20-year-old woman dies by apparent suicide at the Milwaukee County Jail

A 20-year-old woman died from an apparent suicide at the Milwaukee County Jail on Friday morning.

At approximately 10:30 a.m., jail personnel found the woman "conscious but in distress in her cell." Shortly after, medical personnel and emergency services were called to treat the woman, who was later pronounced dead just before 11:15 a.m., according to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman had been in custody since February on a felony charge of strangulation and suffocation and a misdemeanor charge of battery, authorities said.

On Dec. 12, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office public dashboard reported a 20-year-old Native American female reported as dead at 11:14 a.m. on Friday.

As the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office cannot legally investigate itself, the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department is carrying out the investigation into the death. Milwaukee County referred questions to Waukesha County.

Lt. Nicholas Wenzel, a spokesman for the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department, said that they are still investigating the incident and they have nothing to share at this time.

"To continue to express condolences without changing policies addressing conditions in the jail or holding the Sheriff's Department accountable in a way which keeps families in the future from going through a similar horror is unconscionable," said Milwaukee County Board Supervisor Ryan Clancy, who chairs the Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services committee. "Milwaukee County failed to prevent the death of yet another person whose care was entrusted to us."

This comes a little less than six months after the death of 21-year-old Brieon Green, who died by suicide at the County Jail four hours after his arrest at Bradford Beach.

Green's family who have been begging for answers were finally able to have a private meeting with the Milwaukee County district attorney's office on Dec. 2. During a news conference shortly after the meeting, the family shared that they had reviewed surveillance footage as well as officer witness statements.

The family's attorney B'Ivory LaMarr shared that 28 minutes after Green was booked into the jail he committed suicide by strangling himself with a phone cord, despite a jail officer walking past the cell as Green was taking his life.

"This is a completely traumatic situation — it's deeply disturbing. I can't believe my eyes," LaMarr said at the news conference in front of the jail. "I cannot believe there was gross negligence with the complete indifference to a human life that took place at the facility on June 26."

The county was the site of 18 law enforcement-custody deaths between 2008 through 2012, including at the County Jail. Those deaths were ultimately classified as suicide or natural.

In 2016, Terrill Thomas, who was being held at the jail after having had a psychotic episode, according to his family, was placed in a segregation unit where guards shut off his water.

Thomas died of dehydration six days later. Several guards were criminally charged in the case.

Most recently, between January 2020 and April 2021, the jail reported four in-custody deaths. Three of those cases were investigated as suicides. The cause of the death for the fourth individual was determined as acute heart failure, according to reports from the medical examiner's office. Three guards involved in two of those incidents were ultimately fired or resigned.

The jail has been facing major staffing shortages, which has sounded alarms once again, particularly about the jail's conditions and its treatment of individuals awaiting trial.

During a July 15 county committee meeting, Clancy called on the sheriff's office for a response to his request for more information about suicide prevention and conditions at the jail.

Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball, who was chief deputy at the time and represented Lucas and the office during the meeting, declined to comment at that time, citing possible pending litigation.

In a previous statement to the Journal Sentinel in August, Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson wrote that she had asked Supervisor Felesia Martin, chair of the Audit Committee, to take the lead on legislation that would review the procedures and best practices for taking care of people in the jail, including preventing suicides. Robert Hullum, a spokesman for the County Board, could not confirm with the Journal Sentinel if movement had been made on this request.

Recently, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office shared a report in closed session with the Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services Committee on the county's external investigation policy for deaths that occur involving the use of force, assaults, or unexplained or unusual circumstances at the Milwaukee County Jail and the House of Correction, and for an update on in-custody deaths.

Contact Vanessa Swales at 414-308-5881 or vswales@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Vanessa_Swales.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 20-year-old woman dies by apparent suicide at Milwaukee County Jail