Milwaukee gets a new director of Office of Community Wellness and Safety

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee's Office of Community Wellness and Safety tries to stop violence before it starts. As of Monday, Aug. 18, that city group has a new director. Adam Procell is a brand-new candidate, and someone who spent decades in prison himself.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson says Procell has "an incredible life story" that will "suit him well" to lead the city in violence prevention, as a convicted felon who turned his life around.

"My name is Adam Procell, and three days after I turned 15 years old, I made the worst decision a human could make, and that decision cost Robert his life." That's how Adam Procell, the new director of Milwaukee's Office of Community Wellness and Safety introduced himself, telling us about what he calls "the worst moment" as a human being. 

At just 15 years old, Procell was sentenced to life in prison for a gang-related homicide. He got out just before 25 years and began working in Milwaukee as a community outreach specialist and director for Partners in Hope, later co-founding Paradigm Shyft, focusing on re-integration for prisoners. He also wrote Wisconsin Act 233, which requires the creation of a community reentry center. 

"Somebody who made a terrible decision, or had a terrible thing that happened, that they committed, that served their debt to society and then turned around and is working to improve the community. Is working to give back. That's the sort of person whose lived experience, I think, brings a lot of value to a position like this, and that's exactly what Adam brings to this, to this opportunity," shared Mayor Johnson.

In a year where homicides are up 13% from last year and violence is top of mind, Procell says he's going to work to stop violence. He said he'll find solutions and support the police department by giving them more resources and ensuring they're culturally competent. Finally, he said he's looking at this from the point of triage: "I learned that to stop the bleeding, you have to apply heavy pressure on the wound, and I don't know if the community is ready for the pressure that I'm going to apply. And I told the mayor, I said, 'if the pressure I apply is too uncomfortable, no hard feelings, you can fire me, but I'm going to work every single day.'"

Procell told media at the announcement that, "I'm not going to tout any crime metrics that I am going to hit, because at the end of the day, crime can't be defined," repeating again later what success looks like for him in three to five years. "I don't think we can define what that looks like. The easiest metric that people use, that I feel is flawed, is, did somebody go back to prison and victimize somebody else? I don't think that takes into account, is somebody thriving? And I know that it's not quantifiable to understand is somebody thriving, and it's easy to say there's X amount of homicides, there's X amount of non-fatal shootings. I don't view any of those, even if they are reduced, as success. And so, I'm probably my biggest self-critic, so I don't know that I can ever define anything that I'm doing as success."

As a late applicant, Procell was not one of the three candidates Milwaukeeans got to know at a community forum just last month. Mayor Johnson, in response to a question about why Procell was picked instead of one of the applicants we had met, said, "I'm asking people to trust my judgment, I'm asking people to trust in Adam and the work that he will do in delivering for this community." The mayor described him as strategic, collaborative, innovative, and recommended by many people.

Milwaukee Fire Department Chief Aaron Lipski also spoke about his relationship with Procell, saying, "This is what we need to be aiming at, this -- this fixation we have on forever punishment for people who've committed crimes. He's done his time. He has completely one-eightied and turned his life around better to help others chart that course out of that lifestyle, than somebody who has so successfully done that and has already dedicated his life to this mission." He added that as first responders, they're the ones that go out to crime scenes and try to resuscitate victims of violent crime, and he's optimistic Procell can change what he calls a "record-breaking year."

Procell will host a forum for the community to get to know him better.  A date for that has not been set yet, nor does Procell have a start date. 

We'll keep you updated on air and online as soon as we learn more.