A small group of protesters gathered by the Brown County Courthouse late Sunday afternoon, demanding change in Wisconsin’s correctional system.

“I don’t want any other mothers to suffer the way I am,” Kerrie Hirte said. 

Hirte’s daughter, Cilivea Thyrion, died in the Milwaukee County Jail and her death was ruled a suicide, FOX6 News Milwaukee reported. Hirte believes that if her daughter had been in a mental health facility instead of a jail, she would still be alive. 

At the protest, she said that “our jails are breeding grounds for inhumanity, and the conditions inside have amounted to torture and death.”

“Just by me telling me and Cilivea’s story …  and by all of us telling our stories, then the message will spread more,” Hirte told the Examiner. “Because people will begin to understand, they’re not the only ones.”

Groups of protesters demonstrated in Brown, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine and Kenosha Counties on Sunday, according to Dant’e Cottingham, a founding member of the Stop the Torture Coalition who used to be incarcerated in Green Bay Correctional Institution.

“[People] also spoke about how important it is for the [district attorneys] and the judges to be accountable for the sentences that they hand down,” Cottingham said. “Look, we know the judges and the DAs have a job to do. But we also want the judge and the DA to be accountable for keeping our loved one safe no matter if they made a mistake or not.”

The protests come after a Waupun warden and eight others were charged last month with crimes related to the treatment of incarcerated people. Advocates, formerly incarcerated people and former staff testified about problems in the prison system before the Assembly Committee on Corrections on July 9. 

In a letter to the committee, Wisconsin Department of Corrections Secretary Jared Hoy gave examples of operational changes made over the last several months to ensure the safety of staff and incarcerated people, such as enhancing training and frequency of security rounds. He also said the department is in contract negotiations with a consulting and management firm for a third party review. 

“While the past several weeks have been challenging, there have been countless occasions where I am reminded of how our dedicated staff and the individuals in our care remain at the heart of our mission,” Hoy said in the letter.

Jeffrey Watson, who also attended the Brown County protest, said he was previously incarcerated at the Green Bay and Waupun prisons. He hopes the protests raise awareness.

“I left [Waupun] in 2019,” Watson said. “So I know how they deal with mental illness… [with] someone even just calling out for help.”

Hirte called for the closure of the prisons in Green Bay and Waupun. She also advocated for “[confronting] the root causes of mass incarceration” and reducing the prison and jail population so that it becomes unnecessary to build new facilities. 

“[Children with mental illness] should not be put in jails, in prisons, when they can be helped outside, in our communities,” Hirte said. “That only happens if the communities come together and fight for our children.”

Cottingham hopes for protests in all 72 of Wisconsin’s counties. Another protest will take place in the middle of next month. 

“Part of the strategy of the protest is to get statewide and then, ultimately, national attention,” Cottingham said. 

Senate candidate Eric Hovde tied Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the Wisconsin Democrat seeking a third term, to President Joe Biden at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday, calling her a “rubber-stamp” for his administration in his speech. 

The multimillionaire Republican businessman is challenging Baldwin, who has served in the seat since 2013, in a year where the seat could make a difference in control of the U.S. Senate. As Hovde took the stage, he was met by cheers from the Wisconsin delegation, many of whom were waving Hovde campaign signs in the air. 

“America’s struggling under Joe Biden and Senator Baldwin has been a rubber stamp holding with him 95.5% of the time,” Hovde said. During the five-minute speech, he said the Biden administration and Baldwin are responsible for increasing national debt, inflation and crime at the southern border. 

“Where Biden and Baldwin have failed, President [Donald] Trump and I will get the job done,” Hovde said. 

Hovde also called for people to move past divisions, which he blamed on “the left” and called for unity, which is an ongoing theme for the convention. 

“We need to put on the red, white, blue jersey and come together as Americans. They heal this country from the division that the left has brought,” Hovde said. “And the media, you have to stop fighting us, and we can come together… We will restore America, but it’s gonna take everyone getting involved.” 

Wisconsin delegates reacted positively to the speech, saying they wanted to see Hovde elected to help the Republican party get things done under a potential second Trump presidency. 

Wisconsin state Sen. Cory Tomczyk of Mosinee said he wants to see Hovde help work towards achieving the “Trump agenda” in the U.S. Senate. 

“I want to see that support given to President Trump. I want to see him get things back on track and then I want us to set up for the next four years [and] after the next four years of President Trump,” Tomczyk said.

Tomczyk noted that the contrast between Hovde and Baldwin is “pretty black and white,” saying that Hovde is a more “rounded out” candidate and he supports his position on “girls in sports” — a reference to policies of keeping transgender girls off of girls teams — and economics.

“Businessmen and household managers, household moms, household dads know better about managing money than some of the people that we have in Washington,” Tomczyk said. “I’m not sure what Tammy Baldwin’s history is. I think she’s just holding a place she got in and now she’s just camping out there. I think people are tired of having someone in any of those positions for too long.”

Wisconsin State Treasurer John Leiber said Hovde’s speech at the RNC was one of his best that he’s given, and that the conviction is going to get Wisconsinites paying attention to the race. A recent poll from Marquette Law School showed that Baldwin is leading Hovde. 

“As they say, the only poll that matters is on Election Day, and I don’t think it’s uncommon for a challenger to still have some name recognition to work on,” Leiber said. “It’s still four months out.” 

“It’s really important that voters don’t just vote for Donald Trump, but they vote for Eric Hovde as well because without the Senate, then we’re going to be stuck,” Leiber said, adding that he appreciated Hovde’s message about unity. “We want to bring the whole team of Republicans there and really make some changes in Washington.”

Leiber said Hovde’s focus on inflation is a point that will connect with Wisconsin voters. 

“I don’t think people really need to be convinced there is inflation, it obviously exists and there’s only one party that’s talking about it as a problem and is pledging to do something about it,” Leiber said. “I’m afraid that Democrats seem to want to tell us that everything’s fine.” 

Wisconsin Democratic Party Rapid Response Director Arik Wolk responded to Hovde’s speech in a statement, saying that Wisconsinites will reject Hovde come November. 

“Nothing out-of-touch California multimillionaire Eric Hovde said on stage can change the fact that for months, Wisconsinites have heard him make disparaging remarks about folks across the state while pushing policies to benefit himself and his wealthy buddies,” Wolk said.

In the current campaign cycle Democrats have doggedly pointed out that Hovde owns a $7 million home located in California and that he made remarks that “almost nobody in a nursing home” is at a point where they are capable of voting. He later had to clarify that he doesn’t oppose seniors voting.

Wolk added that Wisconsinites will reelect “Baldwin, who spends every minute working for Wisconsin families–from protecting made-in-America manufacturing, to standing up to Big Pharma, and defending our reproductive freedoms.”

PLOVER, Wis. (WSAW) – We’ve certainly had a rainy summer so far and while the rain may help some of our farmers, it can also impact them negatively. Especially when flooding happens in their fields.

Okray Family Farm in Plover has 130 acres of potatoes, and Irrigation Manager John Deltor says out of all their crops affected, the potatoes were hurt the most. The farm hasn’t had to water their crops as much with the amount of rain we’ve had, but they are still running into obstacles.

“Flooded areas,” Deltor said. “Even flooded areas after you plant, cause then it’s just going to drown out your crop. Wet areas have been the biggest obstacle.”

Deltor says the worst has already been done. Now he’s hoping for a drier second half of the summer.

“All your wet areas are already drowned down. If it continues to rain like it has, you’re going to lose more and more,” Deltor said. “Diseases will really start to take an effect.”

If the rain continues, it will affect their harvest season which usually starts after Labor Day.

“This field we’re anywhere from 20-30% of this field’s not going to be able to be harvested,” Deltor explained.

Another crop that was impacted was peas.

“They’re a lot closer to harvest,” Deltor said. “They were planted a little later, so they haven’t seen that effect yet as much.”

So, whether it’s a field of potatoes or a field of peas, Deltor says one of the biggest things he and his team have learned this summer was how to adapt to muddy and rainy situations.

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