Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley late Friday ordered the Community Reintegration Center to immediately suspend tablet messaging and called on Sheriff Denita Ball to do the same at the Milwaukee County Jail, reversing months of public defense of a program his office had described as best practice as recently as 10 days ago.
Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, directed the CRC (the former House of Correction, which he oversees) to shut off messaging features until additional safeguards are in place to stop victim harassment and witness intimidation. The jail is run by the independently elected sheriff, so Crowley can only request the same step there.
“I will not tolerate victim harassment or witness intimidation,” Crowley said in a statement released by his office. “That is why I am ordering the CRC and calling on the Sheriff’s Office to disable this feature until we are confident strong safeguards are in place to prevent misuse and protect victims.”
He added that communication technology can play a role in rehabilitation but should not come at the expense of victims’ safety. County officials said they will keep working with vendor ICSolutions on stricter rules before messaging is restored at the CRC. Phone calls, video visitation and in-person visits remain available.
The order lands after a string of cases in which people in county custody used the devices to contact victims and witnesses.
Thomas Zollicoffer, charged with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the Aug. 8 killings of Vanessa DeHerrera, Scott Bucholz and Shamarla Hare, used a jail tablet to tell an associate to tell a witness to “stop lying,” prosecutors said. In a follow-up message cited in court, he wrote, “Mark my words I’ll be out even if it’s for as short time, they will pay for setting everything in motion.”
At an Aug. 28 hearing, Circuit Judge David Borowski revoked his communication privileges except with counsel and asked why the sheriff’s office was “giving laptops and iPads to defendants that are charged in homicides, or any defendant.” Borowski also said he had seen an earlier case in which an inmate used a government-issued device to reach trial witnesses and allegedly access child pornography.
Amier H. Jones Jr., held on domestic-violence and related charges, sent tablet messages that prosecutors said included a threat putting a Milwaukee police detective “already on my hit list,” and wrote that he would kill whoever suspended his account. Prosecutors told the court he had made more than 1,500 attempted contacts with the victim after his January arrest. A judge initially declined to cut off his tablet access; the sheriff’s office later limited him to attorney contact.
Damian Luis Cosme-Torres, already jailed on strangulation and battery charges, was charged with felony intimidation after prosecutors said he made 2,439 calls to the alleged victim and sent tablet messages that included, “IF I GET OUT I SWEAR TO GET MY REVENGE, A LIFE FOR A LIFE.” Most of the contacts originated at the CRC, and records indicated he used other inmates’ PIN numbers.
Kahnye Ali-Powells, accused of strangling a woman and pointing a gun at her, was charged Oct. 1 with felony intimidation after police found 164 tablet messages to her between July 28 and Sept. 27. A complaint quotes an Aug. 29 message: “if you do anything that’s not going to help me come home I don’t have nothing to live for.” A judge revoked his tablet privileges on Oct. 2.
In an exclusive report last week, The Heartland Post found that budgets signed by Crowley have shifted the cost of inmate communications onto taxpayers. The 2024 adopted sheriff’s budget cut phone revenue entirely “to offer free phone calls to inmates within the County Jail,” raising tax-levy spending by $975,000 a year to provide 390 free phone minutes and 60 free video-visitation minutes per person each month. The 2025 budget added $100,000 a year to reimburse an ICSolutions position supporting the system.
Together, those lines put the annual public cost above $1 million, not counting a separate CRC mail-scanning amendment estimated at about $71,280 a year. The Heartland Post reported that Crowley signed the underlying ICSolutions contract in 2022 and a three-year extension running through March 2028.
The suspension, and its late Friday announcement, is a tacit admission that the issue has badly hurt Crowley in his run for governor. Republican nominee Tom Tiffany has run ads using Borowski’s remarks and pointed out to voters that Crowley personally approved tablets for inmates and then refused to change course.
As recently as late September Crowley had called the tablets “best practice” and declined to say whether he would alter the program. Thursday’s order disables messaging only, leaves the contract in place, and leaves jail policy in the sheriff’s hands; a far narrower step than the full elimination of the program that Tiffany has demanded.
