MOSES Abbreviated Position Points for Resolution 556
on Dane County Jail and Criminal Justice System
The MOSES Jail Task Force has the following three primary goals:
- Stop all unnecessary incarceration
- End racial disparities
- Treatment instead of jail for people with mental illness, developmental disabilities, or addictions
- Improve jail conditions for those inside
- Ensure that any facility changes promote goals 1 and 2
MOSES’s full position statement of March 7, 2015, elaborates on these goals in an effort to strengthen Resolution 556, currently before the County Board. Below is a condensed version of the position points found in the full position statement.
1. Create Crisis Intervention and Restoration Centers:Create communitybased jail alternatives including one or more crisis intervention or restoration centers, and locate the centers to provide equitable access, especially to people of color. Commit to increasing County funding for mental health services, and also use BadgerCare and other health insurance to expand such services.
2. Expand Alternatives and Diversions: Expand current diversion programs and alternatives to incarceration, including electronic monitoring (home detention), drug courts, and restorative courts, while also increasing racially equitable access and participation. Charge the Length of Stay Work Group with determining how to expand existing and other alternatives and diversions.
3. Achieve Racial Equity: Set measurable and concrete goals for increasing racial equity in access to and participation in all services and programs discussed in Resolution 556, and include achievement of racial equity in the missions of all three work groups. Include specific racial equity goals in all sections of Resolution 556.
4. Address Life and Safety Concerns:Obtain from the Sheriff specific information about the immediate facilities needs that are related to life and safety, as well as racially disaggregated data about the people most at risk due to these issues. Wait on making broader jail space planning decisions until the number of people in the County jail has decreased from other policy changes.
5. Strengthen the Work Groups: Commit the County Board to act on the work groups’ recommendations. Solicit participation in the work groups from national experts who have proven experience in community transformation, reducing incarceration, and/or decreasing racial disparities. Charge the work groups to identify how specific policy changes can be implemented.
6. Implement Better Data Systems: Immediately build a Dane County Criminal Justice Dashboard that pulls data from existing systems. Make this information, disaggregated by relevant factors, available to the general public, as well as to all parts of the criminal justice system and other social service agencies.
7. Connect People to BadgerCare and FoodShare: Make it a County priority to facilitate helping people, including those incarcerated in the County jail, to apply for BadgerCare, Affordable Care Act health insurance, FoodShare, and/or FoodShare Employment and Training.
8. Refocus Planning to Reduce Jail Space Needs: Require Mead and Hunt (M&H) to consider three or more reform scenarios that lead to different reductions in the jail population. Make clear that M&H does not have sway over the three work groups. Make any contract with M&H available for public review before being adopted.
If you have questions, please contact the MOSES Jail Task Force at mosesjailtaskforce@googlegroups.com.
Visit http://groups.google.com/group/MOSESjailtaskforce to subscribe to the MOSES Jail Task Force email list.
July 2015 Newsletter
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by mosesmadisonClick here to read the MOSES July 2015 Newsletter.
MOSES Advocacy Helps Pass Resolution 556 #nonewjail
/0 Comments/in Advocacy, Meetings /by mosesmadisonMOSES ADVOCACY RESULTS IN IMPROVED CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND JAIL RESOLUTION 556 BEING PASSED BY COUNTY BOARD.
Tireless advocacy by the volunteer members of MOSES, an inter-faith social justice organization, led to numerous improvements to Resolution 556, which was
UNANIMOUSLY PASSED tonight by the Dane County Board. “The passage of this resolution demonstrates that when everyday people organize in solidarity, the community can significantly improve our County’s criminal justice system” said Morris Wexler, VP of MOSES, and longtime regulatory consultant. By passing resolution 556 “the County board is unequivocally stating its support for eliminating racial disparities, reducing incarceration, reducing the number of jail beds as well as its opposition to the construction of a new stand-alone jail” (RES 556, 316-319) as well as creating three community Work Groups to investigate solutions and make budget recommendations to realize the comprehensive reform of Dane County’s criminal justice system.
Specifically MOSES efforts led to:
MOSES is proud of its contribution to this victory for justice in Dane County – but this is just the beginning. “The MOSES Jail Task Force will be transforming into smaller task forces to support the resolution’s Work Groups to ensure that our vision for criminal justice reform and investing in community-based alternatives becomes a reality” said Jeanie Verschay, a member of the MOSES Jail Task Force, and the Executive Director of Employment Connections. MOSES recognizes and thanks all supervisors who voted for and sponsored resolution 556 and especially supervisors, Stubbs, Bayrd, Corrigan, Pan, Wegleitner, Dye, Hendrick, Pertl, and Willett for their work either on committee or in meetings with MOSES. MOSES also recognizes the work of other community groups that helped shape resolution 556: YGB, NAMI, No Dane County Jail Working Group, MUM and DD Coalition among others.
Get INVOLVED HERE!
Donate to MOSES MADISON HERE!
For more information please contact: info@mosesmadison.org
[Urgent Action] Contact your legislators: Second Chance Act and Jail Resolution
/0 Comments/in Advocacy /by mosesmadisonOn Tuesday, May 19th, the Joint Committee on Finance may consider a budget amendment to pass the Second Chance Act, moving most 17-years-olds out of adult corrections and into the juvenile system. Please take 30 seconds to call your State Senator and Assembly Representative with this message: “Please support the Second Chance proposal to return 17-year-olds to the juvenile system, which will be considered in the budget discussions.
Don’t let another year go by without making this needed reform, which will be good for kids, for families, and for our communities.” Per David Liners: “We might be close to winning this one!”
On Thursday, May 21st, the County Board will vote on Resolution 556. MOSES Jail Task Force has had a huge win in getting nearly all of our most important policy recommendations incorporated.
MOSES Jail Task Force members have put several months and countless hours into this important resolution; it’s now YOUR TURN to ensure that the whole County Board feels the power of MOSES in support of Resolution 556!
Attached is a brief statement of support you can use.
Letter to send to your legislators about Res. 556
Resolution 556 with edits
June 2015 Newsletter
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by mosesmadisonClick here to read the MOSES June 2015 Newsletter.
May 2015 Newsletter
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by mosesmadisonClick here to read the MOSES May 2015 Newsletter.
April 2015 Newsletter
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by mosesmadisonClick here to read the MOSES April 2015 Newsletter.
Updates from WISDOM
/0 Comments/in Advocacy, Education /by mosesmadisonFrom David Liners:
“Before you reform evil, you have to see evil.” Rev. Jerry Hancock makes this statement in a ‘For the Record’ TV program. Click so you can watch it now. He and Talib Akbar, both leaders in WISDOM’s MOSES affiliate, do a great job of educating on the evils of Wisconsin’s prison system, especially the abuse of solitary confinement.
Our replica of a solitary cell that is touring the state does a good job of letting people see and experience the evil of solitary confinement. People can sign up to sit in the cell with earphones to experience the constant noise. Talib drew the exact sketch for the cell while he was incarcerated in it. He understands the importance of experiencing evil so we can reform it. He and others shared their experiences last night at a forum at Marquette University that was very well received.
You can add your voice to a variety of reforms for which we are working by joining us for Madison Action Day on April 29. Sign up by filling out this form and/or emailing to mosesorganizer@gmail.com.
Here is some of the press coverage of our replica solitary cell:
Drawing by Talib Akbar
March 2015 Newsletter
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by mosesmadisonClick here to read the MOSES March 2015 Newsletter.
MOSES Responds to Dane County Board Resolution 556
/0 Comments/in Advocacy, Resources /by mosesmadisonMOSES Abbreviated Position Points for Resolution 556
on Dane County Jail and Criminal Justice System
The MOSES Jail Task Force has the following three primary goals:
MOSES’s full position statement of March 7, 2015, elaborates on these goals in an effort to strengthen Resolution 556, currently before the County Board. Below is a condensed version of the position points found in the full position statement.
1. Create Crisis Intervention and Restoration Centers:Create communitybased jail alternatives including one or more crisis intervention or restoration centers, and locate the centers to provide equitable access, especially to people of color. Commit to increasing County funding for mental health services, and also use BadgerCare and other health insurance to expand such services.
2. Expand Alternatives and Diversions: Expand current diversion programs and alternatives to incarceration, including electronic monitoring (home detention), drug courts, and restorative courts, while also increasing racially equitable access and participation. Charge the Length of Stay Work Group with determining how to expand existing and other alternatives and diversions.
3. Achieve Racial Equity: Set measurable and concrete goals for increasing racial equity in access to and participation in all services and programs discussed in Resolution 556, and include achievement of racial equity in the missions of all three work groups. Include specific racial equity goals in all sections of Resolution 556.
4. Address Life and Safety Concerns:Obtain from the Sheriff specific information about the immediate facilities needs that are related to life and safety, as well as racially disaggregated data about the people most at risk due to these issues. Wait on making broader jail space planning decisions until the number of people in the County jail has decreased from other policy changes.
5. Strengthen the Work Groups: Commit the County Board to act on the work groups’ recommendations. Solicit participation in the work groups from national experts who have proven experience in community transformation, reducing incarceration, and/or decreasing racial disparities. Charge the work groups to identify how specific policy changes can be implemented.
6. Implement Better Data Systems: Immediately build a Dane County Criminal Justice Dashboard that pulls data from existing systems. Make this information, disaggregated by relevant factors, available to the general public, as well as to all parts of the criminal justice system and other social service agencies.
7. Connect People to BadgerCare and FoodShare: Make it a County priority to facilitate helping people, including those incarcerated in the County jail, to apply for BadgerCare, Affordable Care Act health insurance, FoodShare, and/or FoodShare Employment and Training.
8. Refocus Planning to Reduce Jail Space Needs: Require Mead and Hunt (M&H) to consider three or more reform scenarios that lead to different reductions in the jail population. Make clear that M&H does not have sway over the three work groups. Make any contract with M&H available for public review before being adopted.
If you have questions, please contact the MOSES Jail Task Force at mosesjailtaskforce@googlegroups.com.
Visit http://groups.google.com/group/MOSESjailtaskforce to subscribe to the MOSES Jail Task Force email list.
Marquette University Exhibit Brings to Light Topic of Solitary Confinement
/in MOSES in the Media /by Tina HogleWatch the News Story
Imagine being locked up in a room the size of a bathroom for 23 hours a day with no access to the outside world except mail and prison guards.
This is the life of someone in solitary confinement. This week, Marquette University’s Campus Ministry and a faith-based organization known as “WISDOM” are bringing attention to this subject.
An exact replica of what life is like on the inside is now on display in the lobby of the school’s library.
Program organizers want to point out, in their opinion, how inhumane and unjust this type of incarceration can be if it goes beyond a period of 15 days.
We did reach out to the Department of Corrections for a comment. It says the department “has been working on restrictive housing reform for several years, which has included adding programming and psychological staff. The Department remains focused on our mission of protecting the public, our staff and those in our charge.”
The solitary prison cell replica will be on display through Friday. If you want to spend 45 minutes alone in the confined area, you can call 414-841-2762 to reserve a space.Marquette and WISDOM will convene a public forum on ending mass incarceration from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, at Marquette Hall. This is located on the 1100 block of W. Wisconsin Ave., next to Gesu Church.