by MOSES Publications | Jan 17, 2026 | Advocacy, Criminal Legal System, Events, Prisons, WISDOM, WISDOM Conditions of Confinement, WISDOM Old Law, Yearbook
Healing Over Harm: WISDOM Affiliates and Allied Organizations Rally at Governor’s Mansion
A good-sized crowd turned out for this WISDOM-organized demonstration on August 23. At least 20 members of MOSES were on hand, many with homemade signs, joining a large contingent from MICAH in Milwaukee, representatives from other WISDOM affiliates around the state, and allies from other organizations like the ACLU and the Poor People’s Campaign. MOSES Organizer James Morgan served as emcee, introducing all the speakers and energizing the crowd with repeated chants of “Healing Over Harm! People Over Prisons!”
WISDOM president, the Rev. Kathleen Gloff, opened the program with a memorably powerful prayer, and the Rev. Michael Burch from MOSES and The Crossing closed the event on a note of hope. The speakers in between kept the intensity level high as they offered first-hand testimonies to the cruelties and injustices of Wisconsin’s incarceration system. Here’s the list of speakers and their subjects:
- JenAnn Bauer, on issues especially impacting women prisoners;
- Bobby Ayala, on his experience as an Old Law juvenile lifer;
- Megan Hoffman, whose mentally ill father died at Waupun due to medical neglect;
- Tammy Jackson, a mother poetically protesting the incarceration of her three daughters;
- Tom Gilbert, a father working against the revocation system that ensnared his son;
- Mark Rice, WISDOM Transformational Justice Coordinator, summarizing the reforms we will demand from this governor, the Legislature, and all political candidates in 2026;
- Kina Collins, WISDOM interim executive director, on why Wisconsin policies matter regionally and nationally;
- Ray Mendoza, a family member calling on other men to stand up against the shackling of incarcerated pregnant women.
by MOSES Publications | Jan 17, 2026 | Advocacy, Events, WISDOM
Madison Action Day: WISDOM Affiliates Gather to Speak to State Legislators
The 2025 edition of this biannual event on April 10 received an extra boost of energy as some 400 participants celebrated the 25th anniversary of WISDOM. The morning began with a plenary session at the Masonic Temple. This was followed by a march to the Capitol and a rally on the State Street steps, visits to legislative offices, and a wrap-up at Grace Episcopal Church, before many boarded buses to return to their homes across the state.
The morning program included short videos introducing each of the 14 affiliates. Speakers then explained the values that underlie WISDOM’s work: Radical Inclusion, Costly Reconciliation, and Living for the Seventh Generation. Entertainment was provided by a drum circle led by Talib Akbar and songs from the Raging Grannies. Speakers from MOSES at the Capitol rally included Tammy Jackson, Saundra Brown, and Shel Gross.
In the afternoon, the visitors to legislators’ offices presented demands on four key issues: (1) Close the Green Bay Correctional Institution without building another prison; (2) Give all immigrants a chance to get a driver’s license; (3) Fund our public schools fairly; and (4) Expand Badgercare. In addition, visitors had the opportunity to present other issues their affiliates were focusing on.
by MOSES Publications | Jan 17, 2026 | Advocacy, Criminal Legal System, Dane County Jail, Diversions from Incarceration, JSRI Justice System Reform Initiatives, Yearbook
- JSRI’s priorities for 2025 and beyond. The italicized text describes progress made in 2025.
- The Crisis/Triage Center is an essential reform that will help keep people out of the criminal-legal system. It will also be an important resource for some individuals when they are having a mental health crisis. Establishing this center has been delayed, due both to a new state administrative rule and to funding issues.
- The Community Alternative Response Emergency Services (CARES), a non-law-enforcement response program, has been well received in Madison and was expanded to Sun Prairie in 2025.
- The Dane County Department of Public Safety Communications (911 Center) was supposed to add a Mental Health and Call Diversion Division. This addition was cut from the 2026 County budget, but it is still needed. Some recognition of the promise of this program was indicated in the budget by retaining funding for the administrator, who is laying the foundation for eventual creation of this division.
- Dane County has multiple jail- and prison-diversion programs. The largest is the Deferred Prosecution Program (DPP). The final budget retained one position that had been slated to be cut from the DPP. The budget also added two supervisor positions to the Comprehensive Community Services (CCS) program, which provides case-managed services and self-selected treatment for individuals with mental-health and substance-abuse issues.
- Jail Consolidation Project. The current jail is out-of-date and inhumane. The consolidation project has come with many commitments regarding solitary confinement, training, reentry, mental health, family visitation, data, and other issues. Construction on the new, more humane jail is visibly under way.
- Expansion of data collection, analysis, and reporting about all aspects (arrests, court, jail, prison, etc.) of the Dane County criminal-legal system. Progress has been made, but more needs to be done for crisis response and mental health. For more information on this, see https://cjc.danecounty.gov/Data-and-Dashboards.
- Freezing long-vacant positions in the Sheriff’s Office and reinvesting the savings in criminal-legal system reform. This issue was fiercely argued, but it ended up widely supported by the members of the County Board. MOSES advocated strongly for this result; see accompanying article.
- The new Dane County Office of Justice Reform is dedicated to implementing reforms. One of its first initiatives will be a pilot of a Community Court, which is scheduled to open in Dane County in 2026.
- Expanding treatment and services to individuals in the Huber (jail work-release) program. We have not seen much change here.
- Orientations for new and relatively recently elected county supervisors
In February and March, we held online orientation sessions for six supervisors. We introduced them to MOSES and JSRI and learned why they had joined the Board.
We attended multiple tours of the Dane County Jail and of the 911 Center. We invited and heard from many guest speakers, including the Clerk of Courts, the director of Pretrial Services, the 911 Center manager, the Office of Justice Reform director, the Deferred Prosecution Program manager, and the Community Court manager.
- Sequential Intercept Model
We participated in the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) workshop. SIM groups the complexity of the criminal-legal system into sequential steps, to consider how people can be diverted at each step. The goal is to help individuals get the services and treatments they need and to keep them out of the criminal-legal system and the jail. The SIM model is useful for guiding future improvements and reforms. MOSES is particularly happy with Dane County’s focus on the SIM model, because it starts with the assumption that the County should maximize diversion from the criminal-legal system at every possible point.
- Dane County Jail Communication Contract
In 2025, it was proposed that the County contract with a company that would have electronically scanned all paper letters coming into the jail. The vendor would also have owned and monetized data collected from jail residents, and from individuals communicating with them. There was significant community response, including from MOSES, against this contract. The County Board rejected the contract, extended the current contract, and now needs to come up with another approach.
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- The Dane County Department of Public Safety Communications (911 Center) Mental Health and Call Diversion Division
We advocated against cutting four crisis-work positions from the County budget. Our advocacy results from our interest in CARES, where about 25% of the calls can be handled over the phone by an experienced crisis worker, without the need to send out the CARES mobile crisis unit. These positions provide a way to expand the over-the-phone part of CARES throughout the entire county at a very modest cost. The four positions were cut, but there is significant interest in restoring them at some point.
- 2026 County budget compromise
We strongly advocated in favor of the compromise that restored some of the cuts to the social safety net that were in County Executive Melissa Agard’s original budget.
- There is a likelihood of another budget shortfall in 2027. It is often said that budgets are moral documents; we spend on what we value. The balance between punishment and rehabilitation in Dane County will play out in our budgets.
- Staffing for the new jail will play a large role in shaping the next County budget.
- The impact of cuts to federal and /state safety-net programs will become increasingly urgent.
- The Community Court pilot, which represents a significant reform, will be initiated. There is widespread support for this initiative. The main task for advocates is to preserve the community and supportive character of the Community Court.
- Critical services will need to be addressed, including homeless shelters, a detox center, and the jail communications contract.
- County Board elections will be held, which will bring in new supervisors.
- The debate over the meaning of “public safety” will continue.
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.
