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.