by MOSES Publications | May 21, 2025 | Featured, Newsletter, Racial Equity, Reviews
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, by Timothy Egan, Viking, 2023
Reviewed by Pam Gates
And what a story this is! It may shock and embarrass us white Northerners, who like to think we have a better handle on decency in relations with “other” Americans than our Southern counterparts. This story is from America’s heartland, Indiana, though it wanders a bit into Ohio and even to places a little further north, like Wisconsin.
Another aspect that makes this story so compelling is its uncanny parallel with today, exactly one century later. The person behind the rise of the Klan in Indiana, D.C. Stephenson, had his eyes on the White House, where now another very troubling person casts phobic views and controls over a new set of decoys and scapegoats – a whole century later.
Timothy Egan is an excellent writer. This book is gripping. I usually do my reading before bed, but I had to give that up with this one; it didn’t settle me down for a peaceful night! And the sad thing is, it’s all true. Egan’s research is thorough. He prefaces his book with this author’s note: “The following story is true. Dialogue and internal monologue are verbatim from court testimony, oral histories, autobiographies, letters, diaries, and newspaper quotes.”
Egan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, chooses stories from American history that he delves into and reports on in depth, stories we have probably heard about, such as the Dust Bowl during the Depression. He writes a whole book on the topic, telling us things most of us never knew. The one about the Dust Bowl is titled The Worst Hard Time, one of nine books listed at the beginning of A Fever in the Heartland, under “Also by Timothy Egan.” Based on my experience with three of Egan’s books, I would recommend every one of them to a reader curious about different phenomena in America’s history.
But, back to Indiana and the rise of the Klan. D.C. Stephenson rolled into the state in 1922 from thoroughly undistinguished beginnings in Oklahoma. He was a complete unknown, making grandiose claims as to his background, but he built an empire, slowly exerting control over thousands, who paid dues to wear a sheet and ostracize or terrorize fellow humans of other races or religions. Bank owners, newspaper editors, state court judges, mayors, sheriffs, townsfolk — all signed up to be Klansmen. Stephenson cast a wide net that engulfed whole communities with its power.
A trial eventually brought all this to an end, a trial with powerful testimony by the woman in the subtitle. I won’t reveal more than that; you need to read it for yourself. It won’t take long! I had the book from the library on a 14-day loan, and I finished it easily in those 14 days.
But I will share with you some observations from the last chapter, just before the epilogue, as the Klan fell from grace after the trial ended in November 1925. Egan quoted a Chicago Tribune editorial that he said “sounded like a bad fairy tale”: “It came about that American citizens in Indiana were judged by their religion, condemned because of their race, illegally punished because of their opinions, hounded because of their personal conduct; and a state of terror was substituted for law.”
“But,” Egan asks, “was it really an aberration?” He then describes a lynching in Marion, Ind., the last known lynching of Black people in Indiana, and possibly the last north of the Mason-Dixon Line. It took place in August 1930, five years after the Klan began its fall into ignominy. A mob pulled three young Black men from the local jail and hanged them in the public square. Thousands witnessed this. No indictments were ever issued.
Egan does a wrap-up in his epilogue, following up on those who fought the Klan throughout its rise, as well as those who led it. And he makes broader observations. “What if,” he writes, “the leaders of the 1920s Klan didn’t drive public sentiment, but rode it? A vein of hatred was always there for the tapping. It’s there still, and explains much of the madness threatening American life a hundred years after Stephenson made a mockery of the moral principles of the Heartland.”
These quotations also give you a sample of Egan’s excellent writing. I urge you to read this book!
by MOSES Publications | May 21, 2025 | Life After Prison, Profiles
Meet Returning Citizen Leon Irby
By Sherry Reames
When Leon Irby entered prison in 1972, he was facing the kind of sentence that could, under the right circumstances, have allowed his release on parole as soon as 1999 or 2000. As things turned out, however, he wasn’t released until another 25 years had gone by. When I asked what kept him behind bars for more than 50 years, he said, with a wry smile, that he was a “‘60s social activist” in his youth and never let himself be reconciled to the system that was oppressing him and other prisoners.
Leon nearly always resisted in nonviolent ways, having been influenced by Martin Luther King Jr. But he continually aggravated the authorities by filing complaints, participating in hunger strikes, writing letters to the press, and calling unwelcome attention to problems the authorities were trying to conceal. He also learned enough about the law to file appeal after appeal on behalf of other prisoners as well as himself. And sometimes his appeals succeeded! One of his important cases established the right of Wisconsin prisoners to file civil actions to correct errors and falsifications in their records. Another case made it harder for prison authorities to make unjustified use of solitary confinement.
The authorities retaliated against Leon, of course. They stood back and allowed other prisoners to beat him up. They tried diagnosing him as mentally ill and sought court permission to medicate him against his will, but the judge ruled that he was sane. They kept him in solitary confinement for years, and even sent him to the Supermax at Boscobel. (He responded by filing a suit over conditions there.) They also shipped him out of state to the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas – where, in an irony they presumably didn’t expect, he found more humane treatment than he’d seen and experienced in Wisconsin.
Leon’s most important victory over the system, of course, was his ability to survive all those ordeals. He finally emerged from prison in January 2025 with his mind and spirit still intact. Allies at the UW Law School, including professors Kate Finley and Zoe Engberg and their students, had been working since 2017 to get him released on parole, and Attorney Laura Yurs and her assistant Danté Cottingham pitched in at the end to satisfy the final requirements from the parole board. Leon has already lectured to one of Professor Engberg’s classes, sharing some of his hard-won knowledge of the prison system.
Leon has a lot to teach non-lawyers too, as I discovered in a couple of half-hour conversations, because he knows so much about the history of Wisconsin’s penal system, as well as its current problems. He has started attending the MOSES monthly general meetings, and I hope many other MOSES members will get to know him. We have a lot to learn from his experience and insights, and I hope we can repay some of that debt by sharing our knowledge of Madison as he looks for a job and more permanent housing here.
by MOSES Publications | Mar 17, 2025 | Action Opportunities, Advocacy, Housing, Information, Newsletter, RJAC Racial Justice for All Children
By Patti LaCross
This year the Temporary Education Program leaders of MMSD and Sun Prairie Schools, in coordination with the Education+ Advocacy Group of the Homeless Services Consortium (HSC) in which I participate, expanded the annual Homeless Awareness effort to include other Dane County schools.
Here is some of what we heard that day:
- While the average US housing vacancy is 2%, Wisconsin’s is now less than ½%. Dane County has the largest housing gap in the state, already 11,000 short.
- Our driver of homelessness is not poverty so much as affordability. Milwaukee rents average $950/month for one bedroom, $1000/month for two bedrooms. Madison’s averages are $1430 for one bedroom and $1700 for two bedrooms, and rising. Wisconsin landlords aren’t held to a rent ceiling.
- This fall MMSD was serving over 800 students experiencing homelessness, with many more doubled-up, often precariously. In Sun Prairie those who renew their lease are paying $400 more per month, and shelters have a 300-person waitlist. Last year’s number of about 150 homeless students was doubling
- Outlying communities reported their first waves of homeless students, in single to double digits. With little capacity and no funding, they depend on churches to help. At least one community has developed a proactive policing policy to protect those unhoused.
Since then, on February 12 the HSC Education & Advocacy Committee endorsed a challenge by advocates to the management of the Beacon, which provides day shelter for the unhoused. They point out that access to housing navigation in that space would help guests move toward housing. The committee also raised concerns about whether Dane County’s practice of not asking or recording information about immigrant status may be challenged by the new federal administration. For more information check out the Dane County Homeless Justice Initiative.
Actions you are invited to take:
- National Low Income Housing Coalition – Regarding passage of a final fiscal
year 2025 spending bill: https://nlihc.quorum.us/campaign/81487/
Thanks for your interest and possible support! The Housing Group of the Racial Justice for All Children Taskforce welcomes you to join us on Zoom on the 3rd Tuesday of the month from 4:30 to 6pm. These are All Our Children!
by MOSES Publications | Mar 17, 2025 | Information, Newsletter, Profiles
By Ken Warren
Madison Christian Community (MCC), one of the faith communities supporting MOSES, is rather unique in the area. The church actually consists of two congregations from different denominations, Advent Lutheran of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) and Community of Hope of the United Church of Christ (UCC). The building contains two sanctuaries where the two congregations typically have individual worship services. About 45 times a year the two congregations have the opportunity to worship together, with 10 to 12 of those being joint Sunday Morning services.The pastors are the Rev. Jen Petricca Bloesch of Community of Hope and the Rev. Nick Utphall of Advent Lutheran.
I had the opportunity to speak with the two pastors regarding the mission of the two congregations, the joint mission of MCC, and their intersection with MOSES. When asked about their knowledge of MOSES, both pastors acknowledged a general understanding of the mission of MOSES but less awareness of the specific current actions of the organization. Pastor Nick is more aware of the history of MOSES, as he has been involved for many years with criminal justice concerns through the Lutheran Office for Public Policy in Wisconsin (LOPPW). The issues and concerns of that organization overlap with those of WISDOM and MOSES. Pastor Jen, as a newer pastor in the area, is less familiar with the history of MOSES, but she is becoming more aware of some of the specific issues, as she has been researching social justice issues in Dane County for a sermon series.
Pastor Jen sees MOSES reflecting the beliefs of the UCC denomination because one of its strong principles is to honor the dignity of the individual, regardless of social, economic, or ethnic status. More specifically, in 2023 the UCC National Synod approved a resolution condemning prolonged solitary confinement as torture. Pastor Nick stresses the fact that the church is a voice for the voiceless. In 2013 the ELCA adopted a social statement that called for significant prison reform. (Click here to read the statement.) https://www.elca.org/faith/faith-and-society/social-statements/criminal-justice?_ga=2.168586020.466169373.1739233975-1457664399.1532463199
Financial support for MOSES comes through the unified body of Madison Christian Community (rather than through the individual congregations), as does much of MCC’s engagement with social issues. Both pastors see MOSES as reflecting the values and beliefs of MCC, and Pastor Nick points out that as a congregation heavily consisting of privileged white people, it is easier to give money to causes. Both pastors also point out that, besides financial support, the church has many programs directed toward the social needs of the community, and many members put their hands and minds to use for those causes, many of which overlap with MOSES’ aims. Additionally, many members are engaged in efforts for community welfare through organizations other than the church.
When asked how MOSES could best bring information and concerns to the attention of the members of MCC, Pastor Jen pointed out that on a national and state level, jail and prison advocacy is not on center stage. She suggests that some semi-regular education about prison reform issues, whether through announcements at services on Sunday morning, articles in the MCC weekly newsletter, or on the MCC webpage, would be of value. Pastor Nick caused this writer some discomfort when he stated that he was not aware that MOSES puts out a newsletter every two months. He pointed out that he gets regular emails from groups such as JustDane and will scan them for pertinent articles. It is obviously not effective to just place a couple of copies of the newsletter in the community area of the church, since its availability must be publicized. Pastor Nick also suggested presenting a “MOSES Fact of the Month” to the church.
Both Pastors Nick and Jen point out that the ideological orientation of MCC fits very well with the mission of MOSES. Pastor Jen says that she never fears repercussions from the congregation if she delivers a sermon on social concerns. Pastor Nick commented that he feels he preaches less on political issues than when he was at a previous church. At MCC, everyone is kind of on the same page. He suggested that a sermon should motivate us to think theologically (and act) about social concerns, and not just pat ourselves on the back for how right our political perspective is. Pastor Jen says that the important work is to turn that ideological orientation into meaningful action. MOSES can help in that way by letting the congregation know about specific actions our organization is taking and encouraging participation.
by Margaret Irwin | Mar 17, 2025 | Information, Life After Prison, Newsletter, Prisons, Profiles
By Margaret Irwin
Growing up in a troubled home, Jessica Jacobs had to deal with a lot of problems; and as she puts it, the problems get passed down from one generation to the next. Jessica appreciates her mother, who did the best she could to take care of the family, mostly as a single mom. Nevertheless, Jessica had her first child at 14. She was fostered by a friend of the family when her mom wasn’t able to take care of her. Jessica started working full time and had to drop out of school very early. By the age of 16 she was emancipated and living in her own apartment.
She was locked up for the first time for a DUI when she was 17. For Jessica, the probation system in Wisconsin seemed to be set up to keep her incarcerated. She was caught up in a cycle, she says; “every dumb decision” landed her back in jail. She didn’t realize it at the time, but she was suffering from PTSD and used alcohol and drugs to self-medicate. Continued substance abuse eventually led her to prison in her 20’s. What she needed was treatment, not incarceration. She overdosed twice in an attempt to end her suffering. The response of the carceral system, when this young woman was near death, was to charge her for having drugs in her system. She readily admitted she had taken the drugs, but no drugs were found in her possession. Her mental health was further impaired due to assaults by prison officers.
In prison Jessica found the programming was of mixed value. Some of it was okay, but other programs she labels “treacherous.” “They want you to become a robot,” she says. In any case, these programs didn’t help her break free from addiction, which she so badly wanted and needed. She found an additional barrier to healing in transitional housing arrangements that were often not healthy and safe.
Jessica’s desperate search for help eventually led her to discover she was suffering from PTSD. She hadn’t understood that she was having a mental health crisis when her life would spiral out of control. She had to learn what PTSD does to you; she had to learn to recognize what was happening and to use techniques to deal with the crisis.
As she healed, Jessica became determined to make changes for people inside prison, as well as when they are released. She began her educational journey with the Odyssey program. From there she graduated from Madison College, and now she is a student at the UW. She plans to declare a double major in social welfare and anthropology. Every step of the way, she has been encouraged by mentors to take the next step.
Another form of learning was Jessica’s introduction to advocacy groups – first FREE, and then MOSES and WISDOM. She attended trainings; she learned about the JSRI and Conditions of Confinement task forces; she met supportive people like Peggy West-Schroder, James Morgan, and Rachel Kincade. Last year Peggy told her to apply for the position of organizer of FREE Madison, and she got the job!
FREE works to support both women in prison and those formerly incarcerated. Jessica helps FREE work toward their goals, which include a prison doula program, Health Care for All, Unchained Wisconsin (legislation to prohibit shackling of pregnant women in prison), Housing Not Handcuffs (dignified housing as a human right), and Circles of Support for women involved in the carceral system. Jessica currently leads a Circle of Support in the Dane County juvenile detention center. She feels called to work with girls who are in trouble because she has been there herself. She finds joy in the way the girls connect with her immediately when she tells her story.
In her journey of transformation from troubled young person to free, strong, and mature contributing citizen, Jessica has “gone with the flow,” letting her higher power guide her. Her career goal is to teach, either in an alternative high school or in prison. She would love to work in Odyssey Beyond Bars. Outside of work, her greatest source of joy is her sons, as she watches them become successful young men.
Last December Jessica was one of the honorees at the MOSES Transformation Celebration. Her message to MOSES is one of thanks for our support, work, and commitment. “You have such empathy and compassion to do this work,” she says, “even though you haven’t directly experienced these things.”
by MOSES Publications | Mar 17, 2025 | Community Issues, Events, Information, JSRI Justice System Reform Initiatives, Newsletter, Racial Equity
A JustConversation on Discretion, Charging Disparities, and Racial Dynamics in Criminal Justice
By Pamela Gates, with thanks to Vicki Warren
On Jan. 17, 2025, JustDane and the Madison Justice Team hosted a panel that explored justice in Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, and the nation under the particular topics of discretion, disparities, and equity. JustDane Associate Director Shar-Ron Buie moderated the panel at the UW Partnership Space before a very interested crowd that filled the room.
There are critical issues in the criminal-legal system, Buie said; the most pressing are the disparities. How can we make changes so that charging decisions are fair and transparent? And how can these panelists collaborate to make meaningful change?
The panelists:
UW Criminal Law Professor Larry Glinberg, attorney, director of the Wisconsin Prosecution Project, former assistant DA, and member of the Federal Defenders Services Board. He also served as a staff attorney with the Wisconsin Innocence Project for 1.5 years, helping wrongly convicted people regain freedom.
Atty. Jack Idlas, a criminal-law specialist, former assistant legal counsel to Gov. Evers on issuing pardons. He is a public defender in Wisconsin and previously served in that capacity in Lake County, Illinois. He also worked in the juvenile system in Cook County, Illinois. He has written a book titled Courtroom 302.
The Honorable Judge James Peterson is chief judge for the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin. He was appointed in 2014 by President Obama.
UW-Madison Sociology Professor Emeritus Doug Maynard described himself as a “conversation analyst.” He has written a book titled Inside Plea Bargaining. He has also researched jury deliberations and studied statistical patterns on how criminal-legal system involvement gets started.
Detective Sgt. Kenneth Mosley, a member of the Madison Police Department (MPD) since 2007, previously taught in Milwaukee public schools and worked in a small Milwaukee County mobile psychiatric unit with kids in crisis mode. He was a school resource officer (SRO) for four years at La Follette High School, practicing restorative justice daily and facilitating peer courts. He worked with the COPS program in the schools until 2018, when the program ended because crime was spiking and officers were needed elsewhere. He has been newly appointed by the MPD to receive complaints and investigate officers charged with wrongful conduct.
Panelists address discretion, disparities, and equity in their particular areas of expertise.
Det. Sgt. Mosley stressed that he could not speak to the situation in any police departments other than Madison. He said it is “important to bring people in the community to partner with us, to help us remedy the problems in Madison.” He strongly defended the MPD, describing its “Education, Accountability, Transparency” (EAT) policy and offering data from Madison’s south side: a lower rate of stops of people of color, plus a regular review of stops. He noted that MPD officers take a vow not to give preferential treatment, and they are always asking how they can do better.
The MPD requires its officers to take implicit bias training, he said, and it’s trying to diversify, in particular by adding more people of color. The department works on communication and community-based efforts like this panel discussion and participates in such community connections as Coffee with a Cop, National Night Out, Juneteenth, and the Civilian-Police Academy. Officers view themselves as educators and community partners and are very willing, for example, to call on mental-health professionals when they need to.
Prof. Maynard addressed a large U.S. study in which 95 million traffic stops were analyzed. There were definite patterns: Black drivers were stopped more, but were less likely to be stopped after dark. The bar for searching Black drivers’ vehicles was lower than that for searching white drivers’ vehicles.
In Dane County, Maynard continued, whites make up 84% of the population, 64% of arrests, and 52% of the arrests that come before the DA. Blacks make up 6% of the population, 31% of arrests, and 40% of the arrests that come before the DA. (DA referrals are made on the basis of the arrest reports.)
How can law enforcement and community agencies build trust? Maynard asked, and he answered:
- Require body cameras; the benefits outweigh the costs.
- Pay attention to the police department’s public materials, and study disciplinary reports.
- Establish a civilian police-oversight board (which Madison has done).
- Focus on what the police actually do, and provide training materials.
- Conduct interviews and/or conversations between the police and the community to identify issues. Use a qualitative approach to learn, for example, what a police encounter was like.
- Citing a news story from another state, Maynard added that police need to recognize that their own actions might precipitate negative reactions, and that officers’ reports might omit or understate their own provocative behavior.
Prof. Glinberg said the criminal-legal system has significant weaknesses. He particularly addressed what is called “charge-stacking”: piling up charges against an accused person. A prosecutor has vast discretion; how can that discretion be used in a fair and principled way? What is the purpose of issuing multiple charges? In the prosecutor’s office, he said, there’s a remarkable lack of data about the effectiveness of charge-stacking. Many DAs’ offices rely not on data but on instinct. For example, if the penalty on a previous conviction didn’t work (i.e., the person has reoffended), the court’s solution is to increase the severity of the penalty. In reality, that doesn’t result in a better outcome.
The way we handle low-level cases is what is feeding mass incarceration. What are we trying to achieve? Greater public safety? We need to develop data and to study the effects of our interventions. If people repeatedly offend, then our interventions aren’t working.
We need more legal limitations on prosecution. Prosecutors and the courts need to accept responsibility for both mass incarceration and the racial disparities in the system. The place to try to exert influence is the DA’s office.
What are our objectives? Are we achieving them? Are we measuring them? There’s lots of data collected on policing, but not so much on sentencing and other points in the process. Bail reform is hugely important. Cash bail is not effective; it doesn’t result in greater public safety.
How do public defenders advocate for indigent clients? Atty. Idlas started by quoting from his book, Courtroom 302: “You get used to it [disparity]. We have a largely reactive system. The Public Defender’s Office has little guidance.”
It is the duty of public defenders (PDs) to defend vigorously, he said, but implicit biases play a large role, and PDs are overwhelmed with work. It’s almost impossible for them to do justice to the number of cases they carry. So they need to triage, and sometimes clients plead guilty when they might go free if more time were spent on their case.
PDs are faced with a multitude of tasks for each case they handle: Which witnesses, if any, should be interviewed? What motions should be filed? What legal research should be done? What experts should be hired? How much time should be spent with each client?
Almost everyone in the system is incredibly well-intentioned, but also severely taxed, he said, and many clients, especially clients of color, are mistrustful of the system. Some clients treat us poorly, he added, which makes our job of defending them more difficult.
What are possible reforms? Smaller caseloads. More support staff. More collaborative teamwork. More diversity in staffing, which would increase clients’ trust and would also lead to more perspective.
If the state courts were better organized – like having a calendar that makes sense – PDs’ time could be better used, he said. PDs frequently have to go from one courtroom to another, or even from one building to another, many times a day. The Office of the Public Defender needs better internal organization, e.g. limiting the types of cases individual PDs handle, so they can develop some expertise in certain areas. And always there must be awareness of implicit bias.
“When you look at system outcomes, everyone in the system is covered by that filth,” Idlas concluded.
What role can the judiciary play in reducing disparities in sentencing? Judge Peterson’s basic answer was: more discretion. When discretion was removed by “Three Strikes” and “Truth in Sentencing” laws and replaced by mandatory guidelines and minimum sentences, the result was mass incarceration. An example is the sentencing for powder vs. crack cocaine. It used to be 1:100; now it is 1:18. Powder was known as the “white” drug and crack as the “Black” drug. Even though the disparity has been reduced significantly, it is still severely out of balance.
With regard to bail reform, Peterson declared, “Nobody in my court has ever spent a night in jail due to cash bail.” He feels this policy gives defendants a chance to show, while awaiting trial, that they can do better. “I think we [judges] do pretty well at getting around the built-in disparities when we can use our own discretion,” Peterson said. He noted that federal judges have more discretion than state judges. He also noted that most federal judges’ cases are civil, not criminal. He has fewer cases than state judges do, too, which allows him time to dig deeper into what happened.
“Mass incarceration didn’t just fall from the sky,” Buie concluded. “It was a steady process. It will take time to reverse it. We must become engaged. To dismantle mass incarceration, the answer is, “engagement, engagement, engagement!”
There was time for a little bit of audience commentary:
Kelli Thompson, former director of the state Office of the Public Defender, was in the audience. She noted that there are over 40 public defender offices in Wisconsin. She gave a passionate defense of her former clients, paraphrased here: We spend $1 billion a year to fill prison beds! We’ve done research; how do we get our research data to be used to start treating people humanely? Every person is a human being! Hang that declaration on the wall, and don’t forget it! Even one night in jail disrupts a person, disrupts their family, and disrupts their community!
The event ended with this pointed question from an audience member: When will the assumption of innocent until proven guilty be reinstated? The answer: We need to change our approach via the political process. It’s our duty as citizens.
