Protesters rally against 6 in-custody deaths in the past 14 months at Milwaukee County jail
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- On Friday, Aug. 25, dozens of people picketed outside the Milwaukee County safety building, demanding Sheriff Denita Ball take action to end in-custody deaths at the jail.
The deaths of six people have been classified as deaths-in-custody in the past 14 months.
Among the protesters was the mother of Brieon Green, who died last June while in custody. She said her family is still not getting answers, and they want to spare other families from experiencing similar grief.
At the same time, the sheriff and a county supervisor are publicly battling over how to prevent further deaths from happening.
LaQuita Dunlap is the mother of Brieon Green. At the protest, she said, "Our loved ones, our kids, are here and supposed to be protected by law officials."
But Dunlap said her son was not protected last June, when he died by suicide shortly after being taken into custody. "I'm still grieving," she said. "It's still hard to grieve because why? 28 minutes. You had him in custody for 28 minutes and he was dead."
Dunlap was one of many people picketing outside Sheriff Ball's office Friday, calling for accountability.
Green was the first of six people to die in custody in the past 14 months.
In December, 20-year-old Cilivea Thyrion also died by suicide, even though she was supposed to have gotten extra monitoring for threatening to harm herself.
Protest organizers read a statement from Thyrion's mother, that said, "This is not just about my child, it is about everyone who walks through those doors and is placed in their care."
Four others have died since then. The most recent was an as-yet unidentified man who died in mid-August.
- June 2022: 21-year-old Brieon Green, apparent suicide
- Dec 2022: 20-year-old Cilivea Thyrion, apparent suicide
- Jan 2023: 49-year-old Octaviano Juarez-Corro, found dead in cell
- March 2023: 37-year-old Terrance Mack, discovered unresponsive in cell
- June 2023: 68-year-old Mohammed Afzal, "had been diagnosed with a terminal illness"
- Aug 2023: 58-year-old man, "hospitalized… after experiencing heightened symptoms that appeared to be related to his chronic conditions"
This spring, the Milwaukee County Board ordered the Sheriff's Office to produce an in-depth report on how they provide mental health treatment to at-risk inmates.
The 47-page report said, "MCSO will likely be requesting additional funding," but grassroots groups objected to those calls.
Alan Chavoya, with the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, said at the protest, "Regardless of how big of a staff you have, how large, if you're not managing the institution well, it's going to fail."
County Supervisor Ryan Clancy blasted the entire report as an "inadequate response". On Friday he told us, "This is not somebody being petty, this is not us wanting to micromanage, this is us wanting to have fewer people die in our custody."
Earlier this week Sheriff Ball hit back at Clancy, saying, "Clancy does not intend to engage with this report in good faith."
In her own statement she wrote: "Instead of debating with a supervisor who feels that the tireless work of our dedicated Law Enforcement and Correctional personnel, has no “dignity or value,” we will continue working with our partners across our community to ensure safety in the jail and promote peace and security in our neighborhoods."
But Clancy said it's simple, that "It's possible to run a county institution where you don't have people dying in custody regularly."
A public hearing is set for September 11th at 1:30.
We reached out to Sheriff Ball's office for an interview but were told she was unavailable.