by MOSES Publications | May 4, 2026 | Dane County Jail, Life After Prison, Racism and Racial Equity, Reviews
Criminal Justice Workshop at Bethel Lutheran April 23
Kalvin Barrett, Dennis Franklin, Dana Pellebon, Paul Saeman Share Perspectives
By Pam Gates
Among the events at a one-day conference titled “Nonviolence in Action: An Interfaith Conversation on Building the Beloved Community” was an interesting workshop on Criminal Justice Reform. Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett, EXPO Co-Director Dennis Franklin, Rape Crisis Center Executive Director and former Dane County Board supervisor Dana Pellebon, and MOSES President-elect Paul Saeman all offered insights to a packed room.
Sheriff Barrett focused his initial comments on the jail’s policy of administering addiction medications to jail residents. He emphasized how important this is, and that the jail has nurses and counselors on staff for this purpose, plus a deputy in charge of that aspect of operations. They administer methadone, naltrexone, or buprenorphine to people already taking those, and they also start people identified as needing addiction treatment. If the jail doesn’t do this, Barrett said, the risk of overdose after jail is very high: people go from cold-turkey abstinence in jail to drug availability once they’re out, which is difficult for them to handle without medication support.
Dennis Franklin spoke about EXPO’s work establishing safe and dignified housing for women returning from incarceration – offering them a safe place to live and helping them address problems during re-entry. Besides overseeing the original SAFE House, where individual women get support and services to help them during this transitional period, EXPO now has a Transition House with four 2-bedroom units, where women can be reunified with their kids. EXPO is looking for more housing for this population.
Dana Pellebon emphasized the disconnect between the wealth of resources in Madison and the continuing scandal of our racial disparities. “We have programs, services, and support,” she said. “What hasn’t changed? Disparities in housing, education, income; disparities in charging, sentencing, and policing.” Pellebon said she has focused on what works, and she’s enthusiastic about the potential of community courts.
During her time on the county board, Pellebon observed a community court in Avondale, Ill. One very important feature was its location – in the community, not in a courthouse, which can be intimidating. The victim (who must agree to this) and the harm-doer have a conversation and together determine a remedy, working with each other, the case manager, and the judge. The Avondale community court worked with kids ages 18-25; it lowered the recidivism rate to 18%! Pellebon noted that the young offenders were also provided with wraparound services – another key to the success of the operation. “They did vision boards, were self-directed,” she said, stating that self-direction was also critical.
Something else that’s critical: “The electorate. Voters have to believe in moving the numbers,” Pellebon said. “We need the community to move together, to offer continual input [to their elected officials]. The electorate has to say that they want [change].”
Paul Saeman summarized the history of MOSES. A collection of individuals and faith communities working for criminal-legal system reform, it was founded in 2012. Its first issue was Ban the Box: removing the “box” on criminal history from initial job applications. Its next issue was the county jail, which was deemed inhumane, unsafe, obsolete, and in need of replacement. Data collection also needed to improve. In 2023, final decisions on the jail were made: it would be replaced, and the harm done by incarceration – to families, to children, to those incarcerated – would be addressed. Saeman mentioned the Huber program’s electronic monitoring, which permits some people to stay in the community on the bracelet rather than in the jail; this provides some degree of harm reduction. He also cited MOSES’ involvement in the establishment of the CARES program, which offers non-police responses to mental-health crises. MOSES members do much of their work by introducing themselves to county board members and familiarizing them with issues MOSES is concerned about, he explained.
Panelists responded to audience questions to complete the hour.
Sheriff Barrett emphasized the need to work within budgetary constraints. “There are lots of great ideas,” he said. “But we have to ask: ‘What can we do with the money we’ve got?’”
Pellebon commented that what works in the city may not work in rural areas. Rural parts of the county don’t have the same resources, e.g. not even paid ambulance services. What can we push on? Only so much can be done. People need to pay attention to county board decisions; community engagement is vital. Dane Legistar has all the county meetings listed. You can register and speak, she told the audience.
Asked about cooperation with ICE, Sheriff Barrett said they recognize ICE as a legitimate government agency but are not working with it except when public safety is at risk. He added that it is important to elect more judges and other officials of color who care about these issues, and give them support once they’re in office.
Pellebon mentioned that we don’t have enough treatment and post-treatment available for harm-doers. Porchlight is one of the few shelters that will take sex offenders whose victims were children.
Re-entry must be coordinated to connect with resources, Barrett said; 72% of people jailed are out in three days. Rehabilitation needs to start when people first connect with the jail.
“By the time they get to Kalvin [Barrett], they’re in a criminal-legal system that’s not working,” Pellebon said. “We have to keep people out of the jail. We need to reach out to the police chiefs in Madison, Fitchburg, Sun Prairie: What are they doing to address disparities?” “Being a pest is ok!” she added.
by MOSES Publications | Jun 30, 2024 | Advocacy, Information, JSRI Justice System Reform Initiatives, MOSES activities
Justice System Reform Initiative (JSRI) Activities and Concerns
By Tom and Jan Gilbert, Mary Anglim, and Kathy Luker
Dane County has not been actively pursuing reform initiatives that are of interest to us in the past year. This is part of the ebb and flow of county government, but here are some of the reasons for the inactivity:
• County Executive Parisi’s announcement in October 2023 that he would retire had an impact on everything in county government. His retirement took effect on May 3.
- The April election gave us a board with 10 new members, several of whom had been appointed. Patrick Miles was re-elected board chair. Miles has appointed Jamie Kuhn as interim county executive.
- Miles is also responsible for appointing committee members. Two key director positions (Justice Reform and Equity and Human Services) have gone unfilled for over a year. Colleen Clark-Bernhardt was recently appointed director of Justice Reform and Equity; the board will need to approve the hire. We don’t know whether a Human Services director search has started.
- Due to the lack of a Justice Reform and Equity director or other staff, the Community Justice Council (CJC) and its subcommittees, whose primary focus is reform, have not met in over six months.
Jail Consolidation Project
On January 18, the county board approved a final addition of $21.7 million to enable the jail project to go forward. Although the jail will be larger than we wanted, it is smaller than originally proposed and comes with renewed commitment to reforms that will keep more people out of jail and out of the criminal-legal system. We have consistently pushed for a smaller jail and for more reform. We are relieved that the long debate about the jail is over; we have always recognized that the current jail in the City County Building is inhumane and must be replaced.
The challenge now is to make sure that the new jail lives up to the promised improvements. To that end, we are reinvigorating our Jail Advocacy Group, thanks to interest and energy provided by Rachel Kincade, Jessica Jacobs, and Talib Akbar, who all joined this group. We want to advocate for improvements that can be made both before and after the Jail Consolidation Project is complete. We have had several meetings, and the group recently got a tour of the current jail.
The county board should closely examine the staffing of the new jail, which is smaller and designed to enable more efficient staffing. The Huber intake process of returning to the jail every evening has been eliminated, since no one reports to the jail overnight and needs to be checked in. Both the smaller size and the change in the Huber program (see below) should reduce staffing requirements. These staff are expensive. The 2024 adopted budget includes $38.5 million for staffing the jail for one year, not including $13 million for contracted staff. While the estimated construction cost for the new jail is over $200 million, we spend more than that on staffing every five and a half years, from a more limited budget. We hope that staff reductions will allow more funding for diversions.
Looking Ahead
Because of the many changes, we recently talked with Jeff Kostelic, Joe Parisi’s executive assistant. He gave us some key insights into what to expect:
• Interim County Executive Jamie Kuhn will be responsible for putting together the 2025 county budget. Her last official duty before the elected executive takes over will likely be to sign the budget.
- We had been concerned about the delay in implementing the Crisis/Triage Center due to issues with the state. County Legislative Liaison Carrie Springer had previously informed us about a new state statute that addresses the issues. Now that it has been signed into law, the state must write an administrative rule to implement it. The state Department of Health Services Bureau director said that an emergency rule-making process would be used, and that the administrative rule could be completed in nine months. Jeff said that operational funding issues for the Center have not been resolved. There would need to be a change in Medicaid reimbursement or more money from the county, the two reasons there were no bids for the original Request for Proposal (RFP). There is still strong support for a Crisis/Triage Center, but it is unclear how and when it will be able to move forward.
- Kostelic thinks expansion of the CARES program will have to be incremental, as the City of Madison can’t expand to the whole county or even to all the adjacent communities. There are county matching grants available, and some county jurisdictions are interested in matching them. Further expansion of crisis workers at the 911 Center will have to wait until the 2025 budget.
- Since Resolution 320 passed, Sheriff Barrett has taken steps to change the Huber program. Significantly greater numbers of sentenced individuals are now out of jail on electronic monitoring. Supervisor Andrae (Public Protection and Judiciary Committee chair) has sent out a letter expressing interest in re-examining the whole issue. The county board may revisit the question of a formal migration of responsibility from the Sheriff’s Office to the Department of Human Services (DHS). DHS initiated discussions to re-examine what the intentions are. Kostelic sent us a copy of the letter.
We need to follow this very important area closely. Our Crisis Restoration/Huber Change Advocacy Group has been following the discussions about Huber, and we will continue to become more informed. We may be developing a white paper (about desired future conditions) that clearly states where we think this should go. This may be very complicated, because a change could involve many parts of the criminal-legal system, including the Sheriff’s Office, the DA’s Office, the judges, Human Services, and the Public Defender’s Office. The basic question is: What would it mean to move the Huber program from the Sheriff’s Office to Human Services? Could there be unintended consequences, such as a larger number of people sitting in jail because judges are reluctant to risk ordering them into a Human Services program? What would happen to individuals who don’t want to be in a Human Services program and would prefer to just be put on electronic monitoring and left alone?
- Kostelic informed us that the cost of the contract for Dane County employee health insurance is going up substantially. This will have a big impact on money available for other initiatives.
Diversion Working Group
The Diversion Advocacy Group is continuing its positive relationship with the Deferred Prosecution Program (DPP). This is important, as DPP is one of the largest diversion programs in the county, but one which has significant issues. Rebekah Jones from the DPP made a presentation at the MOSES general meeting on June 9.
We plan to reach out to the new county supervisors. This is an opportunity to learn about them and to give them an introduction to MOSES and the issues we care about. We did this several years ago with the previous county board; our effort was well received and ultimately connected us with the Black Caucus, which was instrumental in developing the compromise that allowed the Jail Consolidation Project to move forward, while also committing to reforms that will reduce the number of people in the jail.
JSRI is looking for more folks to get involved in our important work. If you would like to learn more, get in touch with Jeanie Verschay at jeanieverschay@gmail.com or Paul Saeman at melodygab@aol.com.
by Eric Howland | Feb 1, 2024 | Dane County Jail, Featured, JSRI Justice System Reform Initiatives, Resources
JSRI spent 2023 working on the Jail (no surprise) and behavioral health.
Much of the Justice System Reform Initiative (JSRI) work in 2022 was focused on the jail. This year we had a long stretch where the jail was not an issue – but spoiler alert – it roared back in December. JSRI used the time with fewer jail decisions to continue our focus on diverting people experiencing mental/behavioral health crises from the criminal legal system.
Dane County Jail
At the end of the 2022 County Exec Parisi had vetoed the board of supervisors legislation to reduce the jail to 5 floors, a plan MOSES endorsed. This left the County with a plan to build a 6 story jail but without enough funding to build it. In late 2022 the Board of Supervisors voted down 3 methods for paying for the new jail.
Consequently 2023 started with the pressure to find more money for the jail, this legislative effort was blocked by a coalition of different groups on the Board. The coalition included a number of supervisors that are jail abolitionists that do not want any money spent on the jail, a group of supervisors that are primarily concerned about legal reform and the Black Caucus that is concerned about how jail spending limits other efforts for legal reform. This coalition was large enough to block spending proposals that required either ¾ or ⅔ majorities.
A breakthrough came April 19, 2023 when the Sheriff and the Black Caucus announced an agreement in which the Black Caucus voted for funds for the jail and the Sheriff agreed to a series of reforms. The most concrete reforms included:
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Sheriff Barrett will support removal of federal in-transit prisoners from the current jail facility. He will work with the US Marshals to place the persons currently in the facility into other facilities in the surrounding areas by November 1, 2023. This has largely happened. On Dec 9th there were two federal prisoners in the jail.
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Sheriff Barrett will support the transfer of Huber services to the Dane County Department of Human Services. This is a softer goal and there has been little or no action on this idea.
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Sheriff Barrett will submit reports per Sub 1 2021 RES-320 as amended and continue current jail population reporting. This has happened indirectly. The CJC instituted an interactive dashboard that includes race, ethnicity, and sex – characteristics that were missing from other jail reports.
As mentioned, above this instituted a period of relative calm on the Jail issue. The Mead and Hunt team finished construction documents and put the project out to bid in Sept 2023.
But the bidding process concluded in Nov 2023 yielding only a single bid and that bid was $27.6 million dollars over budget.
As this article is written it seems that the County will send the exact same bid package out to bid for a second time. This is a bit of a gamble since there is no guarantee that more bids or lower bids will respond to this new bid process. We will know by midyear.
Behavioral Health and the legal system.
For the last decade, JSRI has been advocating for a crisis triage center as an alternative to incarceration for people experiencing a behavioral health crisis. More recently we have advocated for 911 to dispatch medical and crisis workers instead of police to appropriate behavioral health crisis calls. In Madison that program is called CARES and establishing CARES was a big success in 2022. This year’s budget expands on that success.
CARES
The CARES program receives about $900,000 a year. This support comes from both City of Madison and Dane County budgets.
JSRI recently met with Che Stedman, the Assistant Fire Chief who supervises the CARES program. He told us that one reason CARES does not operate 24 hours/day is that after a certain time of evening there is nowhere the CARES team can take a person except to an emergency room, one of the outcomes CARES is trying to avoid. The CARES program is not a treatment program, rather it is a crisis response team. They do not house people, so for many of their cases they need to have a place they can transport people to a stable environment. This would be the purpose of a Crisis Triage Center (see below).
Assistant Chief Stedman also mentioned that a substantial number of the calls to 911 for CARES ask that no one physically come to their residence. CARES staff do talk with the people calling, but the 911 center is itself stepping up to handle these calls.
Starting with a pilot last year and now expanded with this year’s budget, the 911 center will have five crisis workers on staff. This program is definitely part of an effort to divert behavioral health calls from police responses and entanglement with the legal system. It also has the benefit of serving all of Dane County on a 24/7 basis.
There is strong support, both from the JSRI, politicians, and the wider public to make the traditional CARES teams (one paramedic and one crisis worker) available throughout Dane County. This budget provided $200,000 in matching funds earmarked for cities and towns outside of Madison to work with the Madison Fire Department to expand CARES beyond Madison. This funding follows a year of study by Dane County Human Services Dept. examining how CARES can be expanded county wide. Hopefully, we will see initiatives in 2024.
Crisis Triage Center
The CARES unit can meet with people, but, as mentioned above, they are not a long term solution. Consequently, an important part of their service is to transport their clients to a safer location. Despite a decade of advocacy, Dane County does not have a 24/7 facility for behavioral health crises.
The way this works in other places is that there is a crisis-triage center available 24/7 that
provides a short term stay (often 23 hours) to allow someone in a behavioral health crisis to
calm down, for the helpers to discover and engage any family support, for any prescriptions to be identified, and identification of a longer term housing.
Dane County has been trying to build such a center for several years. The blockage has been that Wisconsin law does not include licensing for this type of facility, at least for involuntary stays. That means that not only is such a facility unavailable to CARES as an alternative to incarceration, it is also available neither to the police nor to the general public when they are looking for help without the threat of incarceration. The JSRI has advocated that Dane County start a crisis/triage center with voluntary admissions, as other locations facing the same problems have done.
2023 has been a good year for MOSES and the JSRI. The Dane County Budget has increased support for CARES, some, but not all, pandemic policies that decrease the jail population persist, diverting behavioral health cases from the legal system continues to be a topic of public discourse. But the wheels of justice turn slowly, and in some cases, move backwards. We hope that some of these issues will resolve in 2024 and allow us to begin advocacy for new areas of the criminal legal system.
by mosesmadison | Oct 9, 2015 | Events, Meetings
Reposted from Madison365 by Robert Chapell:
Criminal Justice Reform Community Meeting Set for Monday
“The Dane County Board of Supervisors will host a community conversation regarding potential reform of the county’s criminal justice system on Monday, October 12, from 6 until 8:30 pm on the second floor of the Alliant Energy Center.
The conversation will feature small-group discussion of more than 30 recommendations put forward recently by three community workgroups who addressed needs in the areas of: Alternatives to Arrest and Incarceration; Length of Stay; and Mental Health, Solitary Confinement and Incarceration.
“The three workgroups addressed critical issues with a great deal of dedication and commitment. I have high expectations for criminal justice reform and furthering our unique partnerships with the criminal justice stakeholders and the Dane County community,” County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan said in a statement today. “Monday will provide an opportunity for those who have not yet been involved to join us at the table. I hope people will come together, learn the issues and help us prioritize the next steps.”
Community members are encouraged to attend, Corrigan said. The workgroup report is available here.”
ROC Wisconsin: Restoring Our Communities — Beyond 11×15
Kick-off on November 3, at 9:30 am. We will be meeting at Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison (the same place as the Madison Action Day last April). This will inaugurate the new phase of our criminal justice reform campaign. We will continue to work on the same nuts and bolts areas (e.g. TAD funding, Solitary Confinement, Old Law Parole, Crimeless Revocations, etc.). But, it will be done with an eye on the larger picture we strive for, which includes these main aims:
- For Wisconsin to invest in the programs and strategies that will end the racial and economic disparities that fuel mass incarceration
- For Wisconsin to reduce it prison population to 11,000, and to reduce the number of people on extended supervision
- For Wisconsinites to view people who have been convicted of a crime as human beings and members of families.
- For formerly-incarcerated people to be restored to full participation in our communities, our economy and our civic life.
by mosesmadison | Jan 12, 2015 | Advocacy, Meetings
The MOSES Jail Task Force gave an update at the January monthly MOSES meeting about Dane County’s plans to study and invest in new jail facilities. MOSES opposes spending county money on new jail construction or on redundant studies.
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW to act and mobilize others is available in four documents from the MOSES Jail Task Force:
- PowerPoint – explaining the discussion surrounding the Dane County Jail and MOSES’ position
- Mobilization Letter – to send to Dane County Board members and other officials
- MOSES Jail Task Force position statement with data
- Mobilization Actions List – detailed list of what you can do now
THIS TUESDAY: The Dane County Public Protection and Judiciary Committee (PP&J) will discuss several issues related to the new jail (see agenda here, items on final page) including additional funding requested by Sheriff Mahoney to expand the Mead & Hunt study (with little additional study on mental health) as well as a request from Supervisors Bayrd and Pan to study Criminal Justice Reform.
What can you do NOW?
**Be prepared to stay two hours or more, as testimonies and discussion about the jail proposals may take that amount of time.
In the news:
MOSES JAIL TASK FORCE
Meets 3rd Thursdays, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Optional orientation for newcomers 6:00
(Sub-committee work teams have additional meetings)
St. Mark’s Church (in basement)
605 Spruce St., Madison (Off S Park St.)
Contact: Ann Pooler, apooler@charter.net, 608-658-6847
