Members of WISDOM’s Transformational Justice Coalition will gather for a joint rally outside the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) Office today at 11 a.m. to protest ongoing confinement conditions and overcrowding within Wisconsin’s state prisons.
“Wisconsin’s prisons are currently facing a severe overcrowding crisis. This crisis is creating an unstable and unsafe environment for both incarcerated people and people who work in the prisons,” Transformational Justice Campaign Coordinator Mark Rice said. “The state’s prisons are operating at more than 5,000 people over their intended capacity.”
WISDOM’s multi-faith network will attend Wednesday’s rally, including MOSES, FREE and Ladies of SCI. Leaders from MOSES, an interfaith organization for criminal legal system reform, played a central role in organizing this action.
The “Demand Dignity Behind Bars” event will highlight the coalition’s fight for humane conditions of confinement, policy reform and a system that centers rehabilitation and human dignity.
FREE, an organization founded by justice-impacted women, will raise concerns over the overcrowding crisis’s disproportionate impact on women’s systems. FREE Northeast Organizer Juliann Bliefnick pointed toward the deteriorating living conditions inside Taycheedah Correctional Institution caused by rising incarceration rates.
“Taycheedah is nearly at double occupancy right now. They’ve got women sleeping in closets. They have women sleeping in old property rooms. They did have women in the gym at one point, before there were sewer issues that made it uninhabitable for them to be in that area. They’ve got people in the max building at four women to a cell, and I don’t even know how that’s possible because when I was in the max building, those cells were not big enough to have four people in them,” Bliefnick said.
The coalition’s demands for the DOC and state legislators also include:
- Ending the use of solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days
- Strengthening family connections by providing free phone calls, video visits and electronic messaging
- Ensuring access to in-person visits, clean water, medical care, proper hygiene, sunlight, outdoor recreation, hot showers, a climate-controlled environment and programming
- Establishing independent oversight of the DOC to ensure accountability
One major focal point of the coalition’s campaign is institutional reliance on “convictionless revocations,” or detaining individuals for alleged technical violations of supervision.
Rice said this practice sends over 2,000 people back to prison per year, costing Wisconsin taxpayers $400 million annually. The coalition calls for its abolition and a redirection of funds to communities disproportionately harmed by incarceration.
“Instead of utilizing these resources to needlessly incarcerate thousands of people each year for allegedly violating rules of supervision, Wisconsin policymakers should invest these resources to prepare incarcerated people for a successful return to the community,” Rice said.
“Wisconsin communities flourish when we prioritize investments in human dignity, health and community welfare. Every person deserves a chance to be in a safe environment that fosters well-being,” Rice said.
Advocates also emphasized that institutional retaliation discourages individuals in the carceral system and their families from reporting issues or concerns.
“The process for complaining involves so much bureaucracy, and oftentimes family members are getting no response, or they’re getting a response that is not even related to the thing that they’re complaining about. The non-responsiveness of the DOC in general, and then also the rampant retaliation. It’s like people can’t even speak out against these things, and so they need organizations like ours to be their voice because we’re so much in the public eye,” Bliefnick said. “The way we treat our most vulnerable individuals within our state really speaks to our morality, and it speaks to who we are as human beings,” Bliefnick said. “If you consider yourself a good human, you should want all humans to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of what they may or may have not done in the past.”
The DOC Office is located at 3099 E Washington Avenue. All community members are welcome to attend and support the cause.
Those interested in further involvement can click here for more information.
