By Lucas Daprile of the Journal Sentinel. A former Racine police officer who touts herself as a nationally renowned motivational speaker has been barred from appearing at state correctional facilities after one of her presentations included a demonstration of a lap dance and a joke that the female inmates could make a living as prostitutes.
Ellsworth Correctional Center in Union Grove was an impromptu comedy routine. Some inmates say they were shocked and disgusted by the sexually explicit presentation. Witherspoon visited the minimum-security facility after receiving a donation from an inmate-led fundraiser. A group of inmates raised a few hundred dollars for Cops 'N Kids Reading Center, a nonprofit organization founded and run by Witherspoon that describes itself as an organization dedicated to getting books in the hands of children.
After receiving the donation, Witherspoon offered to speak at the correctional center, where she was promoted as a motivational speaker, according to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. More than people attended the presentation, which was mandatory for inmates in a program meant to help participants recover from drug addiction. Before the presentation started, Witherspoon said she got permission from a correctional center official to tell jokes that included cursing, and told the inmates the speech would have some vulgarities in it.
After the jokes, Witherspoon said she delivered a more conventional motivational speech, encouraging inmates to stay positive about their futures. Several former inmates told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Witherspoon started off with a slew of sexually explicit jokes some detailing preferred sexual positions.
Inmates said the event became particularly outrageous when Witherspoon approached one of the correctional center's older teachers and demonstrated a lap dance on him while explaining with explicit language how she would have sex with him and a security officer. Witherspoon said the demonstration lasted "half a millisecond" and that she "barely touched the man. Shortly after that, Amanda Strobel, a former inmate from Sussex who was released in May, walked out.
