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
Farewell and THANKS to the Executive Committee
/0 Comments/in Meetings /by mosesmadisonDuring 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:
11×15 Blueprint to End Mass Incarceration Announced Wednesday, December 10, 2014!
/0 Comments/in Events /by mosesmadisonWisconsin 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:
For more information, contact David Liners at 414-736-2099, or at david.liners1@gmail.com Or, contact any local WISDOM organization.
Experience Solitary Confinement in Madison
/0 Comments/in Events, Resources /by mosesmadisonJoin us Monday, Oct 27 to talk about alternative to jail
/0 Comments/in Events /by mosesmadisonA panel and participatory dialogue will explore successful outcomes across the state that divert and reduce jail populations and the ways these are, and can be, offered in Dane County. To hear opinions from residents and Subject Matter Experts, there will be breakout sessions to brainstorm issue and impact areas. Working from within our communities, we will explore how we are all affected by the jail, confinement and incarceration… and what we have the ability to do about it. Please join us!
Come hear An Overview of Wisconsin Sentencing Law 10/16/14
/0 Comments/in Events /by mosesmadisonCommunity Conversations: Forum on Alternatives to Jail 10/27/2014 #NoNewJail
/0 Comments/in Events /by mosesmadisonA Call for Accountability in DOC #ReformNow
/0 Comments/in Resources /by mosesmadisonTo learn more about issues MOSES and WISDOM are fighting for, read the following briefs by WISDOM:
Brief 1: A Broken Parole System
Brief 2: Failures in Revocation and GPS Monitoring
Brief 3: Solitary Confinement is Torture
MOSES and WISDOM Rally to End Solitary Confinement #ReformNow #ReformWisDOCNow
/0 Comments/in Events /by mosesmadisonA passionate group of WISDOM’s 11X15 supporters from around the state gathered at the Capitol Wednesday to protest the inhumane practice of solitary confinement. Along with pleas from MOSES’ own Rev. Jerry Hancock, Rev. Kate Edwards and President Carol Rubin, the crowd of nearly 200 people heard appalling testimony from parents whose children have endured dehumanizing torture for years at a time. The organizers and public were moved to then march on to deliver the Reform Now! brief to Governor Walker’s office. The brief calls for a private US Department of Justice investigation of the WI Department of Corrections and an immediate response in accordance with the United Nations policy that no individual is to be subject to such treatment in excess of 15 days, despite WI accounts of both juveniles and adults being confined for 23 hours a day, in some cases for up to 15 years.
Join MOSES and WISDOM in this fight by going into the makeshift solitary cell, located State Capitol steps in downtown Madison. If your congregation would like to host this structure in the future, please contact MOSES for more details. Also, see WISDOM’s 11×15 page for more coverage of the rally.
Photo credit: Bill O’Neal
End Solitary Confinement! Join us on Capitol Steps at Noon today (10.01.14)
/0 Comments/in Events /by mosesmadisonJoin WISDOM’S 11×15 Campaign on
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
12:00 Noon
The State Street Capitol Steps
Madison, Wisconsin
The international community considers any more than 15 days in Solitary Confinement to be torture. Wisconsin regularly keeps people isolated for months, and even years. WISDOM and other supporters of the 11×15 Campaign for Safer, Healthier Communities will call on Wisconsin to join other states that are finding safe, humane, effective alternatives to solitary confinement, by presenting:
Show your support for ending state-sponsored torture in Wisconsin.
For more information, contact David Liners, WISDOM Exec.Dir, at 414-736-2099
Learn more about Old Law Parole #ReformNow #ReformWisDOCNow @Wisdom4Justice
/0 Comments/in Resources /by mosesmadisonIn Wisconsin, more than 2,800 men and women remain incarcerated, even though they are legally eligible for parole under the terms of their original sentences. Their continued incarceration costs the state more than 96 million each year. All of these inmates were sentenced prior to the enactment of the Truth In Sentencing legislation. Consequently, many were given longer sentences with the expectation that they could be released after 25 percent of their time had been served. At this point in time, many have completed their required programs, have solid release plans, have all been incarcerated for more than 25 percent of their sentence, and many even work in the community with little to no daily supervision. Still, they are continually told that their release would impose an unreasonable risk to the public and that they have not served enough time. It is time for the Governor, the Department of the Corrections, and the Parole Commission to fix this broken, ineffective, and very expensive system, allowing these men and women to return to their families and become productive members of our society.