July 12, 2020 9a
(WGTD)---A newly-elected Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge once worked as a public defender in Racine.
Milton Childs’ memories of his time here a decade ago aren’t all fond. "Racine was very interesting," Childs said on Saturday's Community Matters program on WGTD. "Racine to me seemed more prejudiced than some areas of the south," he said.
The Milwaukee native is a Marine Corps veteran who was appointed to the bench by Gov. Evers last year to fill a vacancy, then won election to a full term this past spring.
Childs and two attorneys who still work in the Kenosha/Racine area were Laura Sumner-Coon’s guests on last Saturday's program. The three African-Americans are discussing racial issues within the criminal justice system in a discussion that'll continue next week. The two-part program began with the personal histories of the guests.
In addition to working in Racine a decade ago, Childs also served in public defender offices in Sheboygan and Milwaukee before becoming a judge.
Back then, Childs said racial biases in his opinion were apparent in several layers of the criminal justice system in Racine County. "Racine for me was eye-opening in regards to bias from police officers...the stops that they make and the discretion they have in regards to giving a person a ticket or arresting them. Clearly most people of color were arrested," Childs said. "And then the court system itself was in my opinion biased also in regards to people of color. Many of them got jail sentences unlike some of the white clients that I represented who would get probation," he said.
The on-going discussion hosted by Sumner-Coon also includes private-practice attorney Angela Cunningham of Kenosha and Racine Public Defender Darren Crawford.
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