By Linda Spice
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
MILWAUKEE — A 25-year-old inmate remained at large late Tuesday after walking away early in the day from the downtown Community Correctional Center where he had been serving a work-release sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. said his office is investigating Corey L. McElroy’s escape from the center, 1004 N. 10th St., about 4:20 a.m. when he fled from officers as he was getting into a van for a ride to work at a jail kitchen. An arrest warrant was issued for McElroy.
Clarke stressed that his department oversees the Milwaukee County Jail but not the Community Correctional Center, which is run by the county’s House of Corrections. Officials at the House of Corrections on Tuesday released a statement on the escape but declined further comment.
Clarke said the escape illustrates flaws in the criminal justice system. He said McElroy had 18 arrests since 1988, many of them out of Illinois for drug dealing in heroin, crack cocaine and marijuana, and was an example of “liberal use of Huber” work release privileges. Clarke said McElroy had been given probation, Huber privileges and stayed sentences despite his felony conviction for bail jumping in September 2006 and a 2007 conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
“This guy’s a felon. He should have been sent to prison,” Clarke said.
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker said the escape shows why the county should replace the current system in which offenders are given work release then check in to the correctional center to sleep.
Walker said Tuesday he will push to replace the current work-release jail with GPS monitoring.
Copyright 2008 The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel