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Milwaukee County prison lead aims for 'long-term behavioral change' over punishment

Exterior of the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center. Sign with address in foreground, building and barbed wire in background.
Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center
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Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center
After changing its name from the House of Correction to Community Reintegration Center in 2022, the state's largest county correctional facility looks to reivent itself in the name of rehabilitation.

Formerly known as the House of Correction, the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center, or CRC, is the state’s largest county correctional institution. Located in Franklin, people incarcerated at the facility serve misdemeanor sentences and return to our communities after less than a year.

In an interview with Lake Effect, Superintendent Chantell Jewell highlighted the CRC's shift in recent years toward programming over punishment. Jewell said these evidence-based changes have been shown to reduce recidivism and include job training, cognitive behavioral therapy, and substance abuse treatment programs.

“It’s about helping individuals produce long-term behavioral changes so that they don’t get out and create more victims or continue being involved in criminal activity, and that is how we create safer communities,” says Jewell.

Superintendent Chantell jewell takes her oath of office. Jewell is in the center, with her right hand raised. Man with back turned reading the oath in foreground.
Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center
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Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center
Superintendent Chantell Jewell takes the oath of office for a second, four-year term in January 2025

Efforts to strengthen residents’ family and community ties are another critical component of reducing recidivism and helping residents with reentry into society, Jewell says. Under her leadership, the center has made phone calls free for all its residents, reopened a family visitation center and hired a family outreach coordinator to work as a liaison between residents and loved ones.

The result is that people incarcerated at the CRC maintain a support network to fall back on once their sentence ends.

“It’s a matter of how do you want individuals to return to your community,” she says. “I would assume better, and not creating more victims.”

Jewell says third-party audits from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, the Department of Justice and the state of Wisconsin have been crucial in developing best practices and holding the center accountable to its mission and values.

Jewell puts an emphasis on language changes. Formerly known as the House of Correction, the facility was renamed the Community Reintegration Center in 2022 to reflect a commitment to rehabilitating persons in her care. Jewell also directs staff to refer to people incarcerated at the CRC as "residents" in lieu of "inmates."

But changing names is only part of the cultural shift Jewell intends to bring to the CRC. Jewell explains a shift in culture that necessitated retraining staff not to think of themselves as traditional law enforcement, but as partners in resident rehabilitation.

“We’re not the police, so we’re not going to behave like the police. So that was a bit of a shift in thinking for some of my staff,” she says.

Sam is a WUWM production assistant for Lake Effect.
Graham Thomas is a WUWM digital producer.
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