Another Milwaukee County Jail inmate is facing felony charges after allegedly using a taxpayer-supported jail communications system to threaten and intimidate a woman he was already accused of violently assaulting, marking the latest in a series of incidents involving jail-issued communication devices approved by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.
According to WISN 12 News, 22-year-old Kahnye Ali-Powells, who was already in custody on allegations of strangling a woman and pointing a gun at her, is now facing additional felony charges after prosecutors say he repeatedly contacted the same victim from behind bars despite a court-issued no-contact order.
Court documents allege that Ali-Powells sent the woman 164 messages using his jail-issued tablet between July 28 and September 27, including messages pressuring her to help secure his release and threatening violence.
In one message, Ali-Powells allegedly told the victim, “I need you to help me get out so please do that for me.” In another, he reportedly wrote, “kill yo self so I can kill us.”
The allegations follow an earlier incident in February, when prosecutors say Ali-Powells called the same woman 15 times during a 72-hour no-contact order, with nine of those calls answered. During those conversations, he allegedly questioned whether she was pressing charges against him.
On October 1, prosecutors filed another felony intimidation charge against Ali-Powells. A judge subsequently agreed to revoke his communication privileges on October 2.
The latest case comes amid growing scrutiny of Milwaukee County’s inmate communications program, which Crowley approved through a contract in 2022 and subsequently extended for another three years in 2025. Crowley has defended the program as consistent with “best practices” despite multiple high-profile instances of the tablets being uses to intimidate victims.
Just last month, another Milwaukee County inmate, Damian Luis Cosme-Torres, was accused of contacting a domestic violence victim more than 2,400 times through jail communications, including phone calls and tablet messages, while attempting to pressure her into changing her statements to prosecutors.
Earlier this year, Amier Jones Jr. was accused of attempting to contact a victim more than 1,500 times despite a no-contact order. Prosecutors alleged that Jones repeatedly tried to pressure the woman into recanting her statements, using the jail’s communications systems to reach her while in custody.
In another case, Thomas Zollicoffer, a defendant charged in a triple homicide, allegedly used his jail-issued tablet to send intimidating messages to a witness in his murder case.
That incident prompted Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Borowski to publicly question why defendants accused of serious violent crimes were being given access to electronic communications devices in the first place.
The controversy has also raised questions about the cost of Milwaukee County’s inmate communications program.
A previous Heartland Post investigation found that Milwaukee County taxpayers are spending more than $1 million annually on inmate phone minutes and video calls, even as county officials have maintained that the tablets themselves are funded through fees paid by inmates and their families.
The distinction is significant because the tablet messaging system and the jail’s phone and video calling services operate separately, but are part of the broader inmate communications arrangement.
The repeated allegations have also become an issue in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race, where Republican candidate Tom Tiffany has criticized Crowley’s handling of the program and called for restrictions on electronic communications access for inmates accused of violent crimes.
In September, Tiffany released a television advertisement highlighting previous incidents involving inmates accused of threatening victims and witnesses through Milwaukee County’s jail communications systems. The advertisement questioned Crowley’s response to the controversy and called attention to the experiences of victims who allegedly continued receiving threatening communications even after their accused attackers were incarcerated.
Tiffany has proposed prohibiting violent criminals, murderers, and sex offenders from accessing the devices, while Crowley’s administration has defended the existing program and its rehabilitative purposes.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office has said the tablets operate on a restricted network, do not provide general internet access, and include monitoring measures intended to identify inappropriate communications.
However, the latest allegations involving Ali-Powells raise renewed questions about how effectively those safeguards prevent contact with victims who are already protected by court orders, and why restrictions have repeatedly been imposed only after alleged violations have occurred.
With another Milwaukee County inmate now facing felony intimidation charges, the controversy surrounding the county’s jail communications program continues, along with questions about whether additional restrictions or changes to its implementation are warranted.
