by MOSES Publications | Mar 12, 2026 | Life After Prison, Newsletter
From Prison to Law School: Dant’e Cottingham’s Journey Since March 2022
By Sherry Reames
The Wisconsin Examiner headline, “Formerly incarcerated teacher instructs UW law students about criminal justice system,” caught my attention in late January; and I was even more interested when I recognized that formerly incarcerated teacher as Dant’e Cottingham. Dant’e was the subject of a “Returning Citizen” profile in the Oct/Nov 2022 issue of the MOSES Newsletter, half a year after his release. At that point he was working part-time both as an EXPO leader in Racine and a WisHope recovery coach in Waukesha. I also used to see him regularly as a fellow volunteer with the WISDOM task force on Old Law/Parole and Commutation. But I hadn’t talked with him recently, and I jumped at the chance to interview him about his current work with the Remington Center at University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
As Dant’e explained, his connection with the Remington Center began during his incarceration, when he received help from some of Professor Kate Finley’s students through the LAIP (Legal Assistance to Incarcerated People) program. After his release on parole, he was invited several times to speak to students in law school classes, and both he and the faculty recognized the need for law students to learn more from speakers with lived experience in the system. That was the origin of a new course, “The Criminal Justice System: A Lived Experience Perspective,” which Dant’e is team-teaching this spring with Professor Alan Stevenson.
As described by the Examiner, this course addresses every stage of the system, from arrest and trial to the re-entry process, plus the systemic inequality in criminal justice, advocacy for reform, and future directions. Guest speakers this semester have included Wisconsin Department of Corrections Secretary Jared Hoy, Wood County District Attorney Jonathan Barnett, at least one public defender, and men and women who have experienced incarceration themselves. Assigned readings in the course include additional autobiographies of people with lived experience of the system.
Dant’e’s job title at the Remington Center is “Re-Entry and Outreach Support Specialist.” Most of his work consists of connecting current prisoners with the Remington Center’s clinical law programs and other resources they need for help with applications for parole or sentence adjustments, appeals, treatment programs, recovery from trauma, and successful re-entry.
Dant’e is an excellent public speaker, and he remains deeply committed to his larger project of educating the public in a way that fosters understanding and empathy for the individual human experiences of incarcerated people. He also told me that he will soon be publishing a memoir about his own journey as a juvenile lifer who has completely turned his life around. Details will be posted on his website, Dantecottingham.com.
by MOSES Publications | Mar 12, 2026 | MOSES Groups, Newsletter
Check out the updated MOSES website at https://www.mosesmadison.org. It has been completely refreshed and modernized! Megh Designs, a professional developer, guided the design and structure, which was fully implemented by our MOSES Website Team: Ann Lacy, Eric Howland, Pam Oliver, and Barbie Jackson. New features include a comprehensive overview of MOSES on the Homepage with notices of current interest at the top, in-depth presentation of our organizational teams and task forces, collected news and commentary in a searchable blog structure, and access to our past yearbooks and newsletters.
by MOSES Publications | Mar 12, 2026 | Calls to Action, Community Issues, Immigration
Building Unity for Nonviolent Action!
By Ken Warren
On Jan. 24, I was one of several MOSES members who spontaneously showed up at James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Congregation for their monthly People, Peace, and Planet potluck. This particular one had been publicized as a kind of a kick-off for Building Unity for Nonviolent Action (BU4NVA). Speakers included John Nichols, Ajak Johnson, Everett Mitchell, and Rebe Silvey. During the week preceding the event, organizers started to recognize that it was going to be very well attended and arranged to put the presentations on Zoom. You can find a recording of the meeting on the website linked below.
That decision was fortuitous. I never heard an actual estimate of the crowd’s size, but I estimated the number of attendees at 300 to 400. The building was bulging at the seams!
After a welcome by emcee Tim Cordon, Ajak Johnson of Badger Collective got the audience energized and inspired. Their message was to emphasize the importance and strength of collective action. John Nichols followed Johson to the podium and continued to rev up the crowd with emphasis on the human rights violations going on right before our eyes.
Nichols then brought Rebe Silvey to the stage to remind us of the work that Voces de la Frontera has been doing and continues to faithfully perform within the Latinx community. Finally, Judge/Pastor/Activist Everett Mitchell brought everyone to their feet with a rousing speech about the dangers we face as a society – and a challenge to each of us to be ready to act.
Since the Jan. 24 program, at least 25 local, neighborhood, and faith-based groups have formally endorsed and become involved in the movement. Building Unity has already held several training sessions and has more planned. These early sessions filled up quickly, so many of us are still in need of training in ways to be effective when and if the time comes. A weekend of training is planned for March 14-15.
There has been great success in getting individuals to sign the BU4NVA Solidarity statement, but the group is also working to encourage local organizations and churches to add their names to the list of movement supporters. As part of that work, Tim Cordon and Rebe Silvey spoke at our MOSES General Meeting on Feb. 8.
Individual action teams continue to organize and disseminate information, but more action teams are needed. Anyone who knows of a few people in their neighborhood or congregation who are concerned about the tactics of our federal agencies, particularly ICE, are encouraged to form an action team. Visit the BU4NVA website for more information about BU4NVA, including ways to get involved and a schedule of upcoming training opportunities: https://www.buildingunitywisconsin.org/building-unity-for-nonviolent-action/
by MOSES Publications | Mar 12, 2026 | Community Issues
2026 Wisconsin Supreme Court Election
By Ken Warren
On April 7, Wisconsin voters will go to the polls to select a Supreme Court justice to replace Justice Rebecca Bradley, who is not running for re-election. The election is considered to be nonpartisan; however, the candidates are recognized and recognize themselves as either liberal or conservative. Currently, the Court has a four-to-three liberal majority, and Rebecca Bradley is a conservative justice. For that reason, regardless of the outcome, the majority ideology of the court will not shift.
Chris Taylor, a Wisconsin Court of Appeals judge, is the liberal candidate and is supported by the Wisconsin Democratic Party. She is also endorsed by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Maria Lazar, also a current Wisconsin Court of Appeals judge, is the conservative candidate and is supported by the Wisconsin Republican Party. On her website, Judge Chris Taylor states that her judicial philosophy is “people-centered, grounded in making sure individuals get a fair chance in our courts, and that their constitutional rights are protected.“ Prior to taking her position on the appeals court, Chris Taylor served as attorney and policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. She then served in the state Legislature for nearly 10 years. This history supports her judicial philosophy of being people-centered, as she is knowledgeable about the needs of the people of Wisconsin.
On her website, Judge Maria Lazar states, “A judge must remember there are three separate branches of government, and she should be cognizant of the judiciary’s role. A judge must not be too timid to declare and interpret the law, but also must not act as an activist; instead they must always act with appropriate judicial restraint.” After obtaining her law degree at Georgetown University, Maria Lazar returned with her husband to Wisconsin and was employed for about 20 years in private practice, focusing on business litigation and bankruptcy practice. She then served five years as assistant attorney general for the Wisconsin Department of Justice and seven years as a circuit court judge in Waukesha. For the last three years, she has been on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District 2.
The last election for Supreme Court justice was just last year, in 2025. In that election, the liberal candidate, Susan Crawford, defeated the conservative candidate, Brad Schimmel, in spite of great effort by the Republican party to shift the majority back to conservative. The race drew national attention and broke records for the amount of money involved, most of it from out of state.
At this time, the Taylor campaign has a very large funding advantage; however, that could change as the campaign progresses. In the last election, Elon Musk contributed between $19 and $30 million to the Schimmel campaign. If national conservative donors decide that Lazar is a viable candidate, they may pour funds into the race.
WISN 12 will host a debate between the candidates on Wednesday, March 25, at 7 p.m. It will be an opportunity to learn more about each candidate’s judicial philosophy and attitude toward various issues of concern. You are encouraged to watch it.
by MOSES Publications | Jan 20, 2026 | Events, Life After Prison, MOSES activities, Prisons, Yearbook
The number of women sent to prison has risen dramatically in recent years, both here in Wisconsin and in the nation at large; so it is increasingly important to understand how our system of incarceration tends to treat women and what the effects of that treatment are. MOSES members had some extraordinary opportunities in 2025 to learn about these issues.
Our February newsletter featured an interview with Jessica Jacobs, who survived repeated periods behind bars in her youth and is now supporting other women’s recovery as organizer of FREE in Madison, advocating for reforms in the way the system treats women, and pursuing a college degree that she hopes will enable her to teach either in an alternative high school or in prison. As Jacobs explained, her difficult youth – teen parenthood, dropping out of high school, alcohol and drug abuse, PTSD – both motivates her to work with girls who are in trouble and helps her connect with them.
In May, EXPO sponsored a showing of an award-winning 2012 documentary about women in prison, The Grey Area: Feminism Behind Bars. Besides some heart-breaking individual cases, the film included eye-opening statistics on the large proportion of incarcerated women who are mothers, and the even larger proportion who had previously been victims of domestic violence or sexual assault.
In November, those who attended WISDOM’s Listening Session at the state Capitol heard powerful first-hand testimony both from Jessica Jacobs, who described the near-impossibility of finding post-release housing if one is a woman with children, and from Crystal Keller, whose daughter was sent to Taycheedah Correctional Institution when her infant was 2 months old. For the next seven months, Keller’s daughter was prevented from reuniting even briefly with her baby, despite the fact that Wisconsin has had a law on the books since 1991 that requires incarcerated mothers to be housed with their babies for the first year after birth. Obviously, the Department of Corrections is not complying with that law.
“The program was allocated $198,000 per year,” Keller said. “Where is that money? That’s $6.7 million in the 35 years they’ve never offered it.”
The extra punishments inflicted on incarcerated women were also emphasized at the Journey to Justice event in October. One panelist described the dehumanizing experience of being placed in solitary confinement during her monthly period and having the male guards refuse to allow her period supplies, a shower, or clean clothes. She also reported seeing a friend who was eight months pregnant being put in a cell and stripped naked to look for drugs as she screamed – a traumatic experience even for those just witnessing it. Other panelists described the common practice of placing women in solitary confinement immediately after they have given birth and their babies have been taken away. This practice, which the DOC calls “protective custody,” actually compounds the cruelty, because it removes these postpartum women from the comfort that other women could provide them at such a vulnerable time.
