Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service invites community members to submit opinion pieces of 500-800 words on topics of interest to central city Milwaukee. To send a submission for consideration, please email info@milwaukeenns.org. The views expressed are solely those of the authors.
Every Monday morning, a group of domestic violence survivors gathers in a small waiting room in our office. Some are there to see a case through. Some are there because a judge told them to be. Almost all of them are anxious before they ever sit down, because getting to that room means walking through the same hallways, the same elevators, sometimes the same doorways as the person they are trying to get away from.
What they’re experiencing is common among victim-witnesses who visit Milwaukee County’s Public Safety Building, located at 821 W. State St. On any given day, you might see someone freeze mid-sentence because they spotted their ex-partner across the hall while they were on their way to request a restraining order. Or a child who has to watch courtroom proceedings in the same room as the adult who victimized him.
These scenarios are not rare, and they’re precisely why Milwaukee County is rebuilding the nearly 100-year-old, crumbling Public Safety Building. For too long, victim-witnesses have navigated a building whose layout is detrimental to their health and safety. Rebuilding it with their experience at the forefront isn’t just a good idea; it’s one of the best ways we can safely secure justice.
A victim’s right to safety
I lead the Victim-Witness Services unit for the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. My staff and I spend our days sitting with people in the hardest moments of their lives, helping them get through court dates that already ask enough of them without adding an unplanned run-in with a perpetrator on top of it.
Victims have a right to a separate waiting area under Wisconsin’s victims’ rights laws. We do our best with what we have. But “our best” today means a handful of small rooms and hallways that were never designed with victim safety in mind, in a building where defendants, jurors and the public all share the same paths to get where they’re going.
That is why I have been part of the conversation around Milwaukee County’s Investing in Justice: Courthouse Complex Project, and why I believe the trauma-informed design at the center of it matters more than most people realize. It’s a message we heard repeatedly from the community throughout the engagement process.
The replacement for the Public Safety Building and the renovated Historic Courthouse is being designed with fully separate, secure hallways, so that people in custody move through the building on entirely different paths than victims, witnesses and their families. That single change would greatly reduce hallway encounters that make going to court feel like its own kind of danger.
In 2025, more than 70% of the 911 calls placed inside the Courthouse Complex were tied to in-custody transfers and high-risk moves through shared corridors. Separating those paths isn’t a design flourish. It’s a safety fix that’s overdue.
New plan creates safe places
The plans also call for dedicated victim-witness waiting rooms on the floors where hearings happen, located near the elevators so people can get to a safe room the moment they step off, rather than lingering in a hallway while they figure out where to go.
Most of the people I work with don’t come to court alone. They come with kids, with parents, with the people holding them together that day. Right now, my team keeps our waiting rooms stocked with coffee, water, coloring books and stuffed animals, because families often wait far longer than anyone plans for, and because a scared 8-year-old needs something to do with their hands.
The victim-witness waiting rooms in the new building will have room for that, along with the kind of technology that would let families watch a hearing from a safe room instead of sitting in a courtroom next to someone who hurt them.
The Milwaukee County Courthouse Complex sees thousands of victim-witnesses every year — nearly 40,000 in 2025 alone. They deserve to feel safe walking in. They need somewhere to breathe while they wait.
If you are interested in continuing to learn how the new Public Safety Building will improve the victim-witness experience, visit https://county.milwaukee.gov/InvestinginJustice.
Jessica Strand is the Director of Victim Witness Services in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. She has been with the Milwaukee DA’s Office since 2000. During her tenure, she worked as a courtside advocate in the Domestic Violence Unit and supervised victim witness staff in various areas of the office, including the General Crimes, Homicide, Crisis Response and Domestic Violence, prior to taking on her current role as director.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
