Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes delivers updates about the Dec. 16, 2024 school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison's east side. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
Just days after he was thrust into the national spotlight following the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School that killed two people, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes was announced as the new chief of the Seattle Police Department.
Barnes’ acceptance of the job in Seattle comes as the Madison police are still investigating the shooting on Monday and the motives behind the 15-year-old girl’s attack. Authorities have discovered that the girl was in contact with a 20-year-old California man who was planning his own attack on a government building.
Since the shooting, Barnes has been an outspoken critic of hardening the defenses of community schools. At his first press conference after the shooting, he was asked if the school had metal detectors and responded that schools shouldn’t have such measures installed.
“I’m not aware that the school had metal detectors, nor should schools have metal detectors,” he said. “It’s a school. It’s a safe space.”
Prior to the shooting, Barnes had been named a finalist for the Seattle job.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell noted in a statement that Barnes has successfully brought crime down in Madison and promised to continue to work to combat gun violence.
“Earlier this week, under tragic circumstances, the nation received its introduction to Chief Shon Barnes. We all saw firsthand what our team has known since we began this recruitment process — that Chief Barnes possesses the impressive leadership capabilities, compassionate approach, and dedication to effective police work needed to continue moving our Police Department forward,” Harrell said. “I’ve spoken with Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway to express my condolences and support as they process this week’s tragedy and to share my continued commitment to fighting for solutions to the gun violence epidemic that impacts every corner of our country through our shared work with the U.S. Conference of Mayors.”
Barnes took over as chief in Madison in early 2021 as the city responded to an increase in violent crime and the protests against police violence that occurred across the country in 2020. During his tenure, Barnes has overseen the department’s effort to equip officers with body cameras.
He was also named a finalist for the chief jobs in Chicago and San Jose, California, despite telling Isthmus in 2021 that he was committed to Madison “for the long haul.”
Rhodes-Conway said in a statement that Barnes’ collaborative approach was important to the establishment of Dane County’s Public Health Violence Prevention Unit and the Madison Fire Department’s CARES program, noting that the city is “safer and more resilient” because of his work.
“I would like to congratulate Chief Shon Barnes on his new opportunity in Seattle and thank him for his service to Madison,” Rhodes-Conway said. “The Chief has been a steady, forward-thinking leader throughout his tenure and he will be greatly missed.”
She also commended his work this week responding to the school shooting.
“The tragedy this week has been all-consuming, and we still have much healing to do as a community,” she said. “I’m grateful that the Madison Police Department responded to this unthinkable crisis with the utmost professionalism and compassion. Chief Barnes was at the center of coordinating local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies during an unprecedented moment. He did so admirably.”
The Madison Police and Fire Commission is responsible for finding Barnes’ replacement. Rhodes-Conway said in the coming weeks the commission will outline a search plan and during the recruitment process an interim chief will be named.
Green Bay Correctional Institution | Photo by Andrew Kennard
Amidst a staffing crisis that worsened living conditions in Wisconsin prisons, the state gave corrections officers a large raise.
The number of vacant positions for correctional officers and sergeants across adult institutions has declined over 20% from a peak of 35%. But there’s still a struggle with working conditions, former correctional officer Joe Verdegan said.
“By its nature, with the clientele you have there, it’s a very toxic environment,” said Verdegan, who worked at Green Bay Correctional Institution from 1994 to 2020. “The toxic part of it will never change, but the problem is, you need veteran staff that can deal with it.”
Wisconsin’s Act 10, passed in 2011, excluded many government workers from collective bargaining for anything other than inflationary increases to base wages. The law led to an exodus of veteran staff concerned about what might happen to their pensions, Verdegan wrote in a 2020 book about GBCI.
Joe and Kimberly Verdegan, who used to work at Green Bay Correctional Institution, spoke with the Examiner over the phone. Kimberly Verdegan worked at GBCI from 1997-2009. Photos courtesy of Joe Verdegan.
Act 10 grouped some workers together as public safety employees and others as general employees. Public safety employees’ collective bargaining rights were largely unchanged, while those of general employees were severely curtailed.
Dane County Judge Jacob Frost struck down the law’s collective bargaining restriction, ruling that the Wisconsin Legislature didn’t have a defensible reason for excluding some public safety workers from the public safety group.
On Wednesday, Frost put his order on hold, granting a temporary stay on his Dec 2 ruling while he considers written arguments that he should keep the ruling on hold while the Wisconsin Legislature appeals it.
Frost’s December 2 decision essentially confirmed a previous ruling released in July, in which he wrote that Act 10 violated the equal protection clause of the Wisconsin Constitution. Previous legal challenges failed to overturn the law.
Opponents of the law celebrated what the decision might mean for employees’ power in the workplace, while supporters said Act 10 saved billions of dollars. Former Gov. Scott Walker, who signed Act 10 into law, called the decision “brazen political activism” and “an early Christmas present for the big government special interests.”
Joe Verdegan’s badge | Photo courtesy Joe Verdegan
The law’s effect on retirement contributions led to an increased cost for public employees and government savings. Since employees were responsible for a larger share of pension contributions, state and local governments saved nearly $5.2 billion over the seven-year period from 2011 to 2017, according to a 2020 report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
The judge didn’t strike down Act 10 provisions that changed the rules for employees’ retirement contributions and health insurance premiums, an attorney representing unions in the case toldWisconsin Watch. Those provisions don’t rely on the distinction between the public safety and general employee groups, he said.
Protesters filled the Wisconsin Capitol in 2011 to protest the legislation that ultimately past as Wisconsin Act 10, eliminating most union rights for most public employees. (Photo by Emily Mills. Used by permission)
Frost didn’t find a legal problem with the Legislature treating the public safety group differently than the general employees group — for example, by providing them with benefits that would attract quality employees to jobs important for public safety. If teachers, administration or sanitation workers face labor unrest, their absence from work probably wouldn’t cause death or great harm, he wrote in the July ruling.
Instead, Frost took issue with the Legislature’s decision to not include certain workers in the public safety group, including the Capitol Police, conservation wardens and correctional officers.
Specifically referring to correctional officers, Frost wrote, “What greater threat is there to public safety than the escape of the persons that those in the public safety group arrested and brought to justice?”
Wisconsin prisons have seen a staffing crisis, allegations of harassment
After Act 10, GBCI staff had to contribute more to their pensions and paid higher health insurance premiums, Verdegan wrote in his book.
“People were fleeing the prison to go drive truck, be bartenders, work in cheese factories, or even bag groceries at Woodman’s,” Verdegan wrote.
Corrections officers were asked to put in more overtime around 2011 or 2012, former GBCI officer Jeff Hoffman told the Examiner in July.
“From that time forward, it never got any better,” said Hoffman, who left GBCI in early 2023 after almost 23 years. “If you were there, you were going to work 16-hour shifts.”
Staffing vacancies for correctional officers and sergeants have declined substantially from a peak of 35% in August 2023 to the current 12.9% vacancy rate.
In the DOC’s 2022 Climate and Engagement survey, over half of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the idea that their pay was fair relative to the duties they performed. Over half said that if they left DOC, it would be because of their salary and/or benefits.
These responses were given before Wisconsin implemented a large pay raise for corrections officers. Under the pay increases, correctional officers’ wages increased from $20.29 an hour to over $30 an hour, with more pay for officers in higher-security and understaffed prisons. Wages had received a $4 boost from federal pandemic relief funds prior to the increase, the Associated Press reported.
Verdegan wrote in his book that some supervisors would try to harass or intimidate staff. Sean Daley of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 32 made a similar remark to the Examiner in 2022.
“It’s a tough enough job as it is,” Daley told the Examiner in 2022. “Add in that a lot of the supervisors think they’re ‘top-cops’ and spend their time tirelessly harassing staff with weak investigations and it just adds to the vacancy rates.”
Nearly half of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the statements “My supervisor cares about my interests” and “Employees are treated fairly in my work unit.”
About 1 in 10 strongly disagreed with the statement “My supervisor treats me with dignity and respect,” with about a quarter expressing at least some disagreement. About three-quarters at least somewhat agreed that they have positive relationships with their colleagues.
Close to 40% of security staff expressed at least some disagreement with the statements “Work rule violations are not tolerated” and “I can disclose a suspected violation of a rule, law, or regulation without fear or reprisal” in the 2022 survey.
Some individual facilities have vacancy rates for correctional officers and sergeants that are higher than the overall number for adult facilities, including 20.5% at Waupun Correctional Institution. Waupun has seen several prisoner deaths and staff charged with crimes.
Waupun has seen an influx of staff since September, when the vacancy rate was 42%. Sarah Cooper, administrator of the DOC’s division of adult institutions, said at a public meeting in September that other staff were sent to assist Waupun. For example, Waupun also had 40 supplemental staff per pay period, she said.
Correctional officers and sergeants are far from the only staff in Wisconsin prisons. The Department of Corrections has varying levels of vacancies of other staff. Some of the highest vacancy rates are 22% for social services and 21% for psychological services.
Prison Policy Initiative argues for addressing staffing issues through decarceration
While Wisconsin’s large pay raises have garnered credit for bringing in new staff, the state hasn’t yet seen whether current efforts will fully staff Wisconsin prisons. A briefing published last week by the Massachusetts-based Prison Policy Initiative challenged the idea that the U.S. can solve prison staffing problems through recruitment.
The research and advocacy group argued that decarceration would be more effective in addressing understaffing than pay raises, lowering employment requirements, offering staff wellness programs or constructing new facilities.
The group promoted reducing the prison populations through parole, other forms of release and taking steps to decrease the number of people admitted to prison.
As of Dec. 6, Wisconsin’s adult prisons held over 23,000 people, more than 5,000 people higher than design capacity. The adult prison population has risen over 2,500 from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2024.
Incarcerated people face the worst harms of understaffing, the PPI argued, but they noted health risks that employees face, including injury, exposure to infectious diseases and high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
“Unfortunately, there’s only so much that a pay raise can do to ameliorate that,” said Wanda Bertram, communications strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative.
A 2018 survey of Washington State Department of Corrections employees found that prison employees experience PTSD at a rate equivalent to Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans and higher than police officers. These jobs take a lot out of people, Bertram said.
In Wisconsin’s adult prisons, 452 assaults on staff took place in fiscal year 2024, according to Department of Corrections data. The incident rate was 19.6 assaults per 1,000 incarcerated people, which is the highest it’s been since at least 2013, the earliest year available. These numbers are for adult institutions and many of the assaults involve prisoners spitting or throwing bodily substances (fewer than half involve battery, physical injury or sexual assault).
How long new staff stay in corrections also matters, and Bertram pointed to challenging turnover rates found in a 2020-2021 survey. The job isn’t for everyone, said Hoffman, the former GBCI correctional officer.
“Historically speaking, from the time that I started there to the time that I left… if 10 new people would start at one point, usually half would quit,” Hoffman said. “Because they didn’t want to work in that environment.”
Former officers’ thoughts on Act 10
Former correctional officer Denis O’Neill. Photo courtesy of Denis O’Neill.
Former correctional officer Denis O’Neill has had complicated feelings about Act 10. He said he would’ve liked to have more money in his pocket, but he said the act was for the greater good of Wisconsin and saved billions for taxpayers.
In Verdegan’s book, O’Neill recounts the story of a fight in 2015 with an incarcerated man who was attacking a staff member. Verdegan wrote that there was “no question O’Neill was fighting for his life.”
O’Neill left GBCI with a medical termination and had physical, cognitive and speech therapy, Verdegan wrote. He had at least four documented concussions while working at GBCI. O’Neill told the Examiner that he had to go back to doctors he was seeing and get new paperwork after the state said they didn’t receive the original documents.
“It’s their job to make it as hard as possible as they can for you so that you get sick and tired of doing everything and you forget about it,” O’Neill said. “That’s the game I felt that was being played.”
O’Neill said he received his benefits after a state senator stepped in. He thinks the union could have taken care of the issue for him if it had not been disempowered under Act 10.
“I could’ve just continued to work on my recovery,” he said.
Kimberly Verdegan, a former GBCI correctional officer who is married to Joe Verdegan, thinks prison jobs are less desirable than teaching jobs and that the passage of Act 10 didn’t take this into account.
“Not to say that a teacher’s job isn’t important,” Kimberly Verdegan said. “But they have their holidays off, they go home at night. They don’t get forced to stay another shift.”
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections declined comment for this story, and AFSCME Council 32 did not respond to requests for comment.
Update: This story has been updated with the most recent data on staff vacancies and prison assaults.
Several hundred people gathered on the Capitol Square in Madison Tuesday evening for a vigil following a school shooting Monday that left three dead and injured six other people. (Erik Gunn | Wisconsin Examiner)
A day after a student killed two people, injured six others and took her own life at a Madison private school, public officials and community members mourned and processed their own trauma from the devastating violence.
“It is OK to ask for what you need to take care of your own mental health,” said Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway at a vigil on Madison’s Capitol Square Tuesday evening. “Please. Please. Let us be a community where it is okay to ask for help. Let us be a community where, when we see someone who needs help, that we are the first to extend our hands and to offer resources where they are needed. Let us be a community that takes care of each other. That is where our focus is right now — on caring for everyone who has been impacted by this gun violence.”
The vigil was organized by the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County. “We come together to begin the healing journey for our children and to support one another in this face of another school shooting that has hit our community,” said Michael Johnson, the organization’s president. “Let us remind each other that we are loved, that we are valued and we are not alone in this difficult time.”
“Violence in our community is preventable,” said state Rep. Sheila Stubbs (D-Madison). “We must not stand silent, but instead be moved to action.” She quoted Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist: “At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backwards by fear and division.”
The U.S. and Wisconsin flags are at half staff through Dec. 22 in commemoration of those killed and wounded in Monday’s school shooting in Madison. (Erik Gunn | Wisconsin Examiner)
Elected officials have united in expressing grief at the shooting. Following through on his announcement Monday, Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Tuesday morning calling for the U.S. and Wisconsin flags to be flown at half staff on all state buildings through Sunday, Dec. 22, as well as on the date of each victim’s funeral.
In the well of the U.S. House Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, flanked by a bipartisan group of six of Wisconsin’s eight House members, led a moment of silence in recognition of those affected by the shooting.
“These were innocent lives, innocent victims of senseless violence, and we mourn their loss with their families and loved ones and the entire Abundant Life Community,” Pocan said. He thanked law enforcement, first responders and health care workers who went to the scene or treated the victims. He emphasized as well that not just the dead and wounded, but the school community, its students, staff and parents, are all victims.
Pocan, like many Democratic lawmakers, has long been an outspoken advocate for tougher gun laws aimed at curbing gun violence. He alluded to that cause in his House speech, saying, “We must do better and we must turn these moments of silence into moments of action.”
But Pocan demurred from discussing specific policy talking points.
At a WisPolitics panel, Assembly Democratic leader Rep. Greta Neubauer cited direct policy changes that Democrats in the Legislature have tried in vain to pass over the last several years, only to be blocked by large Republican majorities: red flag laws that enable authorities to take guns from people perceived to be dangerous and universal background checks on all gun purchases. With a narrower GOP majority in both houses, she said, she hopes measures such as those could advance in the session starting in January.
Meanwhile, on the same panel, incoming Republican Senate President Mary Felzkowski highlighted concerns ranging from violent entertainment to social media — rather than firearms — as potential targets for regulation to reduce gun violence.
In atelevision interview, Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) told Emilee Fannon of TV station CBS 58 that he would support a request by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul for $2.3 million in the state’s 2025-27 budget to continue permanent funding for the Office of School Safety in the Wisconsin Department of Justice. The office provides K-12 schools with resources to improve security measures and trains school staff on handling traumatic events and crisis prevention and response. It also runs a round-the-clock tip line.
The office became a partisan flashpoint in the Legislature’s 2023-25 budget deliberations after Republicans rejected funding and Democratic lawmakers attacked their decision. The state DOJ subsequently extended its operation by redirecting $1.3 million in federal pandemic relief funds.
In the hours after the shooting, elected officials were unanimous in their expressions of grief while dividing along party lines in their policy responses.
“Today’s tragedy is shocking, senseless and heartbreaking,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said Monday.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the students, parents and faculty who will have to live with the trauma and grief of this day for the rest of their lives,” he said. “There are no words to adequately express condolences to those who have lost loved ones or to express gratitude for the first responders who were on scene for this violence.”
The statement made no reference either for or against legislation to address gun violence.
Democratic lawmakers weren’t so reticent.
“Right now, it’s hard to think of a greater moral failing as a nation and society than our inaction and unwillingness to keep our children safe from gun violence,” said Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison). “We do not have to accept this as an ordinary part of life. No other country does. Indeed – guns are the number one cause of death for American children, and that is a policy choice.”
At a news conference hours after the shooting Monday, Rhodes-Conway largely kept her focus on trauma and healing. “I am on record that I think we need to do better in our country and our community to prevent gun violence,” she said, adding that solutions should be the work of the whole community. A little later, she added: “But first and foremost, what needs to be a priority for all of us is supporting our young people, and that is where our community’s attention needs to turn at this point in time.”
And at Tuesday night’s vigil, she kept the attention on those who had immediately responded to the crisis. “Our community showed up in a big way, and is still continuing to show up,” Rhodes-Conway said. “Ultimately, that’s what gives me hope.”
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes delivers updates about the Dec. 16, 2024 school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison's east side. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
This story was updated on Monday at 9:39 p.m.
Three people are dead and another six are in the hospital after a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison’s east side Monday morning. The shooter, who was a student at the school, is among the dead, according to Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes.
Two of the injured victims, both students, remain in critical condition while the other four have non-life threatening injuries, Barnes said at a mid-afternoon press conference.
Barnes identified the shooter at a Monday night press conference as Natalie Rupnow, 15, who went by the name “Samantha,” and said she appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Gov. Tony Evers issued a statement decrying the shootings and announced he would order flags to fly half-staff across the state through Sunday, Dec. 22.
“As a father, a grandfather, and as governor, it is unthinkable that a kid or an educator might wake up and go to school one morning and never come home. This should never happen, and I will never accept this as a foregone reality or stop working to change it,” Evers said.
“Today my focus is on supporting these families and kids and the Abundant Life community, and the state stands ready to support them and the efforts of local law enforcement through what will undoubtedly be difficult days ahead.”
Police responded to the shooting at the K-12 private school shortly before 11 a.m., Barnes said. While clearing the building, officers found the person they believe to be responsible already dead, along with the other two people who were killed, one a teacher and the other a student. No officers fired their weapons during the incident.
Police searched a home on Madison’s North Side late Monday afternoon and evening and said the search was in connection with the shooting.
The shooter used a handgun, Barnes said. Her family was cooperating in the investigation, but there was no immediate information about what the individual’s motives may have been.
“You ask me about why, but I don’t know why, and I felt like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” Barnes said.
In a statement, President Joe Biden called the shooting “shocking and unconscionable” and urged Congress to enact “Universal background checks. A national red flag law. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”
Biden was briefed earlier Monday about the shooting according to the White House press pool.
At an earlier news conference, Barnes lamented the incident and its impact on the school and the community.
“I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas, every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever,” Barnes said. “These types of trauma don’t just go away. We need to figure out how to piece together what exactly happened right now. My heart is heavy for my community. My heart is heavy for Madison. We have to come together as a community and figure out what happened here and make sure that it doesn’t happen at any other place that should be a refuge for students in our community.”
Families of students showed up at the school before noon and at mid-afternoon were still lined up in their cars down Buckeye Road on Madison’s East Side waiting to be reunited with their children. Officials said they would not release information about the victims until families had been notified.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway emphasized the community-wide impact of the incident.
“This is a whole of government response,” Rhodes-Conway said. “It is not just police and fire. It is not just the city of Madison, and we have folks from all around the country, we have folks from multiple agencies engaged in both the initial immediate response and the ongoing support.”
She and Dane County Executive Melissa Agard emphasized the importance and availability of mental health assistance to anyone who may have been touched by the incident.
“If anyone needs mental health support as a result of this incident and the coverage of it, I encourage them to reach out” via the 9-8-8 emergency mental health line, which takes calls and text messages, Rhodes-Conway said. “It is incredibly important that we take care of our community in this very difficult time.”
“To all of those who are grieving in our community, please know that you’re not alone,” Agard said. “Dane County stands with you. We’re here to support you in any way possible — please reach out and ask for help.”
Barnes said he has been in contact with officials at the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI.
Although the Madison Police Department had earlier reported five deaths in the shooting, spokesperson Stephanie Fryer said that was based on information from the hospital where the victims were taken. Hospital personnel later updated the number of deaths to three people, she said.
This story has been updated with new information from the Madison police as well as city and Dane County officials.
Dane County's DAIS held an Oct. 1 rally for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin 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
A report released Thursday from Dane County’s Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS) found that Dane County judges grant restraining orders against perpetrators of intimate partner violence in 34% of cases.
The report found that even when a judge grants a restraining order, it is often not for the amount of time requested by the victim — despite state law requiring that the order be for the length of time requested by the petitioner.
State law allows judges to impose restraining orders on domestic abusers for up to four years in most cases, and up to 10 years when it can be proven the abuser is especially dangerous. But in a handful of cases, the report found, a judge granted restraining orders for only two years to allow a “cooling off period” for the people involved despite “serious lethality concerns testified to in the hearing.”
Kianna Hanson, the legal advocacy program manager at DAIS, said at an event announcing the report’s findings Thursday morning that the “cooling off period” is a myth and that judges should follow the law.
“The fallacy of the cooling off period, which some judges have cited as a reason for choosing to grant an injunction from less time than the petitioner has requested, which in domestic abuse injunction goes against [state law],” Hanson said. “This mythology around domestic abuse cases is harmful because it suggests that domestic abuse could be the result of anger or not being able to control one’s emotion, when in reality, domestic violence is most often a conscious choice that is rooted in gaining power and control over one’s partner.”
The report was completed by a team from DAIS and other community organizations to observe more than 800 hearings in Dane County Circuit Court from April 2023 to April 2024. At the Thursday morning event, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky said the report was a step toward trying to make Wisconsin’s legal system a better place for everyone involved in it.
“What if the legal system were different? What if the legal system were the vehicle for healing and for change?” she said. “What if people left the legal system in a better place than where they entered, and I mean all of us. I mean judges and attorneys and witnesses and court reporters and victims and defendants and plaintiffs and bailiffs and advocates. What if we left work every day feeling energized and satiated and nourished instead of stressed out, depressed and exhausted, and what if the legal system itself helped us get to a better place?”
The report found that in the vast majority of injunction hearings, 87%, the victim seeking the restraining order was there pro se, meaning they were representing themself. Just 15% of petitioners had support in court from organizations such as DAIS, who have employees who serve as court advocates to help victims navigate the legal process (but aren’t attorneys and can’t provide legal advice).
Representation from an attorney or support from a legal advocate vastly increased the chances of a restraining order being granted, the court found. When acting on their own, petitioners had injunctions granted in 29% of cases but when assisted by an attorney or advocate, injunctions were granted 62% of the time — meaning representation increased the chances of successfully obtaining a restraining order by 114%.
Hanson told the Wisconsin Examiner after Thursday’s event that DAIS would be able to handle more restraining order cases under its legal advocacy program, saying that because the issuance of a restraining order can be a life-or-death decision for an abuse victim, the organization would prioritize those cases.
Domestic abuse organizations across the state face critical funding pressures after a steep decline in federal money they receive hit this fall. Advocates have warned those funding cuts could strain resources for organizations like DAIS across the state.
The report also notes a number of comments court observers saw judges make during hearings in these cases that were interpreted as minimizing abuse, treating people of color differently and misstating the law.
One judge, according to the report, denied an injunction over harassment, stating that he was doing so “because unwanted touching, kissing, or harassing text messages demanding explicit photos is not sexual assault,” despite state law saying it is.
The judges are quoted anonymously in the report but DAIS staff said at Thursday’s event that in the organization’s next version of the report, it will attribute the quotes.
Dane County Judge Julie Genovese, in attendance at the event, said during a question and answer period that she doesn’t think naming the judges will be helpful — even though the comments were made on the record in open court.
“I’d like to say on behalf of the judges, that it would be a very helpful thing for somebody to come and present to the judges at a judge’s meeting, rather than we’re going to just identify you on our next report, to come to the judges discuss with them what are the issues, offer the training or the resources, rather than just do it in this form,” Genovese said.
President Joe Biden on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people and granted pardons for 39 individuals with convictions for nonviolent crimes. (Photo by Caspar Benson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden Thursday commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were placed in home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic, and granted pardons for 39 individuals with convictions for nonviolent crimes.
“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. He noted many of the 1,500 were serving long sentences that would be shorter under current laws, policies and practices.
As the Biden administration winds down, it’s the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern day history.
The president added that his administration will continue to review clemency petitions before his term ends on Jan. 20. There are more than 9,400 petitions for clemency that were submitted to the White House, according to recent Department of Justice clemency statistics.
“As President, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses,” Biden said.
Those 39 people who received pardons included 67-year-old Michael Gary Pelletier of Augusta, Maine, who pleaded guilty to a nonviolent offense, according to the White House, which provided brief biographies of the pardoned individuals.
After his conviction, Pelletier worked for 20 years at a water treatment facility and volunteered for the HAZMAT team, assisting in hazardous spills and natural disasters. He now grows vegetables for a local soup kitchen and volunteers to support wounded veterans.
Another pardon was granted to Nina Simona Allen of Harvest, Alabama.
Allen, 49, was convicted of a nonviolent offense in her 20s, the White House said. After her conviction, she earned a post-baccalaureate degree and two master’s degrees and now works in the field of education. Additionally, she volunteers at a local soup kitchen and nursing home.
Hunter Biden pardon
The clemency action came after the president gave a full pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, on gun and tax charges and any other offenses, from 2014 until December. The president previously stated he would not pardon his son, but changed his mind because he said his son was constantly targeted by Republicans.
Additionally, advocates and Democrats have pressed Biden to exert his clemency powers on behalf of the 40 men on federal death row before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. Democrats have pushed for this because Trump expedited 13 executions of people on federal death row in the last six months of his first term.
The co-executive directors of Popular Democracy in Action, a progressive advocacy group, Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper, said in a joint statement that Biden should “not stop now.”
“Thousands more of our people who have been wronged by an unjust system are still waiting for freedom and compassion,” they said.
Those with nonviolent offenses who were pardoned by the president, according to the White House:
Kerrie Hirte, the mother of Cilivea Thyrion, looks over autopsy reports sent by the medical examiner. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
On a recent chilly November evening, Kerrie Hirte confronted a piece of mail she’d both anticipated and dreaded. Sitting at her kitchen table, beneath a picture of her late daughter Cilivea Thyrion, 20, Hirte examined the contents of an orange envelope from the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office. Inside were unredacted autopsy reports, with details that raised new questions about her daughter’s death in the Milwaukee County Jail nearly two years ago.
Hirte invited the Wisconsin Examiner to her Green Bay home to accompany her when she first viewed the unredacted autopsy reports. They show that correctional officers were aware that Thyrion, who died after eating pieces of an adult diaper while on suicide watch, had a previous history of eating the very item she was given the day she died. In autopsy protocol records, the medical examiner also noted evidence of blunt force injuries to Thyrion, including injuries to her head, lower extremities, liver, and ribs.
The reports described the scene of Thyrion’s death on Dec. 16, 2022. By then, Thyrion had been in the jail just two days short of 10 months. Thyrion was arrested by the Wauwatosa Police Department in February, after getting in a fight at her residence and charged with felony suffocation/strangulation and misdemeanor battery. Thyrion died before she was sentenced for the charges.
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
According to the records later mailed to Hirte, medical examiner investigators found Thyrion “lying on a bare metal slate” with her arm “resting on a green mattress pad on the floor.” The green mattress was one of the only items in the cell besides a toilet, sink, a paperback book and intercom. Thyrion had been housed in the jail’s Special Needs Unit, where she’d been on suicide watch since Dec. 11. “It is unknown at this time what [led] to her needing this type of cell and supervision,” the medical examiner’s investigation report states.
On the morning of Dec. 16, Thyrion pushed the assistance button inside her cell to call guards for help. When correctional officers arrived, they saw Thyrion gesturing towards her neck. After gathering other correctional staff, they called 911 as it was apparent that the 20-year-old was suffocating. The medical examiner’s report states that correctional officers performed a Heimlich maneuver to help Thyrion clear whatever she was choking on. The report states that correctional officers called 911 three times, but Thyrion was unconscious by the time medics arrived.
An investigation by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department found that Thyrion had ingested an adult diaper, which correctional officers gave her while she was on suicide watch. Although why the diaper was provided is redacted in Waukesha’s reports, interviews with correctional officers strongly imply that it was to help Thyrion deal with her menstrual cycle. In a letter stating that no charges would be filed for Thyrion’s death, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office wrote that the guards tried unsuccessfully to find underwear made specifically to limit self-harm risks, but could only find an adult diaper. The district attorney’s letter states that “they wanted to meet a basic need for Ms. Thyrion and did not consider that the diaper could be used in a way to self-harm.”
What correctional officers knew about Thryion’s self-harm risks is woven in and out of the redactions in the Waukesha sheriff’s investigation. One interview of a correctional officer noted that the guard “was aware of Thyrion’s history and had conversations with her about [redacted]”, and that the guard was “very sad about the situation because nobody thought that Thryion would hurt herself by [redacted] and they were just trying to make her ‘feel like a woman.’”
Posters and images of Cilivea are found throughout her mother’s Green Bay home. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
Yet, the medical examiner’s scene report states that “according to Correctional Officers (CO) and jail staff, [Cilivea] had a history of trying to swallow inedible objections (sic) including plastic forks and diapers. She was seen trying to swallow unspecified objects today around 1030 hours and it is believed that she was unsuccessful at actually swallowing anything.” After reading that section of the report Hirte wondered why her daughter would be given a diaper if jail staff were aware of the risk. “They make it sound like they just gave her diapers all the time,” Hirte told Wisconsin Examiner.
After reading a portion of the reports stating that Thyrion had no next of kin, but that detectives were aware that she’d called an unknown female, Hirte began to weep. While Thyrion was incarcerated, Hirte recalled talking to jail health care staff “several times about Cilivea.” She told Wisconsin Examiner that her daughter had signed “a release of information so that I could find out what was happening to her in there. And when you’re reading that [the medical examiner reports] it makes it sound like they had no idea who she was talking to. When they know darn well it was me.”
According to the medical examiner report, jail staff “stated they were not aware of any triggers, upcoming court proceedings, or recent events that would make Cilivea want [to] harm herself today or for any of the past self harm attempts.”
Hirte wonders if jail staff knew that Thyrion had swallowed plastic forks and diapers before, and if so, “why would you give her anything then?”
In late 2023, among Thyrion’s belongings released to Hirte by the jail was a handwritten note from Thyrion requesting to see a nurse. “I think I need a med adjustment,” Thyrion wrote. Electronic messages Thyrion sent jail staff throughout her incarceration also show that she regularly communicated her needs, without many results. The messages were obtained by Wisconsin Examiner through open records requests.
Kerrie Hirte, the mother of Cilivea Thyrion, looks over autopsy reports sent by the medical examiner. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
In late March 2022, Thyrion messaged jail staff asking to be moved to another part of the facility because activity going on in her pod was “mentally upsetting.” The following month in April, Thyrion wrote complaints about jail staff mocking her with “fat jokes” and being rude. In June, Thyrion was denied access to the gym, and made multiple requests for a Bible and hygiene products.
Redactions in the messages obscure crucial details about Thryion’s needs. Anything related to Thyrion’s mental health history, including the word “suicide” is redacted in most reports. “I have not been [getting] my [redacted] and I don’t know why. I really need it. I have been getting really bad [redacted],” she wrote on June 29, 2022. In August, she reported being verbally threatened by a correctional officer, and asked why she wasn’t getting her mail. When she asked to speak with friendlier and familiar jail staffer, Thyrion was denied. “I promise to be better,” Thyrion wrote in the electronic messages. “I Just need to talk to her please she’s a good friend she’s great to talk to please she was in cell four please I’m sorry.”
On Dec. 2, 2022, court records show that Thyrion’s sentencing had been scheduled for January 2023. In her last message sent on Dec. 12 to jail staff, just four days before her death on Dec. 16, Thyrion reported that jail staff had used her cell’s intercom system to call her fat, pathetic, and that “no one in my family should have raised an inmate” and that “it all started because I threw up my food and she said that maybe if I stopped eating everything I would not be throwing up.”
Records from the Milwaukee County Jail showing correspondences between Cilivea Thyrion and jail staff during her time at the jail, obtained through open records requests.
Thyrion’s messages to jail staff about harassment and neglect, her note asking for “a med adjustment,” the medical examiner’s note that correctional staff knew about her history of ingesting objects like diapers (seemingly at odds with the district attorney’s letter mentioning that jail staff didn’t consider the diaper to be a self-harm risk), and their subsequent decision to furnish an ordinary diaper rather than one designed to prevent self-harm, raise serious questions about the lack of accountability in her case. Hirte feels what happened to her daughter was intentional, “because they gave her something and then walked away.”
A memorial for Cilivea Thyrion, who died in the Milwaukee County Jail in 2022, erected in her mother’s Green Bay home. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
With many crucial details about Thyrion’s medical history at the jail hidden behind black inked redactions, these various pieces form a picture of what her life inside the jail was like. Normally, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office does not release autopsy protocols. As Thyrion’s mother, however, Hirte was sent an unredacted copy which was also reviewed by Wisconsin Examiner. The report notes “blunt force injury” including an abrasion to Thyrion’s head, fractures to four ribs, and contusions or abrasions to her abdomen, liver, left hand, and “lower extremities and the bottom of the right foot.” Instead of food, plastic fragments were found in Thyrion’s stomach, and “a crumpled piece of cloth fabric” in her large intestine.
“To me,” Hirte told Wisconsin Examiner, “it’s like, should she have been in the hospital if she had that towel in her large intestines?” A few days after viewing the autopsy reports, Hirte traveled from Green Bay to Milwaukee, to speak before a Milwaukee County committee reviewing an audit of the Milwaukee County Jail. The audit revealed “systemic issues ranging from dangerous suicide watch practices and a mental health challenge to critical staffing shortages and occupant overcrowding.”
Auditors noticed “unsafe restraining of occupants” on suicide watch, including being handcuffed to benches for hours at a time. Although the jail places an average of 36 people in suicide watch on a weekly basis, mental health assessments were inconsistent. While auditors were visiting the jail, staff realized that someone on suicide watch had not been logged on a white board. “This discrepancy highlights a critical breakdown in communication and procedure,” the auditors wrote. There was also a backlog of 51 people awaiting competency evaluations. Despite there being a high number of pre-trial jail occupants taking psychotropic drugs, suggesting “a significant mental health burden within the jail” according to the audit, medications are distributed in bulk stock, meaning they’re not individually prescribed or even properly labeled with instructions on how to take the drugs.
A memorial for Cilivea Thyrion, who died in the Milwaukee County Jail in 2022, erected in her mother’s Green Bay home. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
The auditors also found a lack of supervision and clear duties for correctional staff in the jail’s restrictive housing units, and found that the jail’s suicide prevention policies — while complying with Department of Corrections (DOC) regulations — lacked “specificity and clarity.” The auditors warned that “this vagueness hinders consistent and effective implementation of critical procedures, particularly those related to suicide watch.” Throughout the audior’s visit, the auditors recommended that the Milwaukee County Sheriffs Office and its contracted jail health care provider Wellpath emphasis suicide prevention training and address staffing shortages, lack of supervison, and the various nonfunctioning light fixtures, graffiti, and damaged windows which create an unfavorable atmosphere within the jail.
Thyrion’s death came as part of a string of six deaths within the jail over a 14-month period. During the audit committee hearing on Dec. 2, Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball said that after each death, the office does a review to see what could be done better. As a result, Ball said before a committee of county supervisors, there hasn’t been a suicide at the jail since January 2023. “We’re putting things in place that is helping,” said Ball. “One death is one too many.”
After the sheriff spoke, the floor was opened up for public comment. “From what I see from this audit shows all my concerns,” said Hirte. “It shows more. There’s stuff I didn’t even know that I now know. And I hope it opens everybody’s eyes as to why I came back here to fight for my 20-year-old daughter. The only daughter I have died, who died in the Milwaukee County Jail, they say while she was on suicide watch. This basically says how unequipped they were to handle her.”
In November, days before the jail audit report was sent to Milwaukee County Audit Committee officials, the jail’s contracted health care provider Wellpath filed for bankruptcy. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office declined to comment, and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office also did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.
Lincoln Hills, a detention facility the state had ordered closed by 2021. (Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections)
When Randy Forsterling went to the Lincoln Hills juvenile prison at 16, he learned skills he still uses today, he told 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
“I’m a machine operator,” Forsterling said. “I die cast, I make transmission casings and engine blocks for one of the largest corporations in the world. A lot of the metallurgy that I learned when I was in the foundry in Lincoln Hills, I use it now — 25 years later.”
While Forsterling doesn’t believe Lincoln Hills still has a foundry, a Wisconsin initiative is aiming to better prepare incarcerated youth with disabilities for the workforce.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction released a statement about a collaboration with the Departments of Corrections and Workforce Development that is “the first of its kind in Wisconsin.”
“By providing these young individuals with the guidance, education and opportunities they need, we empower them to break the cycle and contribute positively to society,” State Superintendent Jill Underly said in the statement. “Supporting these kids is not only a step toward healing, it is an investment in their future and will save future taxpayer expenses.”
The U.S. Department of Education awarded the DPI a 5-year, $10 million grant. The program aims to help youth with disabilities transition from correctional facilities into their communities, according to a DPI statement released in September. Funds will also be used for work rehabilitation training and for dyslexia screening for all youth during intake at state correctional facilities.
The project provides three different levels of support, with some youth falling into more than one level.
Randy Forsterling told the Examiner he made an eagle with a wingspan of about four feet out of aluminum at a foundry at Lincoln Hills. The eagle is mounted on the front of a cottage. Photo courtesy of Randy Forsterling
The program intends to support all justice-involved youth with disabilities and the adults who care about them, according to an abstract on the federal Rehabilitation Services Administration’s website. They will receive support through social media campaigns and an app-based reentry toolkit. This is the broadest level of support, for 8,000 participants, the abstract says.
The second level will support a “targeted group” of students made up of Wisconsin youth under 18 in state correctional facilities. This level involves dyslexia screening and “related intervention services” and is for 1,500 participants.
The smallest group will receive the highest level of care, or intensive supports, the abstract says. These are students “most marginalized at the intersection of disability and justice and, often, race.” They will receive care under a model that is “trauma-informed, community-based” and facilitated by mentors. This level is for 250 participants, who will begin receiving care while incarcerated.
Young people have a higher risk of returning to incarceration in Wisconsin
The Department of Public Instruction’s statement compared youth to older age groups for a three-year period after release, citing an August 2021 DOC report. The report found that for a 2016 cohort, 20-24 year-olds were reincarcerated about twice as often as people aged 45 or older.
According to the DOC’s website, of 45 people aged 19 and younger released in 2020, 33 were reincarcerated in Wisconsin within three years after release due to a new sentence or a revocation. This data is based only on readmissions to DOC prisons, so it wouldn’t include reincarceration in another state.
Forsterling said he committed crimes when he was 20 and went into adult prison at 21; he was released to extended supervision last year. He hopes the program will take the experiences of formerly incarcerated people and staff into account.
Good job training is important for getting a good job, Forsterling said, which helps people avoid a desperate situation that may lead to a return to crime.
“And that’s where mentors come in very handy,” he said.
Forsterling said he received helpful mentoring at Lincoln Hills. He mentors and supports several friends who are still incarcerated.
Cost to incarcerate per child rises as enrollment falls
The cost of incarceration at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake has “ballooned” to nearly $463,000 per child per year, as enrollment has “plummeted,” Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service reported last week. Fewer youth means fixed infrastructure and staffing costs are spread across fewer individuals.
A new Department of Corrections budget request would nearly double that amount, they reported. That would raise the cost to 58 times what taxpayers spend on the average K-12 public school student.
Wisconsin’s Division of Juvenile Corrections had a population of 81 people as of a monthly report for September, including 40 at Lincoln Hills and 14 at Copper Lake. The campus was designed for more than 500 youth, the news organizations reported.
The juvenile prisons, which have been troubled for many years and are slated for closure, received renewed scrutiny after youth counselor Corey Proulx died from injuries received in an assault in late June. Lawmakers on the 2023 Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety heard testimony about safety concerns at a hearing in August.
The DOC is under a court-ordered consent decree mandating changes at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake after a 2018 lawsuit challenged practices such as the use of pepper spray and punitive solitary confinement.
The DPI received the grant to assist minors with disabilities as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Disability Innovation Fund program. The program seeks to ensure people with disabilities receive “in-demand, good-paying jobs.” Out of over 800 organizations, Wisconsin was one of 27 projects to receive the grant.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 04: Police gather outside of a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan where United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot on December 04, 2024 in New York City. Brian Thompson was shot and killed before 7:00 AM this morning outside the Hilton Hotel, just before he was set to attend the company's annual investors' meeting. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Police in Altoona arrested a “strong person of interest” Monday in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week in New York after finding him in a fast-food restaurant with an illegal weapon and false identification, authorities announced.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified the man arrested as Luigi Mangione, 26, with ties to Philadelphia and whose last known address was in Honolulu. Mangione was in possession of what New York police described as a “ghost gun” made with a 3D printer and a “handwritten document that speaks to his motivation and mindset,” Tisch said.
“The suspect was in a McDonald’s and was recognized by an employee who then called local police,” Tisch said. The New York Police Department has published images showing the shooter’s face culled from surveillance camera footage before and after Thompson was shot.
Tisch said Mangione was also carrying a U.S. passport and multiple false IDs including a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching the one the person police believe to be the shooter used to check into his New York City hostel before the shooting incident.
Police also recovered clothing including a mask Tisch said was consistent with those worn by the person sought in connection with Thompson’s killing.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said Mangione had no prior criminal record and that NYPD detectives traveled to Altoona on Monday to question Mangione.
Kenny said the document Mangione had when he was arrested is in the possession of Altoona police. They did not believe there were specific threats to other people mentioned in the document, “but it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America,” Kenny said.
Thompson, 50, was shot several times by a person who authorities believe was lying in wait early Wednesday morning outside the Manhattan hotel where United HealthCare was holding an investors meeting.
Thompson had been CEO of UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation’s largest for-profit health insurance providers, for nearly three years. His killing has prompted an outpouring of criticism of the company and the United States’ health care system generally for denying or unnecessarily complicating medical treatment.
Mangione was arraigned Monday evening at the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg on charges of carrying a firearm without a license, forgery, records or identification tampering, possession of instruments of crime and presenting false identification to law enforcement.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a news conference Monday evening after the arraignment that attention generated by the investigation helped Pennsylvania police capture the person sought in connection to Thompson’s killing.
“But some attention in this case, especially online, has been deeply disturbing, as some have looked to celebrate instead of condemning this killer,” Shapiro said, noting that Thompson, who was laid to rest Monday in Minnesota, was a father to two, a husband and a friend to many. “And yes, he was the CEO of a health insurance company. In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint.”
“This killer is being hailed as a hero,” Shapiro said. “Hear me on this. He is no hero. The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning.”
According to a criminal complaint against Mangione: Altoona police were called to the McDonald’s on Plank Road for a suspicious person who resembled the person wanted in connection with Thompson’s shooting. Officers located Mangione sitting at the rear of the restaurant wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop computer on the table.
Officers asked Mangione to pull down the mask to show his face and recognized him as the person in the pictures released by New York police of the person wanted for the shooting. When asked for identification, Mangione provided a New Jersey driver’s license with the name Mark Rosario and a July 1998 birthdate, according to the complaint. Police were unable to find any information with the identity Mangione provided and advised him that he would be arrested for lying about his identity.
Mangione then identified himself. When asked why he had lied, Mangione replied “I clearly shouldn’t have.” He was then handcuffed, searched and taken to the police station. Inside Mangione’s backpack, police said they found the 3D-printed pistol loaded with nine rounds of 9 mm ammunition and a loose hollow-point round. The gun was with a silencer that had also been 3D printed, police said.
A spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia confirmed that Mangione is a 2020 graduate of the university’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs, where he studied computer science. A LinkedIn profile in Mangione’s name says he has worked as a data engineer for a Santa Monica, California, online auto sales marketplace.
Mangione comes from a large and high-profile family in the Baltimore area, with branches of the family that own the Turf Valley and Hayfields country clubs in Ellicott City and WCBM Radio, among other businesses, the Capital-Star’s sibling publication Maryland Matters reported.
WBAL-TV in Baltimore reported that Luigi Mangione was valedictorian of the Class of 2016 at the Gilman School and later graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. The office of Del. Nino Mangione (R-Baltimore County) confirmed to the TV station that the lawmaker is a cousin.
Nino Mangione, a radio host at WCBM who was elected to the General Assembly in 2018, did not immediately respond to calls and an email from Maryland Matters seeking comment Monday. The Gilman School did not immediately respond to a request to confirm that Luigi Mangione was a student there.
The arrest Monday was the result of “tireless work of the greatest detectives in the world,” Tisch said, who reviewed thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips and processed forensic evidence. The NYPD also deployed assets including scuba divers, drones and electronic surveillance systems.
“This combination of old school detective work and new age technology is what led to this result today,” Tisch said, adding that the media and the public played a crucial role. “We should never underestimate the power of the public to be our eyes and our ears in these investigations.”
Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and X.
Donald Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump wants to jail former and current members of Congress who investigated his incitement of the violent Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and he plans to pardon the rioters immediately upon taking office, he told NBC News Sunday.
On the network’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker,” Trump said leaders of the special congressional panel that probed the Capitol riot “lied” and “should go to jail.”
Trump singled out committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and a senior Black member of Congress, and former high-ranking House Republican Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who co-chaired the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
“Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” Trump told NBC host Welker.
Jason Miller, an adviser to Trump, walked back the president-elect’s comments Monday. Miller told CNN that Trump’s remarks about jailing Jan. 6 committee members were taken out of context and that he just wants his administration to “apply the law equally” to everybody.
President Joe Biden is reportedly mulling preemptive pardons for Cheney and former Democratic Congressman and incoming Sen. Adam Schiff of California, who also sat on the panel, along with others who could be targeted by the new Trump administration, according to media reports citing anonymous White House sources.
Trump takes office Jan. 20.
Cheney: ‘Here is the truth’
In a statement Sunday, Cheney described Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 as “the worst breach of our Constitution by any president in our nation’s history.”
“Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power,” Cheney said. “He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes. Trump watched on television as police officers were brutally beaten, and the Capitol was assaulted, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave.”
The Justice Department charged just over 1,560 people for taking part in the attack. Among those, 210 were found guilty at trial, and 979 pleaded guilty to charges that included assaulting police officers, trespassing and bringing deadly weapons to the Capitol, according to the most recent department data. That means it’s possible more than 1,000 individuals could be pardoned, depending on Trump’s decisions.
“As proven in Court, the weapons used and carried on Capitol grounds include firearms; OC spray; tasers; edged weapons, including a sword, axes, hatchets, and knives; and makeshift weapons, such as destroyed office furniture, fencing, bike racks, stolen riot shields, baseball bats, hockey sticks, flagpoles, PVC piping, and reinforced knuckle gloves,” according to the Justice Department.
Thompson said Monday the committee members “are simply not afraid of his most recent threats.”
“Our committee was fully authorized by the House, all rules were properly followed, and our work product stands on its own. In fact, in the two years since we have completed our work, no court or legal body has refuted it,” Thompson said in a statement provided Monday to States Newsroom.
“Donald Trump and his minions can make all the assertions they want – but no election, no conspiracy theory, no pardon, and no threat of vengeful prosecution can rewrite history or wipe away his responsibility for the deadly violence on that horrific day. We stood up to him before, and we will continue to do so,” said Thompson, who has served as the top Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security for the past two years.
Pardons on day one
Trump told Welker that he intends to pardon the Jan. 6 rioters on his first day in office. He said they violently attacked police officers because “they had no choice” and that their lives have been “destroyed” after facing charges for their actions.
During the wide-ranging interview Trump also blamed former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the attack and repeated debunked claims that “antifa” activists were part of a conspiracy to bait his supporters into attacking.
Video from Trump’s speech that day show him rallying his supporters to march to the Capitol and urge Congress to “do the right thing” by refusing to certify Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory.
Trump also falsely told Welker that the Jan. 6 committee destroyed its investigative material and evidence.
In fact, hundreds of witness interview transcripts, videos and online exhibits are publicly available. The committee’s work culminated in a nearly 900-page final report that remains available online, and can be easily found with a simple internet search.
Kinzinger: ‘We did nothing wrong’
Former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the only other Republican who sat on the Jan. 6 committee, said Sunday in a statement that Trump’s threat is “nothing more than the desperate howl of a man who knows history will regard him with shame.
“Let me be clear: we did nothing wrong. The January 6 Committee’s work was driven by facts, the Constitution, and the pursuit of accountability — principles that seem foreign to Trump,” Kinzinger, of Illinois, published on Substack.
Trump did not specifically name Kinzinger during his interview.
The White House did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment on Biden’s reported consideration of preemptive pardons.
Nasal Narcan, used to reverse an overdose, stock the inside of Milwaukee County's first harm reduction vending machine. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
The Wisconsin Department of Justice has been awarded a $7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to increase access to substance abuse treatment, the agency announced Friday.
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
“Making treatment more accessible is important not only for those struggling with substance-use disorder but for public safety as well,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement acknowledging the grant. “This grant will allow for more to be done to help fight addiction.”
The Wisconsin DOJ was awarded the grant to implement the Wisconsin Deflection Initiative (WDI). The program aims to connect people struggling with substance use disorders to services before they have a crisis, an overdose or a criminal charge, according to the DOJ.
Key components of the Wisconsin Deflection Initiative include self-referral and officer intervention programs, active outreach to at-risk individuals, better response to overdose incidents, comprehensive support services and coordination between law enforcement and treatment providers, the Wisconsin DOJ said.
The program will be implemented across multiple Wisconsin jurisdictions and have a focus on urban, tribal and rural communities.
If programs like the Wisconsin Deflection Initiative lead to fewer people with a substance use disorder entering Wisconsin prisons, it would reduce strain on the state prison system’s programming. As of October, substance use disorder programming for incarcerated people had a waitlist of over 11,500. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections’ website says the agency tries to enroll individuals in programming close to their release date.
“We would like to be able to serve every single person that we come into contact with at the highest level that they need in terms of intervention and more research,” Alisha Kraus, then-director of program services for adult prisons, said in an article published by PBS Wisconsin in June. “More resources would allow us to do that, more efficiently.”
Funds directed toward fighting addiction in Wisconsin have included opioid settlement money from lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies. The Oneida Nation in northeast Wisconsin is considering an emphasis on prevention in the spending of $6.5 million in settlement money it estimates it will receive, to be allocated between 2020 and 2037, the Examiner reported last month.
A new report outlines trends in jail bookings and argues that the data shows that a punitive response to social and economic needs isn't working. | Getty Images
A recently released Prison Policy Initiative report, using data from the Jail Data Initiative, reveals that in 2023 there were 7.6 million admissions to jail, but that 1 in 4 admissions were for people previously booked in the last year, with Indigenous people/Native Americans the most likely to be booked again.
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
“Based on the Jail Data Initiative data, we estimate that over 5.6 million unique individuals are booked into jail annually and about 1.2 million are jailed multiple times in a given year,” the report found. “Further analysis reveals patterns of bookings — and repeat bookings in particular — across the country: The jail experience disproportionately impacts Black and Indigenous people, and law enforcement continues to use jailing as a response to poverty and low-level ‘public order’ offenses.”
The report, prepared by Emily Widra and Wendy Sawyer, is titled “Who is jailed, how often and why: Our Jail Data Initiative collaboration offers a fresh look at the misuse of local jails.”
The Jail Data Initiative gathered information from 1,000 jails in the U.S. daily that included online jail rosters. The 1,000 jails represent approximately a third of 2,850 jails in America.
Of the 1,000 jails, 648 offered jail rosters available for a two-year window (July 1, 2021-June 30, 2023) and an additional year (out to June 30, 2024) to document those who had been booked again.
Previously, back in 2019, the Prison Policy Initiative released a report titled “Arrest, Release, Repeat: How police and jails are misused to respond to social problems.” That 2019 report reflects a survey from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health while the 2024 report reflects data collected directly from jails.
The 2024 report notes that more than 1 in 5, or 22%, in the study were booked more than once within 12 months.
Black people, who represent 14% of the population, were booked on unique charges at 32% of the total cases.
Indigenous people, who represent 1% of the U.S. population, but are 3% of the incarcerated population, were rebooked back in jail within one year at 33%, contrasted with 23% for whites booked a second time within one year, 20% for Blacks, 19% for other people of color, and 18% for Asian American or Pacific Islanders.
The 2024 report notes that while the rates of booking and rebooking for women are similar to men in their demographic there is a growing trend of more women being incarcerated in jail.
A chart from the new Prison Policy Initiative report.
“From 2021 to 2022, the number of women in jail increased 9% while the number of men in jail increased only 3%. The jailing of women has a devastating ‘ripple effect’ on families: At least 80% of women booked into jail are mothers, including over 55,000 women who are pregnant when they are admitted. Beyond having to leave their children in someone else’s care, these women are impacted by the brutal side effects of going to jail: aggravation of mental health problems, a greater risk of suicide, and a much higher likelihood of ending up homeless or deprived of essential support and benefits. So while women may account for a relatively small share of people booked into jails, those jail admissions have serious and long lasting consequences for the women, their families, and their communities.”
The report notes that 1 in 10 booked were older adults and roughly 7% of those older adults were rebooked within a year.
The report also notes, from 1999 to 2021, there was a growing trend of those 55 years old and older being arrested.
“Considering most older adults are arrested for low-level, non-violent offenses like trespassing, driving offenses, and disorderly conduct, it is likely that the older adults admitted to jail are in need of other systems of support outside of the criminal legal system, like substance use treatment, accessible medical care, and behavioral health services,” the report states.
In the Jail Data Initiative, there were 140 jails that shared the housing status of inmates, whether residents were homeless/unhoused or not: 4% reported they were unhoused and 42% of those unhoused were booked again within a year compared to 20% of those who had housing.
“This finding adds to the existing evidence of law enforcement’s ineffective but disproportionate and deliberate targeting of people experiencing homelessness,” the report states.
The 2024 report also compared recent charges reflected to data collected in a 2002 Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of inmates in local jails, based on self-reporting by inmates, and concluded there had been a noticeable decrease in drug charges since 2002 (from 25% to 14%), a smaller decrease for property charges, very little variation for violent offense charges, but a 6% increase in public order charges, such as disorderly conduct, loitering or public intoxication.
The report notes its findings support a widely accepted conclusion: “People who are arrested and booked more than once per year often have other vulnerabilities, including homelessness, in addition to the serious medical and mental health needs …”
This report has been updated to clarify how the jail admission and readmission data was reported and calculated.
Students gather outside the meeting Thursday of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. (Photo | CodePink)
On Thursday protesters disrupted a meeting of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, holding signs and chanting slogans including “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” and “Free, free Palestine!” Numerous groups participated in the demonstration including CODEPINK, UW-Milwaukee Popular University for Palestine, Wisconsin for Palestine, Wisconsin Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) UW-Madison, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) Wisconsin, and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)-UWM.
Protesters gathered both inside and outside the room where the Board held its meeting. With chanting and speeches the protesters interrupted the meeting with one demonstrator at one point saying that protesters “will not be allowing” the Board to conduct business during the meeting, followed by loud chants from the group as officers flowed into the room to begin arrests. Activists say that 19 people were arrested during the demonstration.
UW-Madison protesters sit around tents as police work to dismantle their encampment on Library Mall. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
According to a CODEPINK press release, the demonstration stemmed from questions student activists sent the Board of Regents about the University of Wisconsin’s response after students joined a wave of encampment protests on college campuses. Students pitched tents on the grounds of college campuses nationwide last spring calling for institutions to sever their ties with the government of Israel. With U.S. support, Israel launched retaliatory strikes into the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which killed around 1,200 Israeli civilians and resulted in hundreds being taken hostage. Since then the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed over 44,000 Palestinians, with a United Nations Special Committee recently finding the IDF’s warfare tactics are “consistent with genocide”. Both Hamas and Israel have been accused of war crimes in the ongoing conflict.
University of Wisconsin students involved in protests against the war in Gaza say they continue to face hands-on law enforcement responses. Arrests during demonstrations and threats of academic punishment targeting student activists are increasing tensions with school administration, activists say, after negotiations in May quelled the college encampment protests.
UW students have demanded that the university divest from Israel, and disclose all of the investments made in the country to date. At UW-Madison, campus police and Dane County Sheriffs broke up the encampments last spring, arresting 34 people in May. Injuries were reported both among people in and around the encampments, and among law enforcement. No arrests were ever made at the UW-Milwaukee encampments, though police monitored the protests closely.
By May, administrators at both UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee reached separate agreements with students to end the encampment protests. In September, CODEPINK said in its press release, the Board of Regents met with student activists, who had questions about the university’s handling of the encampment protests. Activists say that the Board deferred responsibility for the protest responses to university administration, prompting the demonstration on Thursday morning.
The Board of Regents did not respond to a request for comment on the protests Thursday. Relaying a statement to Wisconsin Examiner on behalf of the protest group, a spokesperson for CODEPINK’s branch in Madison said that the Board’s use of police against student activists “reflects a troubling disregard for dialogue or transparency.” The spokesperson added that “instead of engaging in a one-minute statement from peaceful protesters, they chose to shut off the recording and summon a heavy police presence. This response escalated to harassment by university police and arbitrary arrests of individuals who were peacefully exercising their right to participate in a public meeting.”
CODEPINK questioned why the Board won’t engage with student activists, and said that the Board is responsible for “a significant portion of the UW-Madison endowment money” and should explain how it can use that money to support Israel when the Board’s own guidelines prohibit it from knowingly providing gifts, grants, etc, to “any company, corporation or subsidiary, or affiliate” that practices or condones discrimination against particular groups.
“The police’s use of force against peaceful protestors underscores a disturbing trend of prioritizing secrecy over public trust,” reads CODEPINK’s emailed statement to Wisconsin Examiner. “Transparency and accountability should not be met with violence, especially in spaces meant to serve the public and promote education.”
Such sentiments aren’t exclusive to UW-Madison. In late October, UW-Milwaukee student members of SDS-UWM held a press conference claiming to have faced continued intimidation by campus police. UW-Milwaukee student Robby Knapp recounted being awoken to someone banging on his door one June night at 2:30 a.m. Initially, he thought that the police car parked outside was from the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), but the officers were actually from UW-Milwaukee. They’d driven over 20 minutes from campus to Knapp’s home in Milwaukee’s Washington Heights neighborhood. Addressing him by name, they asked about an alleged vandalism incident near campus. Knapp said he didn’t know anything about it, stepped outside, and was immediately arrested.
Knapp told Wisconsin Examiner that the officers took him back “the long way,” taking side streets instead of the freeway. When they got to the campus, “they photographed me, booked me, the whole nine yards with that,” Knapp said in the October press conference. “They gave me a letter saying the DA [District Attorney] might give you a call, which I haven’t gotten a call from the DA since that night.” Knapp was never taken to the county jail, but was released after an hour, he recalled.
UW-Milwaukee. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
After Knapp was taken in, officers visited the homes of SDS members Audari Tamayo and Kayla Patterson. “They went to my house at least twice,” said Tamayo. “And we found this out through the police report that they went to my house twice, but I didn’t open the door. They needed to get to the third floor, they needed to get through three different hallways.” Tamayo said that after the officers failed to get into the apartment, “they started calling me repeatedly saying that I had to come down for an interview or else.”
A spokesperson for UW-Milwaukee was unable to comment on any aspect Knapp’s arrest due to federal laws protecting student records. The spokesperson also said that UW-Milwaukee cannot comment on the ongoing investigation related to the alleged vandalism incident, nor comment on what exactly the vandalism was. “SDS recognition as a UWM student organization is suspended due to student organization misconduct, and only officially recognized student organizations are permitted to use UWM’s name in their organization’s name,” spokeswoman Angelica Duria said.
A Milwaukee PD spokesperson told Wisconsin Examiner that the department is, “aware that Students for a Democratic Society UWM have engaged in protest activity in Milwaukee. We monitored the tent city situation at UWM to ensure there was no impact to emergency services in the City of Milwaukee. We do not have requests from UWM to conduct any investigations related to the group. We do share when we are aware of a planned protest for the sake of public safety.”
SDS says that its members have also faced academic sanctions, directly related to their protests. Besides Knapp, whom SDS says is facing academic sanctions due to protest activity, Patricia Fish is also facing sanctions due to an occupation protest in February. Additionally, both Patterson and Tamayo were unable to enroll in time for the fall 2024 semester after holds were placed on their student accounts.
Protesters march in Milwaukee after the 2024 presidential election. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
The stress has affected Knapp’s academic performance. “Since then I’ve been behind … I have to kind of go to school, and go to class every day understanding that any work, any midterms, any quizzes, any papers, any exams, any credit, as soon as that suspension becomes effective, then all of that is out the window,” said Knapp. “I have about four courses left until I graduate. I was going to take two this semester, and two that semester. So not only is my education up in the air, but my ability to graduate is now up in the air … It’s the energy, it’s the money, it’s the time, it’s the effort that I’ve put into getting this close to graduating and just this semester in general after having to deal with them holding me back to be able to take these classes in the first place.”
Duria said that “no student is subject to the misconduct process based on considerations other than their own behavior.” Duria said that the Dean of Students Office assesses “reports it receives to determine whether there are potential nonacademic misconduct violations.” Duria went on to say in a statement to Wisconsin Examiner that “UWM has communicated protest guidelines and behavior expectations in several previous emails sent to faculty, staff and students. UWM has also updated its free speech website to make behavior expectations and expressive activity policies easily visible. Protests and expressive activity must abide by state law and university policy and UWM will take appropriate action to enforce the law, and its policies and codes of conduct.”
Patterson feels negotiations between students and the administration were mainly “to save face,” and to also learn more about student activist groups in preparation for more crackdowns. She told Wisconsin Examiner, “It’s very heavy monitoring. They’re going both at the organizational level, and the individual level, in order to crack down.”
This article has been edited to correct the last name of Robby Knapp, not “Napp”.
Prison barbwire fencing. Credit: Alex Potemkin, Getty Images.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is closing a women’s prison and other facilities “after years of abuse and decay,” the Associated Press has reported. The bureau is suspending operations at a minimum-security satellite camp in Wisconsin.
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 camp is adjacent to FCI Oxford, Wisconsin’s federal prison, the AP reported. According to the bureau, such camps “provide inmate labor to the main institution and to off-site work programs.” FCI Oxford is located in southern central Wisconsin, north of Wisconsin Dells.
The bureau previously announced the closure of a federal prison in Dublin, California, which staff and incarcerated people named “the rape club,” according to AP reporting in 2022.
The bureau is closing minimum-security prison camps in Florida, Minnesota and West Virginia. It’s also suspending operations at minimum-security satellite camps in Wisconsin, Colorado and Pennsylvania, the AP reported.
Such facilities have seen frequent escapes and an influx of contraband, according to the AP. Oxford’s satellite camp had an escape in 2022; the man was later arrested in connection with a retail theft offense.
The camp at FCI Oxford was cleared out in June, the AP reported. For the three satellite camps, employees have been or will be moved to adjacent low-security prisons while the minimum-security incarcerated people are moved elsewhere.
The AP reported that the bureau pointed to efficiencies and infrastructure concerns for the moves. This included a $26 million estimate for repairs to a camp at FCI Englewood in Littleton, Colorado.
In June of last year, the bureau announced FCI Oxford would transition from medium security to low security, in support of the First Step Act signed into law by then-President Donald Trump in 2018.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, was shot and killed Wednesday morning outside the Hilton in midtown Manhattan, where he was set to address investors.
A manhunt is now underway for the gunman who police believe targeted Thompson in the shooting, although a motive remains unclear, according to the New York Times.
Thompson, a Minnesota resident, took the helm of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance division, one of the nation’s largest, in 2021.
He was walking into the hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference when he was shot in the chest by a masked man, who then fled on bicycle, CNN reported. Thompson was taken to Mount Sinai hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The investor conference was abruptly canceled after the shooting.
“We’re dealing with a very serious… situation,” UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty said, according to PIX11. “We’re going to have to bring to a close the event today… I apologize for bringing things to a close but I hope you’ll understand.”
UnitedHealth Group is one of the largest corporations in the country, with $372 billion in revenue last year.
New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch called the killing a “brazen targeted attack.”
“This is horrifying news and a terrible loss for the business and health care community in Minnesota,” Gov. Tim Walz posted on X.
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and X.
Gov. Tony Evers kicks off a budget listening session in Appleton, Wis. on Monday, Dec. 2 | Photo by Andrew Kennard
Members of the public traveled to Einstein Middle School in Appleton Monday to tell Gov. Tony Evers about their priorities for Wisconsin’s 2025-2027 budget.
During the first of Evers’ five planned listening sessions around the state ahead of his next budget proposal, Wisconsin residents expressed concern about the cost of housing, Wisconsin prisons and other issues in a breakout group attended by the Examiner.
In opening remarks, Evers expressed support for addressing “long neglected” priorities and cited Wisconsin’s budget surplus of over $4 billion for the 2024 fiscal year.
Evers said his priorities include expanding BadgerCare, legalizing marijuana, protecting access to reproductive health care, gun and justice reform, protecting the environment and investing in kids and schools.
Local Republican state Rep. Ron Tusler (R-Harrison) has a different view on the surplus, Fox 11 reported. He wants to use it to return money to taxpayers and provide relief from inflation.
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
Members of the public split into six breakout groups. Each group focused on different topics relevant to the budget. The Examiner attended the “Strong & Safe Communities” group, which addressed issues ranging from affordable housing to Wisconsin’s prison system.
A De Pere resident brought up the high cost of housing, saying that she and her husband are from Door County but couldn’t afford to live there even though they both work. Even in De Pere, “all the houses in my neighborhood are getting bought up and flipped,” she said.
Tom Denk, who was formerly incarcerated, said he wants to see change in Wisconsin prisons. He said he wasn’t allowed access to enrichment programs in prison.
“The DOC needs more funding because their staff need to be educated. They need to have that trauma-informed care,” Denk said. “Because most people are going to get out of prison. I’m one of them.”
Substance abuse and anger management programs in the Wisconsin prison system have waitlists in the thousands. The Department of Corrections’ website says the agency tries to enroll people in programming as they get close to their release date.
Karen Winkel, a homeless prevention specialist, said many of her clients have been recently released from the Department of Corrections or the Green Lake County Jail, with “no place to go. There’s no place to live.”
Lisa Cruz, executive director of Multicultural Coalition, Inc., said her nonprofit is overwhelmed with serving immigrants and refugees.
“It’s [a] humanitarian crisis,” Cruz said. “And I think we often think about that happening somewhere else, in another country, maybe in another state. It’s right here and it’s right now.”
“My agency received a 72% reduction, really impacting nearly half of our budget,” said Isabel Williston, executive director of ASTOP Sexual Abuse Center.
Jared Hoy, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, attended the group discussion, but mostly listened since the focus was on the public’s input.
An informational packet distributed at the event described positions the governor has taken on criminal justice. These include increasing funding for Wisconsin’s TAD (treatment alternatives and diversion) program and addressing staffing shortages that have worsened conditions in state prisons.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the results of the 2024 election in the Rose Garden at the White House on Nov. 7, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son from federal gun and tax crimes —and any other offenses over a nearly 11-year period — has drawn outrage from Republicans, while only a few Democrats have criticized the outgoing president for establishing a potential precedent for the incoming GOP administration.
In a lengthy Sunday night statement, Biden laid out his reasoning for reversing his long-stated position that he would not give his son a pardon. He argued that Hunter Biden was unfairly targeted by Republicans and noted that investigations began in December 2020, shortly after Biden won the presidential election.
The pardon would cover offenses which Hunter Biden “has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024,” the executive grant of clemency signed by Biden said.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” Biden said.
Trump and Jan. 6
President-elect Donald Trump took to his social media site, TruthSocial, where he called the move “an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
Trump questioned whether Biden’s pardon would include the 29 inmates held in the District of Columbia jail for offenses related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Of those, 27 are charged with assaulting law enforcement after Trump riled up his supporters to overturn the presidential election he lost.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump wrote.
With the move, Biden joined Trump and former President Bill Clinton in pardoning family members.
Trump granted 143 pardons during his first term and so far Biden has granted 26 pardons, including his son’s. Former President Barack Obama granted 212 pardons.
Advocates and Democrats have pressed Biden to exert his clemency powers on behalf of the 40 men on federal death row before his term expires in January. The push comes as Trump is set to return to the White House. The former president expedited 13 executions of people on federal death row in the last six months of his first term.
The co-executive directors of Popular Democracy in Action, a progressive advocacy group, Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper, said in a joint statement that Biden should “provide the same compassion he gave his son and pardon the 10,000 clemency petitions on his desk.”
“The President has the power to provide clemency to thousands of people who have been wronged by the laws governing the judicial system and the political considerations that engendered them,” they said.
Hunter Biden’s federal charges stem from a 2018 gun purchase. He lied on a form by checking a box that affirmed he was not using illegal drugs, but he did then use drugs while owning the firearm.
A federal jury convicted him in June and the gun charges carried a possible prison sentence.
Hunter Biden also pleaded guilty to separate federal tax charges in California.
Target for Republicans
Over the course of Biden’s presidency, House Republicans have held hearings and inquiries into the finances of the Biden family, focusing on Hunter Biden in an attempt to broadly stick corruption charges to the president. No evidence has shown any wrongdoing by the president.
But the pardon gave fresh ammunition to Biden critics, who noted it contradicted what the president had long promised.
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, in a statement said Sunday that Biden “has lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities.”
“The charges Hunter faced were just the tip of the iceberg in the blatant corruption that President Biden and the Biden Crime Family have lied about to the American people,” Comer said. “It’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability.”
Many Republicans criticized Biden for reversing his long-standing stance that he would not pardon his son.
“President Biden insisted many times he would never pardon his own son for his serious crimes,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, said on social media. “But last night he suddenly granted a ‘Full and Unconditional Pardon’ for any and all offenses that Hunter committed for more than a decade! Trust in our justice system has been almost irreparably damaged by the Bidens and their use and abuse of it.”
Selective Democrats object
Democrats in Congress have largely remained silent about the pardon, but some, including Ohio’s Greg Landsman and Arizona’s Greg Stanton, criticized the move.
“As a father, I get it,” Landsman wrote on social media. “But as someone who wants people to believe in public service again, it’s a setback.”
Stanton in a social media post wrote that while he respected Biden, “I think he got this one wrong.”
“This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution,” he said. “Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”
Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet wrote on social media that “President Biden’s decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all.”
Michigan U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, chair of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote on social media that the president’s decision to pardon his son was wrong.
“A president’s family and allies shouldn’t get special treatment,” Peters said. “This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.”
On CNN, Maryland U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey said that he had “mixed views” about the pardoning.
“I know that there was a real strong sentiment in, you know, wanting to protect Hunter Biden from unfair prosecution,” he said. “But this is going to be used against us when we’re fighting the misuses that are coming from the Trump administration.”
Trump pardons
Trump himself granted controversial pardons, including of Paul Manafort, a former campaign official who was convicted of tax and bank fraud amid alleged interference by Russia in the 2016 presidential election.
He also pardoned Roger Stone, who was convicted on charges of lying to Congress about his knowledge of Russian efforts to discredit former first lady and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race.
Trump also pardoned his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner, who was charged with tax evasion and retaliating against a federal witness, who was the elder Kushner’s brother-in-law. Trump on Saturday announced his intent to appoint Kushner as the next U.S. ambassador to France.
Oneida Nation General Manager Mark Powless. | Photo by Andrew Kennard
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
Oneida community members shared wrenching stories about loss and addiction during a community meeting last Thursday evening at the Oneida Nation’s Norbert Hill Center, near Green Bay, Wisconsin.
During the tribe’s community meal and discussion, one man said he was 16 when his brother died of an opioid overdose, and he has five nieces and nephews who don’t have a father.
The Oneida Nation estimates it will receive about $6.5 million in opioid settlement payments between 2020 and 2037, according to an informational packet provided at the meeting. The money is the result of lawsuits against companies involved in manufacturing and selling opioids in the United States. People who attended the meeting spoke passionately about how the tribe should use the funds.
Data from 2021 shows that Native Americans and Black people in Wisconsin were hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic. Native Americans died of opioid overdoses at close to three times the rate of white people, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Historical trauma, high levels of unemployment and poverty contribute to the vulnerability of Native Americans to addiction.. A total of 1,427 people died of opioid overdoses in Wisconsin in 2021.
“We did a little analysis of individuals that had overdosed in our community, and I want to say that more than 90% of the individuals that overdosed left children behind,” Oneida Nation General Manager Mark Powless told the Examiner.
Oneida data in a packet provided at the meeting showed 20 overdose deaths between October 2022 and September 2023. For each quarter of that year, between 380 and 516 active patients received substance abuse services.
Nationally, in 2022, non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native people died from drug overdoses at the highest rate of any racial or ethnic group.
Powless wasn’t surprised by the comments people made at the meeting, he said, but their testimony will contribute toward what the tribe is trying to do. He said he never gets used to hearing stories of losing a child, a parent or another family member to an overdose.
“There was a few times tonight where I had to quickly regain my composure because it’s just so difficult to hear some of the things that people say and share,” he said.
‘We want to prevent addiction, not simply treat addiction’
Powless told the Examiner about a concerning trend among children 5 years old and younger who are affected by drug abuse. He mentioned Head Start and Early Head Start programs, where staff are encountering families affected by substance abuse.
“Those areas are starting to encounter kids who are coming from homes where there’s either rampant substance use or a loss of a parent due to an overdose,” Powless said. “Or you have kids that were born addicted. So those kids are now entering into our programs and services, and that’s like a growing issue… We’re seeing more and more kids, and it’s more and more difficult to find spaces for them to get the services that they need.”
When you have conversations with the community about children who lost one or both parents to an overdose, you hear about those childrene experiencing challenges, including bullying, Powless said.
There’s an understanding that only focusing on treatment means never overcoming the addiction problem, Powless told the crowd at the meeting. For the opioid settlement funds, the tribe is proposing an emphasis on prevention. Prevention is often underfunded, he said.
Family-friendly events, programming in the school system and training about trauma and stigma are among ideas that could be funded by the settlement money. “We want to prevent addiction, not simply treat addiction,” Powless said.
At the meeting, the man whose brother died from an overdose was disappointed to see the tribe not proposing spending more settlement funds on harm reduction. The only harm reduction proposal outlined would spend $5,000 on harm reduction kits in tribal vehicles.
He expressed support for having Narcan, a medicine that can treat an opioid overdose, available in more areas in the community to prevent deaths.
The Oneida Nation’s proposals for the settlement funds aren’t its only plans to prevent overdoses. Narcan is distributed through the Tribal Action Plan and behavioral health services, Powless said.
“Yes, there is a need for vending machines, other ways to get even more [Narcan] out into the community,” Powless said. “But we haven’t talked about all of the work that is happening, and so some of that is missed in this conversation.”
How might the tribe use the funding?
The tribe has more ideas than it can pay for with the settlement funds and is continuing to add tothe list, Powless said at the meeting.
There is not yet a final plan for how most of the money will be used, but there is agreement on a few items, he said. These include funding for future community meetings and buying equipment for Oneida Nation High School students to develop anti-opioid multimedia content.
“The youth voice and youth participation in this conversation has been really low, so we do want to get our youth engaged in this topic,” Powless said.
One person at the meeting said that to her, providing transitional housing to people with nowhere to go should be a top priority. There are different models of transitional living the tribe might use to help people overcome substance abuse.
One model is called “Housing First,” and it welcomes people still struggling with substance abuse and can be tricky to manage, Powless said. The idea is to satisfy a person’s basic needs, then help with recovery, he said.
Powless isn’t sure if the tribe will go in that direction, but he said it will at the very least provide a safe and sober place to live for people coming out of treatment. This would aim to avoid scenarios where someone goes to treatment and then returns to an environment that may lead to relapse.
“It’s really those early days of recovery [when] people need a lot of support,” Powless said.
Some proposals are specific to Oneida culture. One idea Powless described involves people in recovery receiving training in the trades and then helping build a longhouse. Another idea involves hiring apprentices to learn the Great Law of Peace. One person does the majority if not all of the speaking for Oneida at Great Law recitals, Powless said, and the tribe doesn’t currently have people learning to replace him.
“The Great Law is one of the foundations for our culture,” Powless said, “one of the foundations for our community… We do need to pass on that information to other generations.”
State settlement money will help fight addiction
The Oneida Nation may receive more opioid settlement funding from the state of Wisconsin. This would provide additional funding for a tribe that has more ideas about how to address addiction in the community than it can fund with its settlement money.
The state received about $31 million in opioid settlement payments in the state fiscal year 2023. (Wisconsin’s fiscal years run from July 1 to June 30 of each calendar year). Wisconsin’s 11 federally recognized tribes received $6 million for prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery services for tribal members. The Oneida Nation received over half a million dollars.
Earlier this year, the Wisconsin Legislature’s Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee passed a plan for using the state fiscal year 2025 payments. The state again allocated $6 million to the tribes.
A Milwaukee police squad in front of the Municipal Court downtown. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
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
Wisconsin’s municipal courts issued more than 27,000 arrest warrants and writs of commitment against people who failed to pay local ticket fines between January 2023 and August 2024, according to a report from ACLU of Wisconsin.
The extensive use of these tools, which include jailing people for failing to pay fines or forcing them to appear at a court date in 173 of the state’s 219 municipal courts (reflecting the number of courts which responded to the ACLU’s open records requests for data) create a tiered local justice system, the report found. People who can afford a fine simply pay it and move on while those who can’t afford the fine must deal with the shockwaves a stint in jail can send through their lives.
In 2023, the report states, Wisconsin municipal courts collected more than $35 million in fines.
“Carceral sanctions for failure to pay municipal forfeitures create an unequal system of punishment: one for those with financial means and one for those without,” Dr. Emma Shakeshaft, the ACLU attorney who wrote the report, said in a statement. “People who are able to pay a municipal court ticket can address the citation without ever having to step in court or think about the ticket again. People who cannot pay the citation amount in full experience increased court and law enforcement involvement and a long series of harmful consequences that create barriers to well-being, employment, and community involvement.”
The report found that during the time period the ACLU assessed, Wisconsin municipal courts had more than 50,000 active warrants and commitments for people failing to pay fines. The data also showed the punitive actions were disproportionately used against people of color. In Milwaukee, which houses the state’s largest municipal court and employs three full-time judges, 71% of warrants and 49% of commitments issued between January 2023 and August 2024 were issued against Black residents.
Even a short time in jail can have huge consequences for a person’s life, the report states, causing people to miss work or to be unable to care for family members over something as trivial as a municipal fine.
“Monetary sanctions harm individuals and their families,” the report states. “Not only do these fines, fees, surcharges, and forfeitures have a more severe and disproportionate impact on those without access to financial resources, but they also cause harmful short- and long-term collateral consequences.”
Among the consequences of jail time for unpaid tickets are driver’s license suspensions, caregiving emergencies, loss of employment, loss of housing and detrimental health impacts, the report found. “Overall, this leads to less household resources, limited social mobility, and negative financial consequences.”
The report also notes that using incarceration as the “teeth” of enforcement against minor violations is more expensive in the long term because of the expense to law enforcement and local jail staff.
Municipalities have a number of other tools available to collect these debts under state law, including the ability to “intercept taxes, garnish wages and levy bank accounts via the state debt collection agency, use a private debt collection agency, issue a civil judgment, transfer unclaimed property, issue a driver’s license suspension, or issue an arrest warrant for incarceration.”
A number of recommendations for municipal courts are made in the report, including eliminating the use of commitments and warrants in these cases, appointing legal counsel to people during hearings, reviewing and removing old warrants that are still active in local systems and improving data collection.
South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn urges President Joe Biden to recommit sentences of federal death row inmates during a Wednesday press conference outside the U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — House Democrats and anti-death penalty advocates pressed Wednesday for President Joe Biden to save the lives of federal death row inmates before his term expires in January.
The push comes as President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House. The former president expedited 13 executions of people on federal death row in the last six months of his first term, which advocates said increased the urgency for Biden to spare prisoners now facing death sentences.
“I joined the abolition movement during the federal killing spree under the first Trump administration,” said Brandi Slaughter, a board member of the death penalty abolition group, Death Penalty Action. “We know what the next president plans to do if any prisoners are left under a sentence of death at the end of the Biden administration. We’ve been there.”
There are currently 40 people on federal death row, all men. There have been no federal executions under the Biden administration.
Outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, James Clyburn of South Carolina, Mary Scanlon of Pennsylvania and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota pressed for Biden to exercise his clemency authority before Trump comes into office on Jan. 20 next year.
“The mass incarceration crisis is one of our country’s greatest failures,” Pressley said. “It is a policy failure, and it is a moral failure. The shameful crisis that has ravaged our communities, destabilized our families and inflicted generational struggle for far too long.”
Pressley’s father was incarcerated during her early life.
“The system only offered him criminalization and incarceration for his substance use disorder, and as a child, I was forced to also carry that burden, that stigma, that shame,” she said.
Calls for clemency
Pressley said Democrats sent Biden a letter asking him to use his clemency, and proposed types of convicts who should be prioritized. The letter was signed by 64 House Democrats.
Pressley said examples of those deserving leniency included prisoners who are elderly, chronically ill, subjected to sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine and women who were “punished for defending themselves against their abusers or were coerced into criminal activity as part of an abusive relationship.”
“Those on death row who are at risk of barbaric and inhumane murder at the hands of the Trump administration can have their death sentence commuted and be resentenced to a prison term,” she said.
“We’re here today to ask him to take another step in that direction and to demonstrate, once again, a very positive consequence of his having been elected our 46th president, and to carry out his clemency powers in a very positive way,” Clyburn said.
Omar said that “clemency represents a critical opportunity to correct long-standing injustices, recognize human potential for redemption and acknowledge that our legal system has often been more punitive than restorative.”
In addition to advocating for death-row clemency, Scanlon said that Biden should consider pardoning people for simple marijuana possession and former LGBTQ service members who were convicted under military law because of their sexual orientation.
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