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It’s tempting to start a narrative about Emily Sterk with an anecdote about her advocacy round mass incarceration.
Or together with her reflections on how her privilege performs into that work. Or with an exploration of how her spiritual religion intertwines together with her concern for these caught up within the felony justice system.
However she additionally loves musicals – and is somewhat embarrassed to confess how a lot she enjoys “Depraved.” She has a beloved tortoiseshell cat named Stevie and is keen on puzzles.
Having stated all that, persons are beginning to discover how good she is at what she does, stated Krissie Fung, affiliate director of Milwaukee Turners, the state’s oldest civic group, the place Sterk is finishing a fellowship.
“Individuals have heard her converse in public, and folk are starting to look to her opinion,” Fung stated.
This capability to realize belief inside felony justice reform circles is particularly precious because the group grows, stated Emilio De Torre, govt director of Turners.
“Having somebody who can assist us construct stronger networks, have an knowledgeable chief in these totally different rooms – it expands our capability to coach others who don’t perceive this and to empower people who find themselves impacted however uncertain of what to do,” De Torre stated.
From the academy
Throughout her remaining 12 months of graduate college at Pennsylvania State College, Sterk – in her spare time – taught in two correctional establishments.
“That was one of many first instances I felt like, ‘Oh, nicely, I must be doing one thing about this,’” she stated.
Sterk arrived in Milwaukee final fall as a Main Edge Fellow with the American Council of Realized Societies, a nationwide program that locations Ph.D. graduates at justice-focused nonprofits.
At Turners, she conducts analysis, participates in advocacy and develops coverage concepts geared towards confronting mass incarceration.
‘Watching the watchers’
One space Sterk has targeted on is civilian oversight of legislation enforcement.
At an April 15 assembly of the Milwaukee County Board’s Judiciary, Legislation Enforcement and Normal Companies Committee, Sterk testified in assist of a civilian board that will oversee the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Workplace.
She informed committee members that, with a purpose to be efficient and impartial, such a board should have the authority to rent and hearth legislation enforcement officers – together with the sheriff – and have policymaking authority.
Sterk pointed to a 2024 audit of the county jail that, she stated, “unearthed deeply troubling insurance policies, practices and procedures which have lengthy since been ingrained within the facility and its employees.”
She highlighted an occasion during which an officer accused of misconduct was assigned to answer the grievance filed towards them.
With emotion in her voice, Sterk reminded supervisors that the audit devoted simply three sentences to a suicide try that auditors personally witnessed throughout their go to.
Two weeks after this committee assembly, Sterk offered to the Milwaukee Hearth and Police Fee the findings of a six-month monitoring interval of the fee’s exercise – “watching the watchers,” as Fung put it.
The fee was considerably restructured in July 2023 after Wisconsin Act 12 stripped its capability to form police coverage, shifting that energy to police and hearth division chiefs.
The general public report ensuing from the monitoring concluded that the fee “seems to function a rubber stamp.”
Honey, not vinegar
Nevertheless, Sterk is just not hostile or self-righteous in her criticism. Care and sincerity are on the middle of her method – even for the workplaces and our bodies she’s criticizing.
On the Hearth and Police Fee presentation, a number of commissioners thanked the Turners and echoed the decision to enhance public engagement.
Presently, Sterk is fostering a collaboration on jail-based voting between the Turners and the League of Ladies Voters of Milwaukee County. Right here, too, her thoughtfulness has left its mark.
“The very first thing she talked to me about was educating folks about having respect for people who find themselves incarcerated,” stated Gail Sklodowska, the second vp of advocacy and motion for the league. “Like how we check with them, how we speak about them. And I went, ‘Wow, I by no means even considered that as a spot we must always begin.’
“However she’s proper.”
This mixture of rigor, respect and resolve is rooted in deeper values, stated Carlos de la Torre, Sterk’s accomplice and a rector at a church in Chicago.
“Amidst the work of justice, of restoration, of reconciliation, of liberation,” he stated, “Emily is aware of that there’s a spot for magnificence in all this.
“The purpose of all this work is to supply folks entry to life, to the great thing about this world, to be free in creation.”
Sterk’s fellowship ends September 2026, however she is open to staying in Milwaukee after that – and so are others.
“I’d love for us – and for Milwaukee – to maintain her,” Fung stated.
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