaukee for $7.5 million.
Jarrett Adams, an attorney working with David and Robert Bintz, didn’t yet know if the brothers could make a claim for a federal lawsuit, he told the Examiner in late February. Wisconsin’s compensation statute might be the brothers’ only opportunity for compensation, he said.
In the case of Daryl Holloway, the claims board recommended an additional $975,000 in March 2022, Gutman wrote, and the Legislature hadn’t acted on the recommendation as of June 2023.
After a 3-2 vote, in a Jan. 30 decision, the board awarded Gabriel Lugo $25,000 in compensation, not including attorneys’ fees.
Lugo had been sentenced to 30 years in prison for a 2008 shooting and released in 2023 after his conviction was vacated. The board recommended that the Legislature award Lugo an additional $750,000.
This is Part Two in a series on wrongful convictions. Read Part One here.
David Bintz, who was wrongly incarcerated, stands outside Mountains of Hope, the nonprofit where he finally found temporary housing after trying local shelters. | Photo courtesy Jarrett Adams Law
Robert Bintz wishes he couldrecover time lost behind bars.
In September, the convictions of Robert and his brother David Bintz in the 1987 murder of Sandra Lison were overturned. The brothers left prison more two decades after they were convicted.
“I missed my mom, before she died,” Robert Bintz told the Examiner in November. His mother passed away while he was incarcerated. “I missed my niece, Hannah. Got killed by a horrible car accident… I missed my job I once had.”
Upon his release from prison, Robert didn’t receive any reentry assistance from the state, according to his compensation request to the Wisconsin Claims Board in February. His sister isn’t able to meet his complex needs, the request said.
The brothers are seeking $2 million apiece from the state for their imprisonment. Their compensation requests cite high anticipated costs for health care.
“He’s 68 years old,” Isaiah Eastling, Robert’s nephew, told the Examiner in November. “It’s not fair for him to have to go and get a job like all of us, and just to try to get back into society like that. That’s impossible.”
Wisconsin law caps compensation for wrongful imprisonment at $25,000, unless the state Legislature grants more compensation, which is rare.
To award money, the Wisconsin Claims Board must find that evidence of innocence is “clear and convincing” and that the petitioner did not contribute to bring about their conviction and imprisonment by something they did or failed to do.
Jarrett Adams, an attorney working with the Bintz brothers, doesn’t yet know if they have a claim for a federal lawsuit, he said in late February. He said the brothers might not have an opportunity to get compensation if the state does not award it.
Robert’s sister, Cindy Eastling, said Robert called her every week when he was in prison. But she “had no idea that he had all these health issues.”
With little time to prepare, Eastling wasn’t ready for Robert’s arrival, she told the Examiner in November. His eye and arm were bruised, and he later told her he was beat up, she said.
He requires around-the-clock care and 20 daily medications for physical and mental health conditions, which worsened without sufficient medical attention in the prison system, according to his compensation claim. Eastling said her brothers will probably need assistance for the rest of their lives, and that they could be taken advantage of on their own.
“Bobby knows I love him, but it really took a toll on me,” Eastling said. “…I wasn’t prepared, and then the way he showed up, he looked absolutely horrible… he looks so much [healthier] now. We’re doing one physical problem at a time.”
Eastling said Robert’s asthma had improved. He used to use a nebulizer multiple times a day, she said. When Eastling spoke to the Examiner, he hadn’t used it in three weeks.
“Honestly, it scared me,” Eastling said. “I thought one morning I’d wake up and he’d be dead.”
Cindy Eastling, Isaiah Eastling, Robert “Bobby” Bintz and David Bintz (from left to right). Photo courtesy of Carla Broadnax of Jarrett Adams Law.
The brothers have health care coverage, but it’s a challenge at times, Carla Broadnax of Jarrett Adams Law said in late February.
Broadnax said that “accessing consistent care is persistently tricky, partially due to the cost associated with transportation, medical appointments, and necessary medications.”
Housing has been an issue for both brothers, according to the compensation requests filed in February. After trying to find housing at shelters, David found a place to stay in Appleton through the help of a local nonprofit.
David’s shared housing situation is temporary and not sufficient to meet his needs, as of his compensation request. Robert’s request said he hasn’t been able to acquire housing that can assist him with the round-the-clock support needed.
Cindy Eastling thinks the system should work faster to support her brothers in the short term. A GoFundMefor David Bintz raised $4,165, with a $10,000 goal. Robert’s GoFundMe raised $12,829 with a $20,000 goal. David’s compensation request said his monthly disability and social security payments cover only his most basic needs.
“This leaves everybody scrambling, [when] somebody like David and Robert gets out,” Adams said. “Everybody’s just trying to do what they can.”
Adams himself was once incarcerated and released after his conviction was overturned,and he co-founded the organization Life After Justice, which supports wrongfully convicted people. In late February, he said the brothers are receiving mental health care through the organization.
Jarrett Adams autographed his book, Redeeming Justice, at a banquet in Menasha, Wisconsin in November by the advocacy organization ESTHER. Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner
“…He’s holding back a lot of things, I can tell,” Cindy Eastling said about Robert Bintz. “And he’s always happy, but bad things happened to him in there.”
How were the Bintz brothers prosecuted?
In 1999, the brothers were charged with the 1987 murder of Sandra Lison, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.Testing of semen from a rape kit found that it didn’t belong to the brothers, and blood found under Lison’s body was not theirs.
Additional DNA testing obtained by the Wisconsin Innocence Project in 2006 confirmed that blood found on Lison’s dress came from the same male whose sperm was found in the rape kit, according to the exonerations registry. A motion for a new trial was denied.
The Brown County Attorney’s Office prosecuted the brothers with a theoryof robbery and murder. After the brothers’ exoneration in September, Brown County District Attorney David Lasee spoke to NBC 26.
“The prosecutors and the law enforcement officers were handling this case at the outset, followed the evidence that they had at that time, and that conviction was sound,” Lasee said.
Evidence against the brothers included statements from incarcerated people who said David had admitted to the crime.
In an interview with detectives, David Bintz eventually agreed to a statement that he and his brother were involved and that his brother had strangled Lison, according to David’s page in the National Registry of Exonerations. At the same time, he gave contradictory statements that he wasn’t involved and was home at the time of the crime.
David Bintz’s request for compensation claims that Bintz, who was intellectually disabled, was interrogated for over six hours, “depriving him of food, water and restroom breaks in clear violation of his rights.”
“During the interrogation, David Bintz maintained his innocence, but after several hours, he made confused and contradictory statements — some of which confirmed Swendby’s allegations, others which stressed his innocence,” the request states.
The request says David was coerced by the pressure and tactics of the detectives and signed a false statement implicating himself and Robert Bintz in Lison’s murder.
The Examiner asked Jarrett Adams Law about the sources the firm used for a section of the compensation request about the confession. Facts in the firm’s complaint, findings from investigative reports and communication with the Bintz brothers provided the context and basis for that part of the request, Broadnax said.
The brothers had multiple convictions prior to their convictions in Lison’s murder, according to Brown County court records. In 1997, David was sentenced to prison for sexual assault.
Jarrett Adams said that the identity of Lison’s attacker is now known and “nothing else matters but that. It wasn’t them.”
Last year, investigative genetic genealogy linked crime scene evidence to three male children of a couple in the Green Bay area. In August, the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory determined that substances at the crime scene pointed conclusively to William Hendricks, who had a history of violent sexual attacks before his death in 2000.
“The notion that Ms. Lison was having a secret sexual relationship with a recently-released convicted rapist is utterly implausible,” the Great North Innocence Project said in a motion to vacate Robert Bintz’s conviction, according to the exonerations registry.
Life after exoneration
If the Bintz brothers receive compensation from the state, they have ideas for how to use it beyond paying for health care expenses. In late February, Broadnax told the Examiner about the brothers’ plans.
David Bintz in front of his card designs |Photo courtesy Jarrett Adams Law
They both want to own a home, she said. In an interview with the Examiner, David talked about helping others.“I’d help a couple people out that ain’t got nothing,” he said.
Robert wants to travel and see the world, and David wants to eat home-cooked food, Broadnax said.
“The food was straight garbage,” David said of the food in prison. “Half [the] time, I didn’t eat the food. I just bought stuff off canteen if I could.”
David has been making cards, Broadnax said. He sends cards to about four to five incarcerated people, and also uses his cards and designs to help with the decor at Mountains of Hope, the nonprofit through which he found a place to stay.
“That was my hobby,” David said. “When I knew I was getting out, he wanted me to leave all my art supplies behind. I said ‘No, I’m not leaving my stuff behind. I’m still going to do this when I get out.’”
Robert "RJay" Fisher shows off a recording studio that is part of the Green Bay Office of Violence Prevention's new location. Fisher is a violence interrupter with the office. (Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner)
Robert “RJay” Fisher has personal experience with the damage gun violence can cause. His work with Green Bay’s Office of Violence Prevention aims to keep others from experiencing the same harm.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
Fisher said that “having a brother who is now incarcerated for a situation that happened in Green Bay, that was pretty tough for me. And I know what type of trauma I experienced from that. I had a brother who was shot here on the west side of Green Bay, about 11 years ago. And so, I remember getting those calls, and having to deal with those emotions, and what that felt like.”
He said other family members have been shot. ”I also have lost a lot of friends due to gun violence,” said Fisher. “And just recently, two years ago, I lost my uncle, one of my only uncles, due to gun violence.”
Fisher is a violence interrupter at the Office of Violence Prevention, where he builds relationships with community members and tries to prevent violence before it happens.
The office listens to “rumblings in the community,” Fisher said. When they hear something from social media or word of mouth, it’s their job to put out the fire.
Fisher said he’s been in the community for a long time and worked for the Green Bay Area Public School District. He said his relationships and people’s respect for him enable him “to intervene in those situations and start conversations.”
“And then if they’re open [to it], I try to either meet with them or bring them into the space,” he said. “That’s why it’s critical to have a home base.”
Green Bay’s Office of Violence Prevention was formed in 2023 after the city was awarded a grant from the Medical College of Wisconsin. On Monday, the office held the grand opening of its new location on the east side of Green Bay.
Director Andrea Kressin described it as a safe space where relationship building and coaching can happen. This is important for the office’s prevention work to support people who are at the highest risk of engaging in violence or deter them from engaging in further violence, she said.
Police officers operated at the office’s old location, and high-risk individuals might not have a good relationship with police, Fisher said.
“We kind of take them out of their environment, and bring them in a calm, safe space where we can then use our CBT [cognitive behavioral therapy] strategies to kind of help them rewire the way they think,” Fisher said.
In its 2023 crime report, the Green Bay Police Department reported six homicides and a 17% decrease in assault offenses, which included gun violence.
In its 2024 crime report, the department reported four fewer homicides, but also reported a rise in crimes against persons of around 18%. Some of the offenses that led to the increase included aggravated assault, simple assault and kidnapping/abduction.
The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform partnered with Green Bay Police and other local community corrections agencies to study shootings and homicides in Green Bay between 2019 and 2021. The analysis found that in Green Bay “most gun violence is tightly concentrated on a small number of very high risk young Black male adults that share a common set of risk factors.”
These risk factors included involvement in street crews/groups and significant criminal justice history, according to the analysis. The analysis found that shootings were often caused by a “petty conflict over a young woman, a simple argument, or a feud on social media.” People involved in groups or gangs were also involved in a range of other criminal activities, such as selling drugs or robbery, which made them more likely to be involved in violence.
One of the report’s recommendations was that the city of Green Bay should invest in development and expansion of community-based violence intervention services.
Kressin said the Office of Violence Prevention has played a part in contributing to a short-term reduction in the number of homicides as well as shots-fired incidents in the community.
When a violent incident happens and has the potential to lead to retaliation in the community, a primary role of the office is to intervene, Kressin said. She also said the office has built partnerships with community organizations, participated in community events, hosted community conversations in Spanish and English and knocked on doors.
Fisher said the Green Bay Police Department shares information with the Office of Violence Prevention. The department can give information to Kressin, and the office can make a plan to get involved. The goal is to minimize and defuse a situation so they don’t have to contact the police, but the office will contact the police to avoid someone getting hurt, Fisher said.
The new location includes a recording studio, lending library, video production tools and interactive workshops aimed at building life skills in collaboration with community organizations, the office said in a statement.
Kressin said participants can learn about music production and build relationships with violence interrupters. One of the interrupters is working with podcasting and videography, and the Office of Violence Prevention is getting started with the rollout, she said.
Green Bay Police Chief Chris Davis was one of the speakers at the grand opening’s press conference.
“Our police officers in our organization have been able to make some really great relationships, and a lot of us, myself included, have been able to see tangible results in real people’s lives as a result of that work together,” Davis said. “And so we’re looking forward to what the future holds for this program and for this community.”
Fox Lake Correctional Institution was the site of a meeting the Wisconsin Department of Corrections held this week with friends and family of incarcerated people. (Wisconsin Department of Corrections photo)
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections held its first friends and family forum at Fox Lake Correctional Institution on Wednesday. The event was closed to the press, but multiple attendees shared their reactions with the Examiner.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
DOC Secretary Jared Hoy and much of the department’s leadership team met with over 40 friends and family members, according to a DOC press release.
“Family and friends play a huge role in determining whether an individual succeeds in the community,” Hoy said. “With DOC’s mission of safety and rehabilitation, we need to partner with families and friends throughout the process. Their support is crucial to success with rehabilitation.”
Rebecca Aubart, executive director of the prison reform advocacy group Ladies of SCI, said the event gave her hope.
“We have been a lost, hopeless group of people without a voice for decades,” Aubart said. “And they acknowledged us, they were respectful and kind and compassionate to us. And they gave us hope. The dangerous thing about this is, if you crush our hope, we are going to be devastated and come in full force with whatever we could possibly do to make sure that everybody knows they did not follow through on anything.”
People who attended the event broke into small groups to talk about topics such as strengthening families, treatment and health care, classification and life in DOC facilities, complaint systems and reentry, the DOC’s statement said. DOC staff were there to listen and take note of suggestions.
Amy Rolack said her husband is incarcerated at Fox Lake Correctional Institution. She said she told DOC staff at the forum that her husband was told it would be a year and a half before he would be seen for dental care.
“I think that it was a really good meeting as far as who all attended it and who were all able to hear all of these loved ones talking about their experiences in each different facility,” Rolack said.
Betty Ziehme described it as a successful first meeting.
“I don’t think they were shocked by what they heard,” Ziehme said. “I think that they are aware that there’s issues, and I think they’re looking for input, and that they want to make some corrections. And I have to be hopeful.”
People who attended the event “made valuable suggestions” regarding visiting experiences and helping support families new to the Department of Corrections, Hoy said, according to DOC.
In an interview with the Examiner, Aubart mentioned the idea of having family orientations. She also pointed to neighboring Minnesota, where the Office of the Ombudsperson for Corrections (OBFC) — a prison oversight body — collaborated with the Minnesota Department of Corrections on a pilot project intended to strengthen loved ones’ support of incarcerated people.
The project included virtual meetings for family and friends of incarcerated people for two prisons. One of the prisons was an intake facility where most incarcerated people would only stay a few months before being transferred to a different facility. In that group, OBFC presented on topics families identified as being helpful, and afterward, staff members gave updates related to the facility and participants asked questions.
An OBFC report found the meetings were a helpful resource for families and facility staff developed a better understanding of difficulties experienced by families navigating the correctional system.
Prior to the pilot project, a 2021 Minnesota OBFC report found that families “face a wide array of barriers in supporting and staying connected with their loved one while they are incarcerated.”
After the small groups, Hoy answered some of the questions friends and family had submitted in advance. The answers to additional questions will be available on the DOC’s friends and family webpage in the coming days.
Hoy said it is important for the department to consider the opinions, ideas and feelings of people directly impacted by their work.
Attendance at forums is limited to friends and family members of people who are currently incarcerated or on active community supervision, a DOC webpage says. The DOC’s website includes an email where questions could be submitted virtually.
The forum was “the first in a series of efforts designed to continue improving communication” between the department and the loved ones of incarcerated people and people on supervision, according to DOC.
The department stated that it will continue to receive feedback from attendees for potential forums in the future or other events. Hoy said the department wants to know what family and friends want from events like this.
Micah Laureano with his mother, Phyllis, who filed a lawsuit after Micah's death | Photo courtesy Phyllis Laureno
Jackson Vogel allegedly told a corrections officer that he killed his cellmate, Micah Laureano, because Laureano was Black and gay. A case report the Examiner received from the Brown County Sheriff’s Office shows Vogel had a history of racist and threatening behavior.
After Laureano died in late August at Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI), Vogel was charged with homicide with hate crime and repeat offender penalties, the Examiner reported.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
Micah Laureano’s mother, Phyllis Laureano, has sued Secretary Jared Hoy and GBCI warden Christopher Stevens of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. The federal civil rights lawsuit alleges “defendants’ willful and deliberate indifference to Mr. Laureano’s safety” resulted in the murder.
The sheriff’s office said the suspect and victim had occupied the same cell for only hours before the incident. The statement said the medical examiner’s findings confirmed Laureano died of strangulation/suffocation by manner of homicide.
Beth Hardtke, communications director for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, said both individuals involved in the incident were in temporary lockup status.
Before Laureano’s death, Vogel, 25, had been found guilty of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, the Examiner reported in late August. Laureano, 19, had been found guilty of taking and driving a vehicle without consent and as party to a crime for substantial battery intending bodily harm, robbery with use of force and first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
Conduct reports
A narrative in a Brown County Sheriff’s Office case report described information from a few conduct reports Vogel received. The Examiner received the report last year through an open records request.
Sergeant Justin Raska reviewed conduct reports for Laureano and Vogel, according to the case report. He found nothing relevant in Laureano’s reports but wrote about three of Vogel’s infractions.
The first report Raska described was dated March 5, 2024, and was completed by a staff member at the Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility (RYOCF). The staff had received inmate complaint forms filed by Vogel that “contained obscene, profane, abusive and threatening language,” some of which was written in German, according to the description of the incident.
The complaints included swastika symbols. According to the report, Vogel’s writing included the words “you all need and deserve Death!” and “White Power (WLM).” He voiced support for Adolf Hitler and the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist gang.
A second conduct report was dated March 6, 2024, according to Raska. A lieutenant received interview request forms from Vogel, which were written to several staff members at RYOCF and made “numerous disrespectful racial remarks.”
The request forms included “several inappropriate remarks and symbols,” such as SS Bolts and “das Endlosung.” This referenced Hitler’s “Final Solution” of mass murder of Jewish people, according to the report.
The third conduct report described by Raska was completed by a sergeant at GBCI and dated August 27, 2024, the day of Laureano’s death.
Incarcerated people were removed from a cell so that maintenance could fix a clogged sink, according to the report. Unit staff discovered the wooden bulletin board was broken, and the sergeant heard from unit staff that Vogel admitted to breaking the board because he was bored.
The bulletin board had jagged edges and it was unsafe to house incarcerated people in the cell, according to the report. This might have led to Vogel being housed in a different cell, with Laureano.
Laureano and Vogel’s cell was in a “segregated Treatment Center area,” according to a narrative in the case report by Raska.
Raska said he was told “the Treatment Center block” serves as a “step unit” to bridge the gap between restricted housing and general population housing. Restricted housing includes disciplinary separation — which occurs when an incarcerated person commits a violation.
Raska said the treatment center serves as an alternative to single cell segregation in the restricted housing unit. He said incarcerated people could be housed in the treatment center due to clinical observation or because of a pending investigation.
Lawsuit alleges ‘deliberate indifference’
Phyllis and Micah Laureno | Photo courtesy of Phyllis Laureno
Laureano’s lawsuit contains three Eighth Amendment counts. It alleges deliberate indifference to Laureano’s safety, failure to protect Laureano and failure to train subordinates. The lawsuit does not mention Vogel’s conduct reports or the racist statements mentioned in them.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants didn’t consider and/or willfully ignored Vogel’s “substantial history of violent assault, mental health issues, and multi-decade length of sentence when assessing his compatibility with Mr. Laureano,” who was serving a lesser sentence of three years.
It also alleges that defendants failed to “adequately train, monitor and supervise GBCI staff” to make sure administrative requirements and protocols were being followed during housing decisions.
Phyllis Laureano is represented by attorney Lonnie Story, who said he has spoken to incarcerated people who might be deposed prior to a trial.
“It was very apparent to the inmates, as well as what — from what they communicate to me about staff, it would be kind of hard to deny by anyone… to say there was no knowledge of Mr. Vogel being a racist, and expressing other very negative opinions and ideas outside of just the race factor,” Story said, adding that this applied to sexual orientation.
On Sept. 10, the Examiner made an open records request to the DOC, requesting reports regarding incidents involving Vogel and/or Laureano. The request’s status is “in progress” in the DOC’s open records request portal.
Beth Hardtke, the communications director for the DOC, said it’s the DOC’s practice not to comment on cases where there is ongoing litigation.
A sign for the Oneida Community Health Center in Hobart, Wis. | Photo by Jason Kerzinski for Wisconsin Examiner
Wisconsin state Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) and Rep. Joy Goeben (R-Hobart) heard concerns about potential Medicaid cuts and gambling at alistening session Monday in Oneida, Wis.
A woman at the session said her son receives Medicaid through the Katie Beckett program, which serves children under 19 who live at home and have certain health care needs. She said that “with the $880 billion that is going to be reduced in the federal budget, it is without a doubt going to impact Medicaid in our state.”
A budget proposal approved by the House in late February requires lawmakers to cut spending to offset tax breaks,likely requiring Medicaid cuts, KFF Health Newsreported. The committee that oversees spending on Medicaid and Medicare is instructed to cut $880 billion over the next decade.
The Congressional Budget Office found House Republicans’ budget goals would require cuts to Medicaid, CBS News reported on March 6.
The woman said she’s wondering what’s happening in the state budget to “plan for these shortcomings that are going to be coming from the federal level.”
“I don’t know on the federal side, what’s going on there,” Wimberger said. “…I can’t imagine that we’d let any sort of tragedy happen to people who—if there’s a cut of any kind, so we’ll have to adjust to it.”
Medicaid is funded by both federal and state governments. Proposals that would reduce the amount of money paid by the federal government would not require states to pay more to make up the difference, and most states will not likely increase their health care spending, according to an opinion article by the president of the health policy research and news outlet KFF.
Wimberger is a member of the state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance, which is responsible for reviewing state appropriations and revenues. The committee will hold listening sessions on April 2 in Kaukauna, April 4 in West Allis, April 28 in Hayward and April 29 in Wausau.
Oneida Nation requests anti-gambling efforts, grant funding
Brandon Stevens, the vice-chairman of the Oneida Nation in northeast Wisconsin, spoke at the listening session. One topic discussed was online and in-person gambling.
In Wisconsin, tribes have the exclusive right to operate Class III games, through compacts with the state. Class III includes banking card games, electronic games of chance, including slot machines and, generally, high-stakes, casino-style games.
Tana Aguirre from the Oneida Nation’s intergovernmental affairs and communications office sent the Examiner a statement that covers a few of the tribe’s budget priorities.
The Oneida Nation is requesting an increase in funding to help address illegal/unregulated gambling activities, according to Aguirre. The tribe requests compliance and/or enforcement measures “to help deal with illegal gambling machines and practices throughout Wisconsin.”
“We’re paying a premium for exclusivity through the gaming compact [between the tribe and the state]. It’s basically a violation of the compact if they’re allowed to game at a particular level,” Stevens said.
Rep. Joy Goeben (R-Hobart)
Aguirre said the Oneida Nation and other tribes want to see increased funding for a tribal elderly transportation grant program. The grant gives the state’s 11 federally recognized tribes financial assistance for transportation services for tribal elders on and off the reservation.
The Oneida Nation also wants funding to go toward an intergovernmental training program, Aguirre said.
The program “is meant to enhance the skill set and understanding between state and tribal officials.” It aims to promote the different governments engaging in “meaningful and productive” consultations and discussions.
Aguirre said that for the items included in his email, the tribe is requesting that funding come from Oneida Nation gaming revenue that the state of Wisconsin receives.
Tribes submit gaming-related payments to the state. A variety of state programs receive state funding from tribal payments, such as gaming regulation in the Department of Administration and law enforcement in the Department of Justice. Gaming revenue has been put toward tribal family services grants, a tribal law enforcement grant program and other programs.
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.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
“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 on Saturday.
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.
Pneumonia fatality
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.
Attorney Steve Hurley with documents of the type Wisconsin prisons are shredding. | Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner
The Office of the Wisconsin State Public Defender and other attorneys are expressing concerns over attorney-client confidentiality and the timely and accurate delivery of legal mail for clients incarcerated in state prisons.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
On Sept. 10, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) adopted a new policy for external paperwork sent to prisons. The protocol calls for incarcerated residents to watch the copying of their legal mail and allows them to review the copies; then the original mail is shredded.
Mail covered under the policy includes letters from an attorney, law office, clerk or judge of any state or federal court, court staff or tribal court. It also covers correspondence with federal and state elected or appointed officials including the governor, Wisconsin legislators, the secretary of the DOC and others.
The process of opening and photocopying the mail, providing the copy to the incarcerated person and shredding the original mail is documented with the facility’s camera system, the DOC policy states.
The policy’s general guidelines allow staff to inspect legal documents “to the extent necessary to determine if the documents contain contraband or if the purpose is misrepresented.” If staff have reason to believe a letter is not a legal document “and the safety and security of the institution is implicated,” the policy allows them to read legal documents.
The DOC’s protocol has garnered criticism from the Wisconsin public defender’s office. Public defenders’ primary concerns are timely delivery of information to clients, the accuracy of the copying and protecting attorney-client confidentiality.
“Unfortunately, with DOC’s new mail policy we have experienced significant delays with mail delivery, compromised confidentiality, and in some cases legal documents have been lost,” said Deputy State Public Defender Katie York. “This has impacted our ability to develop trusting attorney/client relationships and has caused unnecessary delays for our clients and others impacted by the legal system. However, in our continuous efforts to provide the highest quality defense for our clients, we will keep doing everything we can to maintain communication with our clients.”
The Wisconsin American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has also raised concerns about how the DOC’s handling of legal mail is affecting incarcerated people and the legal process.
“Alarmingly, the DOC continues to introduce new restrictions that have made it increasingly difficult for people in DOC custody to receive legal mail and books,” Emma Shakeshaft, senior attorney for the ACLU of Wisconsin said in an October statement, “and we are very concerned about how these policy changes are negatively impacting those in custody. Legal mail is essential to incarcerated individuals’ ability to access the courts and to communicate confidentially with their legal counsel.”
Beth Hardtke, director of communications for the DOC, said the department was not aware of any recent concerns from the Office of the State Public Defender about the DOC’s legal mail policy, and that the DOC would follow up with them to learn more.
Hardtke said the public defenders’ office had input into the development of the policy, and that the policy was revised based on the office’s feedback before it went into effect in September 2024. The DOC is not aware of any significant delays regarding legal mail, she said.
She said the postal service delivers legal mail directly to facilities, “where it is promptly processed in front of the individual to whom the mail is addressed.”
“The policy also details a number of steps that are taken to protect the confidentiality of the process including having the process take place in front of cameras placed so that writing is illegible, special copiers just for this purpose and ensuring that the person in our care is part of the process,” Hardtke said.
Drug concerns
DOC’s goal with the legal mail policy was to prevent intoxicating substances from entering facilities through legal mail, Hardtke said.
In November2021, the DOC announced that it would start partnering with a company to photocopy the personal mail of all incarcerated adults in an attempt to keep drug-laden mail out of prisons. The department began giving residents photocopies of their mail instead of original letters.
In a 2021 press release about the new policy, the DOC said that despite its previous efforts, in September 2021 alone there were 182 drug incidents within Wisconsin prisons, with 16 people needing emergency medical treatment.
The department said it had seen an increase of drug incidents among incarcerated people. This included the use of synthetic cannabinoids, which can cause violent behavior or a need for emergency medical treatment, the department said. The DOC said paper and envelopes could be sprayed with or soaked in the drugs and sent into prisons through the mail.
In August 2022, the agency said it had seen a decrease in the total number of drug incidents at adult facilities between November 2021 and February 2022. The agency attributed the decrease to its new policy of photocopying mail. The DOC also said it saw a decrease in overdoses requiring transport to a medical facility.
After receiving inquiries about the department’s controversial ban on used books, the department sent data to reporters in late September. DOC staff reviewed contraband incident reports that facility staff had flagged as drug-related between 2019 and Sept. 18, 2024.
The department said some drug-related incidents recorded through a medical record or conduct report may not be reflected in their numbers. The DOC also said not all incident reports flagged as drug related turn out to actually be drug-related.
The DOC said legal mail tested positive in five incidents in 2021, and in 2022, there were 10 instances of material “purporting to be legal mail” that tested positive for drugs.
Six incidents in 2023 involved legal mail, the department said. The DOC said legal mail tested positive for drugs in at least seven incidents in 2024, as of Sept. 18.
When it comes to mail or donations that tested positive for drugs, the department said it is “often unable to say” whether they are from a legitimate entity, or from someone impersonating another person or organization.
In an email to the nonprofit Wisconsin Books to Prisoners in August, then-Administrator of the Division of Adult Institutions Sarah Cooper spoke about impersonation. She said “bad actors” impersonated agencies to send drugs into prisons.
“To provide some examples, there have been many instances of drugs coming in via mail (and publications/books) which appear to be sent from the Child Support Agency, the IRS, the State Public Defender’s Office, the Department of Justice and individual attorneys,” Cooper said.
In the August email, Cooper said the DOC had had to “implement a whole new process” for handling mail from the entities she mentioned.
The number of drug incidents involving legal mail has fallen to zero, according to a review of contraband incident reports that facility staff flagged as drug-related, Hardtke said. She said between Sept. 19 and Feb. 28, there were no incidents documented in those reports of legal mail testing positive for intoxicants.
She said these records may not include all incidents, since some incidents may be documented in conduct reports, other types of incident reports or medical records.
“The most important thing to know about the legal mail policy is that it works,” Hardtke said.
But York said she also knows there have been instances of false positive tests.
“I know it has happened because I’ve talked to both staff and private bar attorneys where the institution has sent back materials because they tested positive,” York said. Transcripts that were not drug-laced have been returned after positive tests, she said. She could not provide a number of such incidents and said she also believed some documents that were confiscated after positive tests were not sent back.
Hardtke said the DOC uses the IONSCAN 600 testing technology to test books, packages and other materials coming into DOC facilities. She said the technology was chosen in consultation with the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratories “in part because its results have held up to court scrutiny.”
Steve Hurley, a defense attorney at Hurley Burish, S.C. in Madison, told the Examiner about a case a few years ago in which his firm represented a lawyer who was accused of sending drugs to a client.
He said their investigation used the test used by the DOC and got a false positive, and that the department relied on a presumptive test that was not intended to give a conclusive result.
This test was not the IONSCAN 600. The DOC did not say whether it currently uses other tests as well as the IONSCAN 600.
“They didn’t charge him criminally because I think they knew that they had misused the [drug] test,” Hurley said. “So when I called them on it, eventually, they just dropped the whole thing and reinstated his ability to communicate with his client.”
Attorneys suggest creating a verification method for legal mail
Shakeshaft said attorneys attempting to communicate with their clients are not the source of drugs in prison. She thinks there should be an alternative method of getting legal mail to clients without having all the documents copied and the originals shredded.
“To the extent that third parties are attempting to disguise contraband as legal mail, there’s a lot of less restrictive ways to address that, to ensure that legal mail is coming from licensed attorneys… [Methods that] are not nearly as much of a threat to attorney-client confidential communications,” she said.
York said her office asked about creating a process that would certify the mail was from the assigned attorney and not from an impersonator.
“We asked if there was some sort of system, if it was like, some sort of changing numbering system, or something that we could put on the envelopes that would ensure that they knew that it was coming from our office,” she said.
York said her office also made an offer to reach out to a facility beforehand when they’re sending a client their file. The public defender’s office would let them know how many boxes they would be sending with a client file, so the facility would know in advance that the documents were coming from their office. She said the offer was not accepted.
York said her office used to receive calls seeking to verify that her office had sent mail to a resident. She didn’t think this was consistent across all facilities.
“They would call our office and ask, ‘Did you send mail to this person?’ when they got letters,” said York. “I used to get those calls when I was the appellate division director. So that was another way that they used to try to kind of validate the fact that it came from an attorney.”
Confidentiality concerns
Hurley said that as a defense lawyer, it’s his job to not trust the government when it comes to his clients. He believes his clients should receive their legal mail unopened.
“The minute you open a lawyer’s mail, somebody is going to look at it,” Hurley said. “I don’t care what they say about their policies, somebody’s going to look at it. And you can’t do that.”
If others know what someone is convicted of, it could lead to a more difficult time in prison, Hurley said. He also said information in an incarcerated person’s legal mail isn’t necessarily about their criminal record.
“If you were getting divorced, do you want your neighbor to know what you’re arguing with your spouse over about what the extent of your property is?” Hurley said. “No, and you don’t want a guard to know that either.”
Nicole Masnica, an attorney with Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown LLP in Milwaukee, said prison staff reviewing privileged communications and legal mail from counsel creates a concern about the safety and security of incarcerated people in the DOC.
Legal correspondence and materials “may very well contain” information detailing a person’s cooperation with authorities against other incarcerated people “and even sometimes staff employed by the Department of Corrections,” she said in a statement emailed to the Examiner.
“I have represented individuals who have expressed concerns about confidential information from legal correspondence getting into the wrong hands at the prisons, and policies like those currently in place with the DOC that permit the reviewing of confidential information by DOC staff only amplifies those risks to individuals assisting law enforcement investigations,” Masnica said.
Shakeshaft said there are opportunities during the copying and shredding of legal mail for someone to view the documents. She also raised the question of how the process would be filmed without the camera viewing information in the legal mail.
“There’s a number of different parts of the policy where confidentiality is threatened overall,” she said.
Attorney Lonnie Story sent the Examiner a conduct report from when an incarcerated man, Justin Welch, was written up by a DOC staff member in February 2024. The report indicates a staff member read a letter from Welch that was “addressed to Story Law Firm Attorney Lonnie Story.”
According to the report, in the letter, Welch referenced a recent assault he was involved in with another person. Welch said that he was going to be placed by this person and “will have no choice but to fight him again. This is what the WCI does this time I will hurt him.” The staff member wrote the conduct report, saying Welch was making direct physical threats to the other person.
Story said he contacted Department of Justice attorneys, who called the warden. Story sent the Examiner a letter from the warden on which Welch was copied, dated March 25, 2024. The letter said the warden had initiated a review of the incident, and the hearing officer’s decision and the punishment of 30 days in restrictive housing were reversed.
Welch sent the Examiner a complaint he made to the DOC about a prison denying three of his emails, preventing them from reaching the intended recipients. (Electronic correspondence is not treated as legal mail under DOC policy.)
Two emails were intended for a reporter, while the third was sent to Story. According to Welch’s complaint, a staff member told him that emails were not for legal communication and an attorney call should be set up instead. Welch’s complaint was successful, leading to a ruling that his emails should not have been denied.
Devin Skrzypchak, a resident of Oshkosh Correctional Facility, said he has concerns that the prison staff have had access to his legal mail for up to three days while the prison was setting up a time for the copying and shredding when he could be present. He has concerns that his legal mail could have been read during that wait time.
Not all legal mail involves physical documents, according to Masnica. If there are large files, it’s cheaper to send a hard drive or USB. In one case, Masnica said she sent documents related to potential jurors and received an email from the prison.
The person from the prison who contacted Masnica didn’t necessarily think the documents were related to litigation, she said. To her, it was clear that the prison had reviewed the mail in detail.
“They had made remarks that it was not just the jurors in the case, but all jurors potentially that were going to be called that week, or that month,” Masnica said.
Masnica said she complained and was sent a policy. DOC policy says that when a facility receives new digitally formatted legal material, it shall assign staff to review the content with the incarcerated person present to make sure it is “legal in nature.”
The policy states that “if any file is found to contain contraband, the data storage device may be subject to disposal” in accordance with the DOC’s contraband policy after consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel.
Timeliness concerns
“We’ve heard of attorneys having to push back court deadlines and delays because they can’t continue that communication [with clients],” said Shakeshaft. “They can’t get the legal documents to clients in time, or clients aren’t getting the correct legal documents.”
The Examiner asked York about specific situations that make it critical for the incarcerated person to have the legal mail for the case to proceed in court.
“There is not a super clean answer to this, but there are some situations, for example, we need clients to sign documents,” said York. “One example of that is notice of intent to appeal in a termination of parental rights case; we have to have a wet signature from the client on the notice before we file it, and it’s a pretty tight turnaround. It’s 30 days.”
York said there’s also a problem when clients don’t accept their mail due to the policy of copying and shredding. This leaves the attorney with the option of meeting in person to get a signature on a form, which can be time consuming.
Lost in the mail
Masnica recalled her firm having to send mail multiple times because a client didn’t receive it.
“If we’re sending something to a client on the street who is living in their home, we never really have issues,” Masnica said.
Story said he’s had an issue with not receiving mail that a client said they sent to him.
“Most disturbing is when my clients have part of their case record from their legal materials disappear,” Story said. “Their file doesn’t follow them to the next institution, or part of it is mailed to me and not the whole of it.”
Dorin Ferguson, who is incarcerated at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel, said he has sent mail to Story that didn’t arrive, including mail that was returned to Ferguson.
DOC policy allows the resident to check the copied legal documents and request two rescans. York said sending large files poses a risk of miscopying.
The Milwaukee County Jail. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
A 49 year-old Shorewood man who had been in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail died in a hospital Tuesday, the Milwaukee County Sheriff said in a statement. The Waukesha County Sheriff is investigating.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation
Shorewood Police brought the man to be booked on three criminal charges, according to the sheriff’s statement. He had been in the custody of the jail since Friday.
On Monday evening, a nurse with Wellpath, the jail’s health care provider, observed the man experiencing a health crisis and initiated emergency protocols, the sheriff’s office said. Efforts to stabilize the man, including the use of NARCAN, were unsuccessful.
The man, who had a pulse and was breathing, was brought to an area hospital and then a second area hospital, where he died.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff is not investigating itself, in accordance with Wisconsin law, the statement said. It directed all inquiries to the Waukesha County Sheriff.
An audit of the jail found “systemic issues ranging from dangerous suicide watch practices and a mental health challenge to critical staffing shortages and occupant overcrowding,” the Examiner has reported. During a 14-month period from 2022 to 2023, the jail saw six deaths in custody.
The Waukesha County Sheriff did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
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