We are not any safer. Our state’s incarceration rate has grown dramatically in recent decades. The system we now have is wasteful (we spend more than twice as much per year on Corrections as our neighbors in Minnesota, though we have similar populations), it is ineffective (our overuse of prisons and jails makes us less safe than we would be if we used more alternatives), and it is unfair (the racial disparities in Wisconsin’s prison system are among the worst in the nation).
Incarceration comes with a cost. We pay a huge human price for our overuse of incarceration. Families and communities have been destroyed. Costs have risen dramatically. The cost of Corrections in Wisconsin has risen from under $200 million per year in 1990 to more than $1.3 billion in 2011.
There are effective options. The good news is that alternatives to incarceration that are being proven effective every day in our state. Counties have established numerous programs: drug treatment courts, mental health courts, day report centers, universal screening, mental health courts, and more. We are learning, decisively and overwhelmingly, that alternatives to incarceration are effective by most any measure:
- Alternatives to incarceration nearly all result in markedly lower recidivism rates. That is, offenders in alternative programs tend to be rehabilitated and not to re-offend, while incarcerated offenders are more likely to commit another offense upon release
- Alternatives to incarceration are more likely to result in restoring the offender to health, especially those suffering from mental illness and/or addictions.
- Alternatives to incarceration save taxpayers a great deal of money. Most save at least $2 for every dollar spent.
Join us in moving our state in a better direction. The 11X15 goal is reasonable and possible. Even after it is achieved, Wisconsin will still have a higher rate of incarceration than Minnesota. What is needed if for the people of Wisconsin to demand a change!
Visit us often on this site. We will post links to resources for faith communities, as well as resources for the general public. We will try to keep up with the scores of articles published every month that demonstrate the need for our leaders to start being smart on crime, and to stop wasting our money and the lives of so many of our neighbors.
Click here to see the Jan 2012 Director Report and 11×15 Strategic Plan.
This is what I do for a living…..I am the Regional Program Director for Circles of Support. Our program successfully helps to transition people from incarceration back into the community. We also have a new, innovative program working with the highest risk offenders. I serve on the Brown County Corrections Board, Taycheedah Community Board, etc……
I also am an elected official on the Outagamie County Board of Supervisors and serve on the Public Safety Committee.
I appreciate your EVERY effort in this campaign. Thank you for your good work!
I want to participate in the March on 2-20. I also would like to help in any way I can. Thanks. ps I will be getting the word out.
I endorse the 11×15 Campaign. Thanks for all you are doing to help us keep informed and active. I have the gift of a dear friend at Taycheedah who was sentenced to 15 years for killing a man in an accident because she was being chased by police for cashing a check illegally. In the chase she lost control and hit a car and killed a man. She has completely turned her life around while in prison. Yet, what she really needs (and gets a little in prison) is help with her addictions. So, blessing on your ministry and thanks for sharing with us. P. S. Visiting Lara at Taycheedah is a transformative experience for me.
WE NEED REHABILITATION.
I feel that a life is wasted in prison. There is someone dear to my heart locked up and he is innocent. They never proved him guilty and there was no physical evidence to support this. He’s been locked up for 10 years. The justice system has mixed up terms on what is fair. We need a strong organization to reform the injusice of our society.
The InsideOut Project wholeheartedly supports the 11×15 mission. We thank you for all the great work you’ve done to date to bring the campaign to fruition.
Our goal is to provide sustainable solutions which empower women to succeed post-sentencing. We offer supportive treatment referral and resources along with job readiness and business training which allow women, families and the community to heal and thrive.
We are excited to show the presentation to our Progressive Baptist family and other community partners with the goal of raising awareness and financial support.
For people of faith, supporting 11×15 is a no-brainer. For people with a sense of justice, the same is true. For people whose filter is “the bottom line,” it is fiscally responsible.
Thanks for all this good work!
Great concept. But we need to train before the crime is committed.
The presentation was eye-opening, especially the comparison between the state of MN’s prison statistics vs. WI’s stats. I hope this can be included on this website. If MN can do it, so can WI. I support this effort for restorative justice.
Hooray for WISDOM of Wisconsin for kicking off this campaign. This represents community organizing at its best. The goal is to make this a massive effort in the sense of consciousness-raising for everyone possible. With that power base, our legislators, courts, bishops, pastors and religious leaders will be moved to use their collective prophetic voice to respond to this grave injustice in our state. Did you catch Mike Olig’s well-written letter to the editor that appeared in the Sunday 26 issue of the Oshkosh Northwestern? Thanks, Mike, from all of us
I listened to a presentation this morning and was thoroughly impressed! I plan on supporting efforts to make 11,000 inmates a reality…thank you Gary and Penny for giving the presentation at the Fox Valley Warming Shelter!
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larnal says i support the 11×15 campign and i have a revocation fairness petition that goes along with the 11×15 campign and if there is any way that we can support each other please contact me and let me know how I can help. I pray for your urgent response
My was convicted of obtaining a controled substance by fraud and give 2 year’s in prison. It did no good in fact it made thing’s worst. While in their she learned more way’s of criminal thinking. And now she is facing another drug charge in Oshkosh. With any luck this time she will get help not prision.
Read Michelle Alexander’s (2010) The New Jim Crow.
Please see also: http://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice.html
First let me state that I agree with the over all idea that the prison population should be reduce. I do not know that the 11,000 is a correct number, it might be a little more or less, need more information.
The Cost of these prisons here in the state are more, you did not give a breakdown and compare WI to MN, IA, IL, IN, or MI. With this breakdown comparation we can see where the money goes to. Example, within the last few months there was articles about guards calling in sick for thier normal work hours but worked later in the day on an extra shift which they were paid time and a half or even more. So in one day effectivly they were paid for (8hrs “sick” + (8hrs for overtime “1.5″) = 20 hrs instead of just the 8 that they worked.
I have a love one in prison and is sentenced for 25 years, served 6 so far. It sure feel good there’s people like you who cares.He is a good kid, not a criminal . His life turned around in just seconds. I support the 11×15 campaign. Thank You for your good work. Linda
I have a son in prison, almost 14 years. He is not the same addicted guy he was back then, he is great guy. He did the crime but they do not have to keep throwing it your face and determine for their benefit that you haven’t served enough time. Or tell you, well back 10 years ago you got a ticket and that means you haven’t changed. It doesn’t matter that you behaved since then at all. I just heard about your campaign today from my son and support it. I wish I had know about it when you were at the Fox Valley warming shelter. Previously from Milwaukee, now in Oshkosh. Thank God for people that care like most of the families of the incaracerated.
For more in depth background on what 11×15 is all about, check out the documentary “The House I Live In.” It won a top award at the Sundance Film Festival a few months ago. It focuses on the drug/prison scene in California. Its message speaks powerfully to what our 11x`15 is all about. It was hard to find…
Check this Natgeo production, show that many see the problems but the political momentum is always tough instead of smart and pratical regrding crime. The science supports this effort, however, we all live with the illusion of invulnerability believing that we and ours will never be directly affected by a criminal justice system that is on automatic pilot. Jesus said “Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man.” We must say that “Man was not for the system/bureaucracy, but the system/bureaucracy was made to serve humans in wise, practical, compassionate ways.”
May the force be with us.
mike
Forgot this
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/national-geographic-channel/shows/lockdown/ngc-prison-nation/
After seeing the wonders being worked with people coming out of prison through the mentoring program in Tucson, I know that more effective help will lower the prison population. At last month’s group mentoring session, I had an amazing insight. I told the mentees that after being with this program for several years, I have seen mentees become mentors. I also told the mentees that they are the hope for changing our country if they can change themselves and help others to change.
I too have a loved one in prison, sentenced to 24 years, 6 years served. He is innocent of the charges that were brought on the bases of false allegations by his accuser whose motivation was revenge. The evidence was not tested and would have proven him innocent. Prosecutorial misconduct and incompetent assistance of his defence attorney in not doing even a basic preparation for trial led to conviction. Machner hearing denied by the judge.
I work with adolescent’s who are part of the juvenile justice system. While listening to the presentation given at First Congo UCC this past Sunday I was struck by the hopelessness and inhumanity perpetuated in the current system. Though I don’t think it was the intention of the truth in sentencing law, we as a state have taken away the natural incentives that drive people to do well and succeed…that they can reap the rewards of transformation and hard work. I wish I could say that all people are able to succeed because of internal motivations to change in the absence of reward, but even the best of us do better when we see the fruits of our labors. I support opportunities for all offenders to grow themselves and become safer, healthier, and more committed members of our society.
This is absolutely wonderful! I was forwarded to this site, and I hands down support the 11 x 15 Campaign for Justice. I would love to get involved in any way I can.
Thank you for all that you do. I just heard about this and I want to help in anyway that I can. I too have a loved one in prison because of addiction. I am in recovery myself and know from doing meetings in the jail setting, that incarceration will not help a person with addictions.
Here’s to a successful campaign for justice.