Milwaukee, WI: Sheriff Ball holds long awaited town hall meeting
Milwaukee, WI – When Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball was asked why she chose to hold a town hall meeting for community members during first shift work hours, she chose to hammer home the point that community members were lucky there was a town hall happening at all. “Know that I am not obligated to have a town hall,” stated Sheriff Ball.
Ball has been responsible for the Milwaukee County Jail since fall 2022, and the sheriff assumed her position during the midst of a 14-month period in which six people died in the Jail. After years of organizing, the Milwaukee community successfully won a third party audit of the County Jail and a town hall with Sheriff Ball, but many left feeling that the Sheriff remains unresponsive to community demands.
After the deaths of Brieon Green and Cilivea Thyrion in the jail, many community members began demanding increased transparency about the conditions that led to their deaths and the circumstances of their deaths.
In February, the Milwaukee County supervisors passed a resolution requesting that footage of deaths related to the Sheriff’s Department be released to families within 48 hours and the public in 15 days. The sheriff has refused to comply because she says it would compromise the integrity of investigations. When Brian Verdin, a veteran organizer with the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, brought up that the previous Sheriff Clarke had released footage without a problem, she dismissed this outright. Despite the success of a similar policy at the city level, the sheriff remained adamant that she would not be open to providing more transparency to the people of Milwaukee.
Milwaukeeans also posed questions to the sheriff about measures to increase accountability. Many were concerned about the sheriff’s office practice of hiring officers on the Brady list. These are officers with known credibility and conduct issues. Sheriff Ball responded that her office does not investigate why officers were placed on the list. The sheriff also dodged questions about who is monitoring the overcrowding of the jail and plans to reduce overcrowding in the jail.
The jail has been under a years-long consent decree from the Department of Justice to address health services and overcrowding, but overcrowding remains a significant problem. The only response that the sheriff had to questions about accountability and oversight was to announce a new Sheriff Community Advisory Board. However, Ball could not provide any specific powers this board would have to make policy, budget, or personnel changes. Without these powers, the advisory board would struggle to provide the kind of accountability the community has been demanding.
While the March town hall may have been disappointing, the community members in attendance did not seem beaten down. Community organizations like Prison Action Milwaukee, Milwaukee Turners, and the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression were present for the town hall, and remain committed to winning transparency and accountability for Milwaukeeans.
The sheriff did commit to holding another town hall after work hours for first shift workers but cautioned that it would not be anytime soon. Combined with the announcement of the advisory board, it does appear Sheriff Ball feels the pressure and the need to offer more accountability and transparency to her constituents. No doubt, community organizations will continue to fight to make these a reality.