by mosesmadison | Dec 17, 2014 | Advocacy, Resources
MOSES SAYS “NO” TO NEW JAIL
AND “YES” TO REDUCING INCARCERATION
MOSES JAIL TASK FORCE has these 3 primary goals:
- Stop all unnecessary incarceration
- End racial disparities
- Treatment instead of jail for people with mental illness, intellectual disabilities, or addictions
- Improve jail conditions for those inside
- Ensure that any facility changes promote goals 1 and 2
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MOSES’ goals are ambitious and involve multiple complicated systems. But other municipalities have already succeeded with similar goals, using evidence-based strategies. JOIN US!
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 So Park St.)
Contact: Ann Pooler, apooler@charter.net, 608-658-6847
Background: In July, a consultant firm (hired by the County Board) recommended that Dane County build a new jail estimated to cost $135 – $141 million. A MOSES team immediately formed to decide MOSES’ position. We studied the consultants’ 600-page report and began to attend and testify at county committee meetings.
MOSES determined that the proposal assumed a continuation of already outdated incarceration practices. We discerned that many people are in jail unnecessarily—meaning that they are not a risk to the public and are in jail only because they are waiting for a court or DOC hearing, or cannot pay fines or bail (often $500 or less). We also found racial disparities in jail alternative programs (e.g., only 16% of those released from jail on home monitoring are people of color, compared to 51% of those in jail).
MOSES rejected the new jail proposal in a position statement we released on August 25th. We presented this at a NAMI public forum, at numerous County criminal justice meetings, and to stakeholders and media. MOSES celebrated an advocacy win October 1st when the County Executive removed the jail proposal from the budget; but our work has just begun.
Please click here to access MOSES position statement including facts and figures about the jail population. Feel free to share this document widely.
by mosesmadison | Dec 15, 2014 | Newsletter
Click here to read the December 2014 MOSES Newsletter.
by mosesmadison | Dec 11, 2014 | Events, Resources
On Wednesday, December 10, it was standing room only in the State Capitol as WISDOM announced its blueprint for achieving the goal of cutting Wisconsin’s prison population in half (to 11,000) by 2015. YOU are a critical part of bringing this plan to reality. If you missed the event, you can watch a recording by Wisconsin Eye.
Click here to check out a presentation you can share with your friends, family, and colleagues about the 11×15 Blueprint. (Click here to download the Power Point presentation.)
You can also click here to read the detailed executive summary for more details about the approach WISDOM and its affiliates are taking to end mass incarceration in Wisconsin.
by mosesmadison | Dec 10, 2014 | Meetings
At the December monthly meeting, a new MOSES executive committee was elected. We would like to extend our gratitude to the members of MOSES founding executive committee. Those members include: Carol Rubin (President), Caliph Muab-El (Vice President), Nancy Kosseff (Secretary), Ann Lacy (Treasurer), and Sister Joan Duerst (Chair of the Religious Leaders Caucus). [Erika Bach (MOSES Organizer), and David Liners (Executive Director of WISDOM) also attend meetings, and are ex officio members, with voice but no vote. Their positions will not change.]
During tenure of this initial executive committee, MOSES had grown and accomplished so much. It has developed into a large and healthy social justice 
organization with several moving parts including the Ban the Box initiative, the creation and dissemination of the new jail report, increasing awareness and funding for treatment alternatives and diversion (TAD), and multiple other task forces).
Please use the comments section below to express your comments and or gratitude for our outgoing executive committee.
We welcome our new executive members that were recently elected:
President: Rev. Jerry Hancock, First Congregational
Designated Vice President: Belinda Richardson, Breaking Barriers
Vice President: Bev Buhr, James Reeb UU Congregation
Vice President: Caliph Muab-El, Breaking Barriers
Vice President for Recruitment: Morris Waxler, First Unitarian Society
Secretary: Susan Millar, First Unitarian Society
Assistant Secretary: Nancy Kosseff, First Unitarian Society
Treasurer: Ann Lacy, Plymouth Congregational UCC
Financial Secretary: Pat Anderson, First Unitarian Society
by mosesmadison | Dec 2, 2014 | Events
Wisconsin can cut its prison population in half. Actions taken in 2015 can make it happen. Learn how action by people of faith and good will can be the decisive factor.
11×15 Blueprint to End Mass Incarceration
Wednesday, December 10
10:00 am
State Capitol, Room 411S
Following the presentation, anyone interested in being part of the solution is invited to nearby First United Methodist Church for lunch and to meet in groups to work on strategies to continue to demand:
- Increased resources for Treatment Alternatives and Diversions (TAD) programs that can keep thousands of people out of prison.
- The Second Chance Act, which will keep most 17 year-olds out of adult courts
- Sentencing Reform
- Parole for more than 2,500 eligible prisoners who have been denied a fair chance for release, even after they have served the time intended by judges.
- An end to the torture that is Solitary Confinement
- “Compassionate Release” for prisoners who are elderly and/or very ill
- Alternatives to Revocation for many of the 4,000 people whose Supervision or Parole is revoked for “technical violations”
- Audit and reform of a faulty GPS Monitoring system
- Transitional Jobs opportunities for thousands of long-term unemployed Wisconsinites, including many with conviction histories
- Ban the Box legislation and reform of the CCAP on-line data base
For more information, contact David Liners at 414-736-2099, or at david.liners1@gmail.com Or, contact any local WISDOM organization.
MOSES JAIL TASK FORCE