MILWAUKEE COUNTY

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.'s refusal to speak about dehydration death angers Milwaukee leaders

Jacob Carpenter

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr. is being considered for appointment as assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Partnership and Engagement.

In the year since staff at Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.’s jail deprived a mentally ill inmate of water for seven days, leading to his death by dehydration, Clarke has been virtually silent on the matter.

He hasn’t said whether anybody has been disciplined.

He hasn’t said whether any policies have been changed.

He hasn’t said whether his staff committed any errors.

Clarke has, however, pretended he couldn’t remember the inmate’s name — it’s Terrill Thomas — and grumbled about the lack of attention paid to Thomas’ alleged crimes.

“I have nearly 1,000 inmates. I don’t know all their names, but is this the guy who was in custody for shooting up the Potawatomi casino, causing one man to be hit by gunfire…,” Clarke said in a statement last month to Fox 6. “The media never reports that in stories about him. If that is him, then at least I know who you are talking about.”

Those kinds of statements, coupled with Clarke’s refusal to address Thomas’ death, have left some local leaders fuming about the firebrand sheriff. They say Clarke has been insensitive and indifferent to Thomas’ mental illness, while providing the public with no information about his administration’s response to the death.

That frustration intensified last week, as troubling details of Thomas’ treatment in jail came out for the first time at an inquest into the death.

Testimony given at the inquest has left no doubt that inexcusable failures by numerous corrections officers and mid-level jail administrators contributed to Thomas’ death. Jail staff turned off Thomas' water and forgot to turn it back on; failed to document the water shutoff, leaving subsequent shifts in the dark; never took Thomas out of his solitary confinement cell for his mandatory one hour of recreation time; and deprived him of a mattress for at least part of his incarceration.

Terrill Thomas (left) is shown with his 20-year-old son, also named Terrill, at his son's high school graduation in 2014.

The jail’s second-in-command called Thomas’ death “absolutely” preventable, and an expert in corrections administration described Thomas’ treatment in custody as “unconscionable” and “inhumane.”

“(Clarke's) statements show callousness toward people with mental illness and people with disabilities, and that message just gets transferred down to his staff,” said Shirin Cabraal, supervising attorney for Disability Rights Wisconsin.

Clarke, who is under consideration for an assistant secretary job with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has shown no willingness to address the findings publicly. In response to an interview request for this article, Clarke replied via email: “Are you that stupid? Why would I say anything during the inquest?”

Changes revealed

The inquest, however, has shed some light on Clarke’s response to date.

The legal proceeding has revealed the names of jail employees most responsible for Thomas’ well-being during his weeklong stint at the Milwaukee County Jail. According to county records reviewed by the Journal Sentinel, none of those employees has been fired, demoted or suspended more than 10 days. That includes:

Kashka Meadors, the lieutenant accused of ordering Thomas’ water preemptively shut off — a violation of jail policy — after Thomas flooded a previous cell.
James Ramsey-Guy, the corrections officer accused of carrying out Meadors' order and failing to document it, leaving other staffers in the dark.
The corrections officers who saw Thomas unresponsive, naked and splayed out in his mattress-less cell hours before his death.
Nancy Evans, the former jail commander accused of deceiving Milwaukee Police Department detectives by failing to disclose information about vital surveillance video showing Thomas’ cell.

The available records do not show whether employees have been placed on administrative leave or transferred to other units within the Sheriff’s Office.

Testimony at the inquest did reveal some procedural changes instituted by the Sheriff’s Office since Thomas’ death.

Several corrections officers said they no longer have the authority to turn off an inmate’s water. The keys to closets containing water valves have been taken away from front-line staff and given to supervisors for safekeeping. And psychiatric social workers are now consulted more regularly before inmates are sent to solitary confinement, a corrections lieutenant said.

Obligation to respond?

Investigators initially believed Thomas died of natural causes in April 2016, but they conducted a more thorough investigation in late June or early July. That's when the Journal Sentinel reported inmates believed Thomas died of dehydration and the medical examiner’s office came to suspect the cause as well.

In the following months, three more people died at the Milwaukee County Jail, though no investigating agency has said whether the actions or inaction of jail staff contributed to those deaths.

Clarke’s refusal to address his agency’s response to Thomas’ death — as well as three other deaths at the Milwaukee County Jail last year — garnered split reactions from local leaders.

State Rep. David Bowen (D-Milwaukee) called Clarke’s public response “absolutely inadequate” in light of testimony at the inquest.

“It’s just alarming that he doesn’t want to provide the answers of why his leadership is failing,” Bowen said. “He basically blamed the deaths on the victims. He doesn’t feel like he should be responsible for people who have failing health.”

State Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) said Thomas’ death is “a very troubling situation,” but noted she understands why Clarke has been tight-lipped given the ongoing legal proceedings.

“I’m sure we’re going to find out all the details and I’m sure Sheriff Clarke will come out with changes in the way things operate based on what happened,” Darling said. “I think it’s not a good idea to jump to conclusions.”

For his part, Republican Gov. Scott Walker said he’s too unfamiliar with details of Thomas’ death to analyze Clarke’s job performance. Walker said he has no intention of heeding calls for Clarke’s removal from office.

“It’s really the role of the electorate to make those determinations,” Walker said.

Clarke has brushed off criticisms of his jail administration as politically motivated. He runs as a Democrat, but he aligns himself with conservatives and campaigned with President Donald Trump.

Transparency warranted?

It’s possible that Clarke could still hold employees to account and hand down discipline.

Some police administrators choose to wait until criminal proceedings against staffers have finished before starting internal affairs investigations, so as not to interfere with any legal matters. Given the egregious and clear nature of policy violations by staffers, it’s possible Clarke has taken this approach, rather than excusing his employees’ actions.

“You’d like everything to be transparent on this, but I’m not sure it could happen in a whole lot different way,” said Pete Koneazny, litigation director for the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee. Koneazny has represented inmates in a long-running lawsuit against Milwaukee County over inmate medical care.

But Matthew Barge, co-executive director of the New York City-based Police Assessment Resource Center, which consults with departments on accountability procedures, said law enforcement agencies across the country regularly coordinate parallel criminal and internal investigations without causing improper interference.

“It’s a bunch of bureaucrats washing their hands of responsibility. It’s passing the buck,” said Barge, who was not familiar with details of Thomas’ case or Clarke’s response.

Ultimately, mental health advocates hope Clarke changes his own attitude toward inmates and establishes a culture more sensitive to mental illness.

Over the past several years, Clarke has refused to participate in county initiatives aimed at reducing incarceration, calling those advocates “soft on crime.” He has also given no indication that he embraces the growing movement toward more intensive mental health treatment for inmates.

“I’m not sure if his statements are something that affected the behavior (in Thomas’ case),” Koneazny said, “but it certainly reflects a lack of appropriate understanding and response and leadership on mental health issues.”