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 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 | Oct 30, 2024 | Information, Life After Prison, Newsletter
By Ken Warren
At our MOSES monthly meeting in October, we had the pleasure of meeting Kory Finfrock and his spouse, Tonia. Kory was born in Stoughton in 1979 and was a student in Edgerton from the early grades until he dropped out of high school. He later earned his HSED. Kory’s father died several years ago, but his mother is well and living in the area. Kory also has a 26-year-old son, but that relationship is strained because, Kory recognizes, he has let his family down.
Kory’s negative interaction with the legal system began during his teen years. By the year 2000, he had been sentenced to the Wisconsin correctional system. Upon release in 2005, he fell into a problem with drug use, which led to other criminal acts. By 2006, he again was confined, which lasted until 2019.
While in the Wisconsin correctional system, Kory took advantage of opportunities to prepare for his return home. He was able to work in a machine shop and earned a technical college degree in machine tool operations. He participated in many support groups while confined. Along the way, he also earned a culinary certification from a technical college and completed a 6,240-hour apprenticeship. Before his release in 2015, Kory was transferred to the minimum-security facility at Oregon and was able to participate in a work-release program, where he secured a job with a finishing company. After release, he was promoted to the shop supervisor position.
Upon release, Kory was motivated to become a productive member of the community. He got married and became a homeowner. Unfortunately, in early 2024, another poor choice resulted in a return to confinement for seven months.
Kory still owns the home in Stoughton, where his wife lives, but due to a restriction put in place by his parole agent, he is not allowed to be in Stoughton. The restrictions stem from a traffic citation that took place back in 2022. At the current time, he is paying for motel rooms on a weekly basis and looking for more affordable housing, as well as employment. He feels positive about his employment search, as he has had multiple positive interviews. He has had less success with his housing, as he has been rejected several times due to his record.
Another personal challenge for Kory is to win back the trust of his family. He understands their hesitancy and disappointment and recognizes that it will be a slow process. His son is 26 years old, and Kory has been absent for much of his life.
When asked about current support structures, Kory immediately mentions his wife, saying that she has been a gift to him. In addition to her emotional support, she also works in the area of psychiatric mental health and drug-related care as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and is able to offer guidance and direction. For example, she is assisting him in obtaining an attorney and appealing the restriction which prevents him from living in his own home, as well as providing community resources and an abundance of housing leads. Kory also has a counselor he sees regularly and participates in an AODA (alcohol and other drugs) after-care group.
Kory said that he felt welcome and comfortable when he attended our MOSES meeting. He believes that prison reform is very important, but he was happy to hear of our efforts regarding the challenges of negotiating reentry into society. He liked what he heard about our efforts and goals. He looks forward to becoming a responsible and contributing member of the community. We hope that will include his continued involvement with MOSES.
by MOSES Publications | Aug 30, 2024 | Information, Life After Prison, Newsletter
Meet Returning Citizen Daniel Mayer
By Ken Warren
Daniel has spent most of his 28 years of life as a boy and young man near Crystal Lake, Ill., in the greater Chicago area. His parents are both retired, but his father operated his own HVAC business for many years while his mother was a registered nurse. He has three sisters and one brother, all older than him. He graduated from high school in Huntley, Ill., in 2015.
In 2020, he and a female friend moved to the Janesville area, where Daniel began attending Blackhawk Technical College to study accounting. He successfully completed one year of classes but made some unwise choices that led to criminal charges. As a result of those charges, he was sentenced in 2022 to three years of probation. In May of 2023, his probation was revoked. He had not re-offended in any way but was found to have violated some of the terms of his probation. Daniel spent the rest of 2023 and until May of 2024 in Dodge and Oshkosh correctional facilities.
Although the original charges against Daniel were in Rock County, he had relocated to Dane County, developed resources in Dane County, and was placed on probation through Dane County. He was uncertain whether upon release he would be returned to Rock or Dane County. He had made up his mind to refuse a return to probation unless it was in Dane County, because he felt that he had no resources in Rock County. Fortunately, he was returned to Dane County and to the same probation officer, with whom he had developed some rapport.
Daniel says that the two hardest things to do after release are finding a residence and finding a job. The state paid for his lodging through SLIM (Sober Living in Madison) for his first two months. Daniel is still living there but now must pay rent of $575 each month. Finding a job is taking longer. After a few weeks, he was able to obtain part-time work as a package handler for On Trac Warehouse; however, he was terminated there the day after our interview due to “an unfavorable result” on his background check. Once again, we are reminded of the hurdles thrown up in front of returning citizens who just want to become contributing members of our community.
JustDane has been an important resource for Daniel. He began classes through JustBakery on nutrition and management on June 10 and will soon complete those classes. He will become eligible for employment through JustBakery 90 days after completing the classes. Recently a local pastor gave Daniel a car, which provides important ease of transport. Before getting the car, Daniel got bus passes through JustDane, which now provides him some gas cards. Daniel reports that another important resource for him has been his Circles of Support group. They continue to give him ideas for resources and also provide encouragement and a listening ear.
Daniel is excited for the future. On Aug. 26, he was able to resume his studies in accounting at Madison College, which he hopes to finish by the autumn of 2025. He will then be able to pursue a career in the accounting field. He hopes to stay in the Madison area for many years to come, because he appreciates the community. The only concern he has regarding Madison is the higher cost of living, particularly apartment rental costs.
When asked about his greatest needs, Daniel responded quickly. He needs people. People to talk to. People to hang out with. It seems like such a small request, and yet it is so important for us all. Welcome back to Madison, Daniel.
