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Prison Reform Advocates Call For Expanded Parole, Less Use Of Solitary Confinement

Coalition Requests DOC Release Info On Parole-Eligible Inmates

By
Gilman Halstead/WPR 

The faith-based prison reform coalition WISDOM is continuing to push for changes in the state’s parole system. They are calling on the state Department of Corrections to release the names of the more than 2,000 parole-eligible inmates.

More than a hundred activists from churches across the state gathered in Madison Tuesday to launch a “prayer for reform campaign.”

But the group isn’t only depending on prayer to reduce the state’s prison population. Jerome Dillard of the group Ex-Prisoners Organizing said the open records request is the latest step in an effort to win release for inmates who were sentenced before December 1999 when Wisconsin’s so-called truth in sentencing law took effect .

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“These individual who served more than enough of their time because the judges knew what they were doing when they sentenced them under the old law,” said Dillard. “It’s time to start paroling our brothers and sisters out of Wisconsin prisons.”

WISDOM launched a campaign three years ago with the goal of cutting the prison population in half by the end of this year. At their news conference Tuesday, the group acknowledged the reforms necessary to accomplish that haven’t occurred.

But the organization has rolled new set of reforms calling for the parole of pre-truth-in- sentencing inmates who have completed all their required programs and pose no risk to the community. Also on the list is ending the current policy of sending parolees back to prison for breaking minor rules of conduct.

Mark Rice, also with Ex-Prisoners Organizing, said the state could save millions of dollars by disciplining parolees with non-prison sanctions and only revoke their parole if they commit a new crime.

“Crimeless revocations are part of a failed policy that is a huge waste of money,” Rice said.

Prison officials say they will review the records request.

Tuesday, WISDOM also called on the DOC to hire an independent group to monitor the prison system’s use of solitary confinement.

The agency adopted new policies recently that officials say will reduce the number of inmates sent to segregation units for violating prison rules. But WISDOM member Rev. Jerry Hancock said the policies still qualify as torture because they violate international best practices that call for isolating inmates for no more than 15 days at a time.

“These new proposed changes indicate that torture is still embedded in the Department of Corrections,” Hancock said.

Hancock delivered a letter to DOC Secretary Ed Wall signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Wisconsin Council of Churches and WISDOM. It praises the DOC for making the changes it has but says outside evaluation is needed to ensure that the changes are actually having an impact.