by MOSES Publications | Apr 30, 2024 | Advocacy, Information, Newsletter, Prisons
Wisconsin Hears that Solitary Confinement Is Torture
By Pam Gates
The North Hearing Room in the state Capitol was packed on April 23 to hear a powerful series of speakers on the inhumane practice of solitary confinement in Wisconsin prisons and jails. Among the 70-plus listeners were five legislators and about twice that many aides; on the panel were six people who had spent time in solitary, four clergy, and a woman who had recently lost her father to suicide in solitary.
Following an invocation by WISDOM President Marian Boyle-Rohloff, the first expert speaker was MOSES’s own Talib Akbar. Talib, who built a traveling solitary confinement cell that is currently on display on the UW campus, said that solitary changes a person, alters them in some way. He began his volunteer effort to wake people up about the realities of solitary in 2014, adding, “I’ll do this till the day I die.” Talib has taken the cell around Wisconsin and to other states; he has also written a play, “Like an Animal in a Cage,” performed by people who have spent time in solitary. Although the Wisconsin DOC has reduced maximum stints in solitary from 360 to 90 days, Talib said the practice needs to be ended entirely.
A Racine pastor explained that this issue matters to faith communities because solitary confinement is torture – the opposite of the peace, kindness, and human flourishing that all faiths aspire to.
“Incarceration is one of the social deterrents to public health,” said Melissa Ludin, who after imprisonment in her youth is now with the ACLU. She noted that a person who’s gone to prison is far more likely to die prematurely than one who hasn’t. “Incarceration causes PTSD, and solitary makes it even worse,” she said. Melissa herself spent 100 days in solitary during her imprisonment and still feels the long-term effects of that experience, although she’s been home since 2007.
Prince Rashad grew up in the early ‘80s and was sent to Green Bay Correctional at age 18. In solitary, he became suicidal. “The experience made me more dangerous,” he said. He was sent to solitary six times; each time it was devastating. “It brings no rehabilitation,” he said. “We need to align our criminal justice system with international human rights standards. Solitary confinement exacerbates existing psychological conditions and starts new ones.”
Randy Forsterling spent seven years in Supermax, 360 days of it in solitary. He had friends who spent 20 to 30 years “in the hole”; solitary confinement became almost routine. But, he said, the experience left him feeling stripped of his humanity. When his mom died, he couldn’t even cry. “People in solitary aren’t seen as human beings,” he said.
Politics is the root cause of problems with the prison system, he explained. The 1994 crime bill almost tripled Wisconsin’s prison population and is still causing damage, because it abolished most rehabilitation programs. No matter what the DOC’s Vision Statement says, it still doesn’t let people participate in the programs they need when they need them.
Megan Kolb tearfully related her father’s last days before he hanged himself in solitary confinement. He spent his final days begging for his prescribed psychiatric meds, which he had not received in over two months. He was given no paper, no pen, no books, and no compassion by the staff.
“Bobby”, now a member of EXPO and a certified peer-support specialist, said he was paroled three years ago by John Tate II (the crowd applauded this name), after 27 years of a 60-year sentence, over seven of which he spent in solitary. He went in with PTSD due to the loss of his parents, and while in solitary received notice via phone that his brother had died. He got no support beyond the silence of fellow prisoners when his phone call was announced. “Solitary is torture,” he said. “I survived by will alone.”
Jessica Jacobs works with FREE, advocating for incarcerated women. She described additional dehumanizing aspects of prison that she experienced: being known only by a number; being physically abused, completely at the mercy of the guards; and being put in solitary for no reason, even during the booking process. She said the main reasons people are imprisoned — PTSD, trauma, sexual assault, substance abuse — are all symptoms of poverty, and that’s what we need to address. We need to expand programming inside and outside the prison, and to offer trauma therapy, NOT solitary confinement!
What’s happening in other states? The Rev. Ron Stief, representing NRCAT, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, explained that NRCAT started 20 years ago, initially out of concern about what was happening in U.S.-run prisons during the Iraq war. Fifteen years ago, the campaign began to address the torture we do here. There have been successful campaigns in several states, starting with Maine, where the head of the Maine DOC rewrote policies for the juvenile system and expanded from there. In Colorado, DOC director Rick Raemisch eliminated solitary confinement after spending time in a solitary cell.
NRCAT currently has legislative campaigns underway in 23 states. Michigan has made progress. The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights is pushing a 10-day maximum on solitary in Illinois. California has passed a Mandela law, limiting solitary to 15 days at most, but the governor has threatened to veto it. That happened in New York too, but the legislature assembled a super-majority and forced Gov. Cuomo to sign the bill.
In Connecticut, Stief’s own state, legislators sat in a solitary cell replica, wrote a bill, and finally got it signed into law in 2022. In most states, it has taken six to eight years after the legislation was written to get it passed into law.
Stief said campaigns to limit the use of solitary by cities are ongoing too, and so is a campaign regarding the federal system. NRCAT has many resources available, including films, model legislation, and materials to combat the common fears and myths that have been used to justify this form of discipline. Working to end torture is a moral absolute, he said. The fight will be long, but it’s worth it. We need the voices of all of us working together.
Legislators respond. Reps. Darrin Madison and Ryan Clancy, two strong advocates for improving conditions of confinement in Wisconsin prisons, included a bill limiting the use of solitary in the package of legislation they introduced a few months ago. Rep. Clancy observed, “I never thought I’d be legislating ‘seeing the sky.’ The standard is so incredibly low in Wisconsin.”
Rep. Madison said the growing strength of this movement gives him hope. “When I see advocacy by people who’ve been transitioning back, with so much pain and such lack of resources, in a world that tells them they’re worth nothing – it gives me the will to sit in this space, which can be one of the most toxic in the state. I know that it can happen here, in a state that has a perverse relationship with incarceration.” He added, “A lot of folks just don’t know. They buy into building more prisons, giving more money to the police. . . They don’t know that improving conditions of confinement will improve public safety.”
The Rev. Willy Brisco of MICAH gave the closing blessing, prefaced by the observation that when God looked down on our institutions of slavery, prisons, and war, God said, “That’s not what I meant!” Then Rev. Brisco offered a prayer and sent us out with an imperative: “Tell someone what you heard today, and don’t be silent again.” The crowd responded with a firm “Amen!”
WISDOM arranged for informational packets to be delivered to all legislators’ offices after the event.
by MOSES Publications | Mar 11, 2024 | Events, Information, Newsletter, Prisons, WISDOM
Community Forum Calls for Ending the Lockdowns and Justice Reinvestment
by Sherry Reames
This community forum, organized by WISDOM, EXPO, and MOSES, drew a large and attentive audience to Madison’s First Unitarian Society on Feb. 1. Longtime Madison journalist Gil Halstead emceed the discussion, which included testimonies on the current prison crisis from the perspectives of formerly incarcerated people, relatives of current prisoners, and state legislators from the Madison area.
The evening began with updates on the problem from James Wilbur, outgoing director of prison outreach for WISDOM. In contradiction to press releases from Gov. Evers and DOC Secretary Carr, Wilbur confirmed from witnesses inside Waupun and Green Bay Correctional Institutions that there have been no substantial changes to the inhumane conditions reported last fall. The buildings are filthy and infested with rodents, prisoners are still locked in their cells nearly all the time, and even needed medical care is not being provided. No change will come, he concluded, until the responsible authorities are held accountable.
Mark Rice, coordinator of WISDOM’s Transformational Justice Campaign, outlined the measures that can and should be taken to reform the system – starting with practical steps to reduce the prison population. These steps include expanding TAD (Treatment Alternatives and Diversions) to include people who just need mental health treatment, abolishing crimeless revocations (a system the DOC controls and could end unilaterally, ending thousands of unnecessary imprisonments), increasing the use of earned release and parole, and using the governor’s clemency power to commute excessively long sentences. Some of these remedies would require legislative action, but others are completely within the governor’s control. It is worth remembering that Gov. Evers said during his 2018 campaign that he supported the swift closing of at least two prisons (Green Bay and Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility). That still needs to happen; and when it does, the state will save a great deal of money, which should be reinvested in education, mental health, and other services to rebuild the communities most affected by crime.
The two Madison legislators on the panel emphasized their own commitment to criminal-justice reform but also noted that change will not come quickly. They both know the criminal-legal system well. State Sen. Kelda Roys, who worked with The Innocence Project and visited some Wisconsin prisons as a law student, noted the deep racial injustice in the system and said current practice actually makes us less safe by focusing on harsh punishment instead of rehabilitation. Rep. Shelia Stubbs previously worked as a probation officer and as a social worker focusing on domestic violence cases. Given her experience with the obstacles to successful re-entry, she suggested that plans for release should start as soon as an individual enters prison, not just before the end. Both legislators have signed on as co-sponsors to several new bills to improve conditions of confinement. Realistically, they explained, we need to start with small steps in order to get any win out of the Legislature.
Some of the most dramatic testimony at the forum came from people whose incarcerated family members have been abused by prison staff. Kerrie Hirte’s 20-year-old daughter died in the Milwaukee County Jail last year when, despite being on suicide watch, she choked to death on an item the guards had given her. Another parent reported that her son at Waupun became suicidal after guards pepper-sprayed him for talking back, then tased him for resisting, stripped him naked, and sent him to solitary confinement, where he was told that nobody would care if he died. Another mother said her son was deemed dangerous and locked up after attempting “suicide by cop” and being shot nine times. When his physical condition deteriorated, the nurse suggested Tylenol; and the DOC didn’t notify his family even when he became septic, nearly died, and spent a month in the hospital.
Other attendees shared signs of hope and suggestions for reforming the system. Eugene Nelson from Project Return in Milwaukee mentioned his own achievements since release and urged us all to keep visiting and calling the legislators on the other side. He held up the example of Illinois, which has just passed sweeping legislation on crimeless revocation. Corey Marionneaux briefly described his own experience with revocation and his current work as founder of the Black Men Coalition here in Dane County. Tom Gilbert of MOSES told us about the Short Term Sanctions Bill (Act 196) passed in 2013, a law that should have increased the alternatives to revocation but has never been implemented by the DOC. MOSES Community Organizer James Morgan reminded us that the whole culture of the DOC needs to be addressed. Administrative law judges have too much unsupervised power, and the youth correctional institutions need to be addressed as well as the adult ones.
The strongest take-away message from the evening was to not give up: keep lobbying for the changes we want to see, remember to vote, and do what we can to turn out the vote in this election year. Sen. Melissa Agard, outgoing Wisconsin Senate minority leader, pointed out that change is almost certainly coming to our Legislature. Once new district lines are determined, legislators will have to run in more competitive districts and build more coalitions across party lines. Sen. Roys noted that some current Republican legislators are already willing to work across the aisle, co-sponsoring some moderate bills for reform. Rep. Stubbs reminded us that it’s important to keep applying pressure to the Governor’s Office and the DOC as well. Mike Carlson of MOSES suggested that we take Michigan as a role model: they have turned their government around, and so can we.
by MOSES Publications | Mar 1, 2024 | Events, Information, RJAC Racial Justice for All Children, Schools
RJAC and PSTF Gather for School Safety
By Shel Gross
The Racial Justice for All Children (RJAC) task force, in collaboration with the Public Safety task force (PSTF), hosted a MOSES-wide gathering about school safety on Jan. 23 via Zoom. We had 39 attendees, including 18 members of RJAC and/or the PSTF, 10 additional MOSES members, two MOSES donors, and nine guests and/or collaborators.
Eric Howland and Shel Gross led a Quaker-style query process that was very well received. Participants shared their reflections on this question: “What do you feel are the most important factors for creating safety for everyone in our schools, especially our Black students, who are more likely to be responded to in ways which lead them into the school-to-prison pipeline?” There was silent time between speakers to allow participants to reflect on what had been said.
Most of those who spoke were able to share stories based on their personal connection to the schools: as parents, grandparents, teachers, or other school staff, or as community members working with or at the schools. This contributed to the richness of the sharing.
The notes from the session, along with comments from the feedback survey sent to participants after the session, are being compiled by the organizers. They will make an initial effort to group the comments to reflect the various themes. As a next step, the RJAC and PSTF members who were at the gathering will be invited to review this summary document and offer their perspectives on where they heard commonalities that could form the basis for a MOSES position related to school safety. After reviewing these with the full task forces, we will bring a report to a future MOSES general meeting.
Those who were unable to attend can still access the background materials prepared for the meeting.
by MOSES Publications | Mar 1, 2024 | Events, MOSES activities, MOSES leadership, WISDOM
WISDOM Leadership Retreat Held Jan. 17-18
by Pam Gates
MOSES members turned out in force for this retreat, which was held at the Green Lake Conference Center near Green Lake, Wis. Deborah Adkins, Talib Akbar, Saundra Brown, Phil Carlson, Barbie Jackson, Jessica Jacobs, Rachel Kincade, James Morgan, and I attended from MOSES. Along with other WISDOM members from around the state, we learned more about diversity, Integrated Voter Engagement, and each other – and about the specific issues that drew us together. We shared excellent meals, trying to sit with people we didn’t know yet. Many of us participated in a talent show, where some real talent showed up in the form of poetry, storytelling, an amusing skit, and song. There was a guided meditation session, and plenty of time to sit with each other and talk.
In the presidents’ meeting, new MOSES president Saundra Brown learned that some of MOSES’s counterparts around the state are struggling with membership, fundraising, or other issues. Hope was expressed that stronger members, like MOSES, can offer support to those having trouble. Saundra mentioned this at the Feb. 4 general meeting, to get at least some of us thinking about how we can offer that support.
Another important result of the conference was the election of former MOSES president Rachel Kincade as a vice president of WISDOM. Now both WISDOM vice presidential positions are held by MOSES members; Talib Akbar is the other WISDOM vice president.
The retreat inspired a few poems; here is one that I wrote.
We’ve drifted in, making our way
Down slippery roads
Through bitter cold
From all across the state,
And here we are
In this quiet place
Of dazzling winter beauty.
We stay.
Something here feeds our souls.
Something here slakes our thirst
For justice – or a dream of it, at least.
We reach across deep chasms
Empty of promise
And fill them with the hope
Of a shared, joyous future.
We stay, and gain some power
That we didn’t have before
Gain strength to stand
A little taller, to be a little braver
A little more outspoken
Than we ever were before.
We stay, knowing we’ll go back
To where we came from
To help lift other souls
Also longing to be free
Of oppression’s might,
which is, perhaps, more powerful
And more insidious
Than it’s ever been before.
Back we go
Back down those slippery roads,
Strengthened by the spirit of this place
And all that we’ve encountered here.
We leave new friends
We carry new hope
We’ve healed a bit, and –
We’re going forth
To help with healing
A little more able
Than we were before.
by MOSES Publications | Mar 1, 2024 | Information, Life After Prison, Newsletter, Prisons, Reviews
Experts Speak on Correction – Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change, by Ben Austen
By Pam Gates and Sherry Reames
A good-sized crowd turned out on Feb. 1 to hear a panel organized by the UW Law School on issues surrounding parole: its pros and cons, how it works, how it doesn’t work, and how it could work. The panelists were journalist and author Ben Austen; Wisconsin ACLU staff attorney Emma Shakeshaft; John Tate II, Wisconsin Parole Commission chair 2019-’22, and Dant’e Cottingham, a former juvenile lifer who received parole during Tate’s term and is now associate director of EXPO. Professor Kate Finley of the UW Law School moderated this “dream panel,” as Austen described it.
When Finley asked Austen why he wrote this book, he answered: “It’s the 50-year mark for mass incarceration. We’re conditioned to not think about the prison system. But looking at parole shows you both the crime and all the subsequent time in prison. And what’s the point of all that time?” In the wide-ranging conversation that followed, the panelists returned repeatedly to this question, and to several related ones.
How are paroles granted (or not)? John Tate explained that an individual’s parole-eligibility date is given at sentencing. Once that date has passed, a parole commissioner evaluates each application for parole on the basis of the individual’s completion of required programs, in-prison conduct, release plan, and risk assessment if released, as well as the time served. The chair reviews the commissioner’s recommendation and makes a decision, sometimes release but most often deferral (apply again after a prescribed length of time). There is no appeal process.
How long are incarcerated people in Wisconsin waiting before parole? As Shakeshaft pointed out, almost everyone in Wisconsin who’s parole-eligible has been incarcerated since before 2000, when Wisconsin changed to Truth in Sentencing. Last year, 801 of those people applied for release on parole, but only 37 of them were allowed to go home. By contrast, over 400 were released under Tate’s leadership, from March 2020 to June 2022. “Covid gave the decision-makers courage,” Shakeshaft commented. Tate explained that Covid also gave him the opportunity to streamline the parole process.
What does parole achieve when the system works as intended? “Do we want parole?” Austen asked. “Will it make our society more just? There are hundreds of thousands of people living in the system, serving extremely long sentences. Parole offers moments of grace and miracle. We need systems of second chances.”
The possibility of parole can provide prisoners with hope and motivation to change. Cottingham called it “a blessing and a miracle” that he himself is now free, after serving 27 years for a crime at age 17, but he also made it clear that he turned his life around during those years. “Under [Wisconsin’s] old law,” he explained, “there were incentives to do well, to work hard. Under the new law – Truth in Sentencing – there are no incentives to participate in rehab and improvement.”
What often goes wrong with this system? When Illinois abolished its parole system in 1978, even people in prison approved of the change, Austen said, because they viewed the system as racist and unjust. ““Parole is a contest of storytelling,” he explained. “The parole board is not an investigative body. It’s supposed to weigh what has happened since the crime was committed, but there’s a catch-22: the crime story, which gets told over and over. And that story doesn’t change.” States that have moved beyond just focusing on the seriousness of the crime have succeeded in significantly increasing their parole rates, but that’s hard to do. Shakeshaft agreed, noting that mass incarceration wasn’t constructed overnight. The standards don’t allow for rehabilitation. Many bills and many policies have kept people inside. We see “catch-22” time and time again, she said.
In 2018, Shakeshaft and the ACLU filed suit against Wisconsin’s parole system, alleging violations of the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments in the system’s treatment of individuals like Cottingham, who had committed crimes as minors and whose immaturity at the time of the crime was not being considered in deciding whether to grant parole. Many of those former juvenile offenders have subsequently been released, thanks in large part to the work of John Tate (who tried to reduce the barriers to such releases) as well as the ACLU. But Wisconsin’s prison population still includes many kids who received excessively long sentences, and those kids are disproportionately non-white. “We have to be intentional about race issues as we consider solutions,” Shakeshaft said.
Why should individuals convicted of a serious crime be given a second chance? “Because people change,” Tate said. “That’s the principle, to be applied universally – when it’s hard, and when it’s easy. I knew going into the role [of Parole Commission chair] that I’d have to take the hit [for controversial decisions],” he added. “Parole commissioners are civil servants, not subject to the whim of politicians. The chair? Not so much.” Tate strongly believes in Bryan Stevenson’s adage, that “We’re all better than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” He also asked, “Is the person seeking parole still the same person who committed the crime? If not, we’re punishing the wrong person.”
Cottingham added that we as a society need the talents and insights of the people in prison. They have a lot to offer, not just despite but also because of their prison experiences, which can make them ideal mentors for others who need help because of traumas, addictions, and social stigmas.
What about the role of victims in parole hearings? “For a crime victim, there is life before the crime and life after it,” Austen said. “Victims are locked into the process of parole. Their statements are always powerful. They’re asking for more punishment, but the system is failing them, too. Victims and criminals are trapped by the same experience. Restorative justice could bring something better.”
How can the correctional system do a better job of rehabilitation? “No program will rehabilitate everyone,” Tate said; “it starts with the person. We need to provide opportunities to help incarcerated people slow down their thinking, evaluate themselves.”
Cottingham testified that most of his experiences during incarceration seemed designed to break people, not to encourage self-evaluation. What finally touched him was a restorative justice circle organized by the Rev. Jerry Hancock. “I had to take an honest, clean look at myself,” Cottingham recalled. “In the circle, I was sitting next to a woman who had been the victim of a burglary. She was shaking the whole time she told the story, she was so traumatized by the experience. I thought, ‘I did that.’”
“What is rehab?” Cottingham mused later. “It’s being honest with oneself. We need trauma-informed care. Rehab in Wisconsin gets an ‘F’ from me. But there is hope; there are good people.”
What about the possibility of recidivism? Statistics show that practically no Wisconsin prisoners released on parole in recent years have been returned to prison for committing a new crime, but they all live with the possibility of being sent back for rule violations. “Your parole officer has your life in his or her hands,” Cottingham said. “When you’re locked up, the P.O. can investigate for 21 days. You can lose your job, your housing [waiting in jail for a decision.] Over 5,000 are in prison in Wisconsin due to rule violations.” Austen said that 25% of those in prison across the U.S. are there for rule violations.
How can we change the system? “Storytelling,” Austen said. Police unions and “tough-on-crime” politicians tend to oppose any form of mercy to former offenders, refusing to grant that people change. “We have to figure out how to tell better stories, stories with emotional appeal,” he said. “Statistics alone can’t change people’s minds.”
And former Parole Chair John Tate added: “We should be talking about what we’re doing – and why. The counter-narrative was so easy to consume.”
