by MOSES Publications | Jan 17, 2026 | Advocacy, WISDOM, Yearbook
On Nov. 12, advocates from WISDOM and affiliated organizations packed a hearing room at the Capitol for a Listening Session on key issues affecting our state. Unusually for those of us in MOSES, this event provided an opportunity to hear not only from those seeking reforms to the criminal-legal system, but also from immigrant families, dairy farmers who employ immigrants, and a representative of the “Rights of Nature” movement about strengthening environmental protection. All agreed on the urgent need for legislation that would give undocumented workers
the legal right to drive and a license to prove it. The event drew two familiar members of the Legislature – Reps. Darrin Madison and Ryan Clancy of Milwaukee – and two new ones – Reps. Amaad Rivera-Wagner of Green Bay and Karen DeSanto of Baraboo. Another seven legislators sent staff members from their offices.
Organizers agreed that the event was successful in getting our issues onto the radar of more lawmakers, but we need to follow up with a campaign of office visits and sustained conversations before this session ends.
by MOSES Publications | Jan 17, 2026 | Criminal Legal System, Events, WISDOM Conditions of Confinement, Yearbook
On Oct. 11 and 12, the nationwide Journey to Justice/Unlock the Box Bus Tour stopped in Madison, providing extraordinary opportunities to learn what solitary confinement is like and what it does to people. Visitors to the bus could lie down on the narrow bunk in a solitary-sized cell, see photographs, read moving letters from prisoners in solitary about the sights they missed most, listen to audio recordings about solitary, and much more. There was simply not enough time to take it all in.
Inside the Madison Christian Community building, whose parking lot hosted the bus that Sunday, attendees had the opportunity to hear two memorable panel discussions. The first panel brought together four people who could testify from their own experience to the destructive effects of solitary confinement – JenAnn Bauer, Talib Akbar, Ventae Parrow, and Megan Hoffman Kolb – and four state legislators who are proposing measures that would drastically limit solitary and improve other conditions of confinement in Wisconsin prisons. The legislators who participated were Reps. Darrin Madison and Ryan Clancy, both of Milwaukee, Rep. Francesca Hong of Madison, and Sen. Kelda Roys, also from Madison.
The later panel, focused specifically on Women in Solitary, was more sparsely attended but equally hard-hitting. Panelists Juli Bliefnick, Yolanda Perkins, and Jessica Jacobs shared painful experiences that they had personally experienced or witnessed and answered questions from the audience.
For more details on this event, see the fine article by Frank Zufall, “Nationwide bus tour dramatizes the horror of solitary confinement,” published online by the Wisconsin Examiner on Oct. 16, 2025.
by MOSES Publications | Jan 17, 2026 | Criminal Legal System, Events, Organizations and Alliances, Policing, Racial Equity, Yearbook
On Jan. 17, 2025, JustDane and the Madison Justice Team hosted “A Just Conversation on Discretion, Charging Disparities, and Racial Dynamics in Criminal Justice.” This event featured a panel of experts on different aspects of the criminal-legal system, especially as it operates in Dane County.
- Detective Sgt. Kenneth Mosley, a member of the Madison Police Department since 2007, emphasized the MPD’s efforts to reduce racial disparities in the ways police treat civilians.
- UW-Madison Sociology Professor Emeritus Doug Maynard shared the results of a national study of racial patterns in traffic stops and his own study of how police officers can inadvertently trigger resistance by the way they address drivers.
- UW Criminal Law Professor Larry Glinberg, who has experience both as a prosecutor and as a defender, addressed the problems created by D.A.s who “stack charges,” piling up charges and increasing the severity of penalties in a way that may not improve public safety but definitely feeds mass incarceration.
- Attorney Jack Idlas, a criminal-law specialist currently working as a public defender, described the nearly impossible job of providing adequate representation for most indigent clients, given the size of a typical caseload and the inefficiencies and other barriers built into the system.
- Federal District Judge James Peterson suggested that the best way of reducing disparities in sentencing would be to give judges more discretion. Imposing mandatory guidelines and minimum sentences, he argued, has been a major contributor to mass incarceration.
by MOSES Publications | Jan 17, 2026 | MOSES leadership, Yearbook
Dear MOSES Family,
I extend my heartfelt gratitude to each of you for your hard work, unwavering support, deep dedication, and steadfast determination. Because of your commitment, we continue to build collective power and move closer to dismantling the unjust systems that harm our communities.
As we reflect on this past year, my heart is filled with gratitude, hope, and renewed determination. The journey toward justice is never easy, yet each one of you — members, volunteers, partners, and supporters — has shown what is possible when ordinary people unite with extraordinary purpose.
In 2025, MOSES continued to build collective power to dismantle the systems of mass incarceration and mass supervision and to eradicate the racial disparities in our community that contribute to them. These systems have harmed our communities for far too long. We lifted our voices at the Capitol. We met with leaders and decision-makers. We listened to the voices in our congregations, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and our homes. And just as importantly, we cared for one another — offering strength when the road was hard and celebrating every victory, large or small.
This yearbook is more than a collection of photos and events. It is a testament to who we are: an organization rooted in faith, collaboration, courage, and deep love for our community. It reminds us that justice is not a moment — it is a commitment. It is the steady work of people who believe in equity, dignity, and the boundless potential of every human being.
Looking ahead, we will continue to challenge systems that do not serve us. We will continue to uplift voices that have been ignored. And we will continue to embody the values that guide us: strength, equity, and solidarity.
Thank you for standing with MOSES. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for believing that change is possible — and for working every day to make it real. Together, we will keep pushing forward until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
With gratitude and determination,
Saundra Brown, President
MOSES – Madison Organizing in Strength, Equity, and Solidarity
by MOSES Publications | Jan 17, 2026 | Reviews, Yearbook
when they call you a terrorist: a black lives matter memoir
By Patrisse Khan-Cullors
Patrisse Khan-Cullors, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, is an outspoken activist fiercely defensive of her people – the people who are living Black lives in America. In this memoir, she paints a vivid picture of what it’s like to grow up Black and poor in America as the War on Drugs rages, what it’s like for your mom to work several jobs to keep a roof over the family and food in their bellies, what it’s like when your older brothers are harassed by the police as soon as they hit their teens, what it’s like to lose your beloved brother in the carceral system and, when you find him, to see him even more damaged by the mistreatment he’s suffered while incarcerated with mental illness. We learn of her passionate support of many who are caught up in the police nets of that time. We read the names of so many Black people killed by the police and feel her anguish over each one. And we begin to wonder, as she most certainly intended us to wonder: Just who are the terrorists?
Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, writes: “this is a must-read for all of us; it forces us to face the consequences of the choices our nation made when we criminalized a generation.”
