Someday, perhaps the State Capitol press corps will aggressively ask Tony Evers some questions. They have a lot more topics from which to choose after this week, thanks to the debacle that is the Milwaukee Public School district and now, the burgeoning scandal within his Department of Corrections.
Welcome to Thursday, for many of you the last day of the school year. Congratulations!
This is the biggest scandal in Wisconsin state government, perhaps ever? There have been misdeeds by lawmakers and lobbyists over the years, but here we are talking about homicide.
Let that sink in.
Wisconsin warden, 8 staff members charged after inmate deaths | Associated Press
Guards at Wisconsin’s oldest maximum-security prison failed to provide basic care for inmates who died on their watch, including one who died of dehydration and another who wasn’t found for at least 12 hours after he died of a stroke, authorities said Wednesday in announcing charges against the warden and eight members of his staff.
Waupun Correctional Institution’s warden, Randall Hepp, is charged with misconduct in public office. The other eight face charges of felony inmate abuse. Three of them are also charged with misconduct.
“We are operating the oldest prison in the state of Wisconsin in a dangerous and reckless manner,” Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt, who led the investigation, said at a news conference announcing the charges.
…Waupun had a 43% staff vacancy rate at the end of May, according to agency data.
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Evers said Wednesday in reaction to the charges being filed that everyone who failed to do their job will be held accountable.
Republican legislators renewed their calls Wednesday for Evers to close the prison in Waupun as well as another maximum-security prison in Green Bay. Both prisons were built in the 1800s.
“Tony Evers can’t keep his head in the sand anymore,” said state Sen. Van Wanggaard, chairperson of the Senate committee that oversees state prisons.
Governor Evers, who resisted all efforts to build new or modernize current prison facilities to improve prisoner and staff safety, and who kept Kevin Carr in charge of the DOC until last week, should be feeling the heat, if reporters in Madison haven’t taken the entire Summer off. The Dodge County Sheriff did not personalize matters, but he was extremely critical of the Department’s actions and inactions.
Investigating Sheriff blasts Governor Evers’ Department of Corrections for unsafe conditions and actions at Waupun | Dairyland Sentinel
Schmidt said that the DOC operated the oldest prison in the state in a dangerous and reckless manner.
There was a failure to properly staff– the facility operated at staff levels of less than 50%.
There was a failure to properly update the facilities to be safe for inmates.
The DOC failed to properly update or replace housing units.
There was is a failure to train staff and reinforce that training.
The DOC failed to hold staff accountable.
Overall, the Department failed to keep inmates in the institution, safe and alive and failed to provide a safe and efficient facility for the staff.
There was a failure to ensure compliance with policy, regulations and rules, and there was a failure to document when rounds were made with water was shut off the inmates and when medicine was and was not administered properly.
Evers’ Corrections Secretary Kevin Carr resigned just three days after Schmidt briefed him on the findings of the investigation. Schmidt said Carr was agitated when the details of the investigation were shared with him, however Carr took no responsibility and instead blamed Warden Hepp for all the issues at the prison.
Evers, who has been opposed to building new or redesigning old prisons to improve staff and inmate safety, merely issued a brief statement in response to the arrests.
Meanwhile, while it certainly wasn’t their intent, the Board of Milwaukee Public Schools and the district staff showed the world that the dysfunction at the state’s largest school district didn’t begin nor end with disgraced former Superintendent Keith Posley.
MPS board leaders keep avoiding questions; another director says board needs more guidance | CBS 58
Leaders for the Milwaukee Board of School Directors answered questions Wednesday for the first time since their vote to let former Superintendent Keith Posley resign. Kind of.
While the board offered a brief update about Milwaukee Public Schools’ (MPS) effort to get long overdue financial reports to the state, a district spokeswoman cut off the press conference after only two questions.
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The board leaders also confirmed Comptroller Alfredo Balmaseda was no longer with the district. However, Chief Financial Officer Martha Kreitzman remains with the district, according to multiple MPS sources.
However, the board did not take other questions, such as why directors allowed Posley to resign instead of firing him for cause amid a fiscal calamity he oversaw, or whether the board should’ve seen warning signs sooner given the questions outside audits had previously raised.
Employment lawyer Ben Hitchcock Cross said Posley’s settlement, which includes $160,000 in severance pay and a $38,500 contribution toward his retirement fund, was likely seen as risk management by a district hoping to avoid litigation.
…Hitchcock Cross is representing a total of six current and former MPS employees who have filed state or federal complaints against the district. He said past financial data he’s reviewed as part of those cases should’ve prompted the board to be more skeptical of Posley and his inner circle of administrators.
…Hitchcock Cross said the most troubling evidence he’s seen to date was a January deposition of Herndon. He asked the board president whether she’d read the 2023-24 district budget.
“That is correct,” Herndon said when Hitchcock Cross asked if it’s true she hadn’t read the massive document. “I don’t remember reading it, but I see a lot of them.”
While Evers, Wisconsin’s current governor, has said little and done nothing about the mess at MPS, Tommy Thompson, the state’s longest serving governor, wants to take a proactive approach to not only resolving the current scandal, but fixing MPS to help future generations of Milwaukee’s students.
Thompson: MPS needs to be split up or taken over | The Center Square
Wisconsin’s former governor says Milwaukee Public Schools must be “saved” for the students.
Former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson told a crowd at the Milwaukee Press Club on Wednesday that there is a clear emergency in Milwaukee schools, and he said he’s “damn serious” about solving it.
“The fact is that the Milwaukee Public School System is too big, it’s too bureaucratic, [there are] too many rolls of bureaucracy,” Thompson said…
What we’re doing is, we’re failing,” Thompson added. “We’re failing the students who go to Milwaukee Public Schools. We’ve been failing those students for 30-to-40 years. And now is the time to change. We have an emergency, so let’s do something about it.”
Thompson said he wants a “90-day blue ribbon panel” to look at either splitting MPS into four districts or seeing if Milwaukee’s mayor and Milwaukee County’s executive want to take over the city’s school system.
“The worst thing we could do is to take a year to study MPS,” Thompson said.
Thompson is the latest to call for sweeping changes at Milwaukee Public Schools after the superintendent resigned Tuesday.
That resignation came after revelations that Milwaukee Public Schools are months- ate in delivering state-required financial reports that were due as far back as September of last year.
Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction has threatened to withhold millions of dollars in state aid from MPS unless and until those reports are turned in and are correct.
Thompson said there is an emergency in MPS, and leaders in Wisconsin must use that emergency to make some changes.
“We know the problems, let’s come up with solutions,” Thompson said “Let’s bring in the Milwaukee business community, they have a huge stake here. Let’s bring in the parents, because they have a huge steak. It’s their sons and daughters that we’re failing and not giving them the education they need to go out and be giving them the hope for a better future.”
Thompson also said he’d like to see Milwaukee’s teachers’ union and Republican lawmakers involved in the discussions about MPS’ future.
He pointed to last year’s compromise on shared revenue as the model to get Democrats, Republicans, Milwaukee leaders, statewide leaders, and even the state’s business leaders
“Let’s use this leadership now. Let’s use this problem area, right now, and [make] the Milwaukee Public School District the best they can possibly be, and give those children, and Milwaukee Public Schools the hope, the chance that they all need and deserve,” Thompson said.
Meanwhile, the reporters in Madison appear content to just publish another cute feature of Tony Evers’ penchant for pickleball.
Let’s end today’s Key Reads with some uplifting news…
Special Olympics Wisconsin opens at UW-Whitewater Thursday | Janesville Gazette
The top Special Olympians in Wisconsin are going to go head-to-head in a series of competitions in the state’s annual Summer Games this week in Whitewater, the second straight year the city has hosted the event.
The 2024 games start Thursday. The Torch Run will go throughout the state on Thursday, and the final leg is from 5-6:30 p.m. at Cravath Lakefront Park, 341 S. Fremont St. The Parade of Athletes is from 6:30-8 p.m. at Perkins Stadium, 910 W. Schwager Dr.
Five sports seasons will culminate at the Summer Games, including track and field, cornhole, powerlifting, tennis and soccer…
One of those Janesville athletes, Donovan Keller, will compete in powerlifting and cornhole.
When it comes to lifting, Keller said he can lift at least 200 pounds. It’s the first time he’s doing the event, but he wanted to try it out.
“I was supposed to be in gymnastics but that sport was canceled and that bummed out because I wanted to try it out,” Keller said.
Keller has been a part of Special Olympics for three years. He started competing in cornhole right away. This will be his third time competing at the state level.
“It’s like meeting new friends and getting to know each other. I get to do my communicating. It’s a pleasure and privilege. I like to learn new things,” Keller said.
He said it’s not about winning at the Summer Games. It’s about having fun.
“It’s supposed to be fun for all and I like the atmosphere there. I like when I get to play with other people. The coaches are very nice. They teach me very well and that’s why I’m here,” Keller said, adding that the games are also about learning responsibility and getting to know new friends.
Work hard toward a goal. Have fun while pursuing it. Learn something about responsibility and make friends along the way…
So, basically, the opposite of modern politics.
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We’ll be back to close out the week tomorrow.
