MKE County: State Gives Milwaukee Millions for Court Security, Forensic Science Center

Three priorities for leaders of Milwaukee County’s criminal justice system are receiving additional funding from the State of Wisconsin.

The Circuit Court system is getting funding for security walls ($2 million), the Milwaukee County Sheriff‘s Office (MCSO) is getting funding for court bailiff overtime ($300,000) and the county received funding for the New Forensic Science Center ($3.95 million), which will become the new home of the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner‘s Office and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM).

The state is making the grants using funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a pandemic-era stimulus bill. The new grants essentially serve as an extension of $16 million in ARPA funding the state provided the county in 2022 and were added to the existing awards in December. The federal deadline to allocate unspent ARPA funding was Dec. 31, 2024.

Governor Tony Evers provided the funding in 2022 to help the county clear a backlog of cases clogging the local justice system. The new funding will go toward initiatives local leaders have previously advocated for.

In the courts, $2 million will be used to install security walls in the remaining criminal courtrooms that lack them, in all the family courts and in 11 civil courts that currently lack them. The walls, typically made of plexiglass, separate the public from court officers and defendants.

Since assuming his role, Chief Judge Carl Ashley has repeatedly advocated for better security infrastructure in the courtrooms. He has been a strong supporter of developing a new criminal courthouse, telling supervisors in Sept. 2024, “We put our jurors, we put the public, we put our staff at risk because of the way things are built now.”

He has also successfully pushed for funding to remodel the county’s family courtrooms at the Vel R. Phillips Juvenile Justice Center, 10201 W Watertown Plank Rd.

The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office will receive $300,000 to backfill the overtime costs in the circuit court system as well. The sheriff’s office regularly exceeds its overtime budget, as it has come to rely on mandatory overtime to staff its operations in courts and elsewhere. The MCSO has regularly advocated for additional funding for staffing and overtime.

The county is getting $3.95 million for the Forensic Science Center, a new $226 million facility it is developing in partnership with the state. The four-story, 200,000-square-foot facility is being built at the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center in Wauwatosa. Along with the county agencies, it will also house the Wisconsin Department of Justice Milwaukee Crime Lab.

The new state funding will be used for any unforeseen costs or additions to the new facility as the county outfits it for the medical examiner and OEM. The new facility is expected to be finished in 2026.

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