By C1 Staff
FRANKLIN, Wis. — Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is applauding the quick work of correctional personnel at the House of Correction for their actions after a loaded gun was discovered inside dirty laundry.
FOX News reports that the incident is under investigation, but it appears that the weapon was taken into the Milwaukee County Jail last week by an inmate who stashed the weapon inside dirty laundry.
“My concern though – probably like anybody hearing this story is how the hell does a loaded gun get through security? Shoutout to our staff at corrections for finding it and immediately notifying the state Department of Corrections,” Abele said.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office was allegedly looking for the weapon, but never alerted folks at the House of Correction, which provides laundry services for a number of county entities.
“We can never reinforce often enough how serious and crucially important robust controls and procedures are to prevent this sort of situation. Had the wrong person gotten his hands on this gun, the situation could have ended much differently. I’m very thankful this is not the case and that staff responded quickly and appropriately to the situation,” Abele said.
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke issued the following statement concerning the incident:
“We are trying to determine how this firearm got into the secure portions of both of these jail facilities. This is a serious breach. My goal is to get to the bottom of it to tighten security inside these confinement facilities. Abele has seized on this serious situation as a political opportunity. I find that shameful.
Here’s what we know so far. An individual was arrested by Milwaukee police officers on the street. He was wanted on a warrant. He had on a walking boot-type cast and complained of leg pain to the MPD officers. MPD conveyed him to the hospital because of this. It has not been determined what treatment he underwent. Officers on the street are expected to do a search incident to an arrest, but should not be removing body casts or prosthetics as that should be done by medical personnel. He was conveyed to the Milwaukee County Jail and booked in. He posted bond and was released.
Detectives are trying to determine how he was able to secrete a weapon inside a walking cast. This will cause us to reevaluate our search policy in cases where subjects have medical devices. Our goal is to examine things that have not happened before, learn from them and adjust our policies. Abele instead is more concerned about political gain and attempting to embarrass Milwaukee police officers, hospital personnel and corrections officers, who obviously did not find the weapon inside the walking boot.
It was an inmate worker who found the firearm at the House of Correction, but Abele was quick to give his employees credit. I want to give the inmate credit for doing the right thing when he found the weapon.
I’m not surprised at the smallness of Abele. This is a guy who spent $250K of his personal wealth to try to defeat me in my reelection last fall, including $10K to a known political hack to try to smear me.”
The Sheriff’s Office runs the jail but not the House of Corrections, which was placed under a superintendent in 2013.