[Lekooks] Fw: Important News on Justice Reform

[gymbeau at netzero.net]

I'm sure this will be of interest to some of UUs~~~ Jim

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: "David Liners, WISDOM" <dliners at wisdomwisconsin.org>
To: gymbeau at netzero.com
Subject: Important News on Justice Reform
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2019 17:40:59 -0400 (EDT)


 
Join us to launch the Unlock the Vote Campaign!
 
 Thursday, June 27    
 6:00 pm
 Greater Mount Eagle Baptist Church
 929 State Street, Racine, WI
 
 “Unlock the Vote” is a campaign to restore voting rights to people when they return from incarceration.  It would restore voting rights to more than 65,000 Wisconsinites who have completed their time of incarceration, who are living and working in the community, but have been barred from voting. 
 
 The keynote speaker for the Unlock the Vote kick-off rally will be Desmond Meade of the Florida Voter Rights Coalition.  Mr. Meade led the successful effort to restore voting rights to more than a million people with conviction histories in Florida.  Download a copy of the flyer here and invite your friends to join you in Racine!
  
 ~ Last week WISDOM wrote a letter asking Governor Evers to pledge to veto the $5 million that the Joint Finance Committee slipped into the Capital Budget to purchase land and to make improvements in anticipation of a new prison to be built in Brown County.  This is an expenditure that neither the Governor nor the Department of Corrections requested; and it is a terrible idea.
 
 WISDOM agrees with those who say we should have a goal of closing the Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI) within the next 4 or 5 years, and sooner if possible.  If the state follows through on supporting a renewed Parole Commission, on looking for ways to reduce crimeless revocations, and on increasing investment in Treatment Alternatives and Diversions (TAD), the prison population will be reduced sufficiently so that there will be no need to replace GBCI.
 
 We’ll let you know when the Governor responds.
  
 ~ We got some bad news last week.  The Pew Charitable Trusts had proposed to lend their considerable resources and expertise to Wisconsin, to help us find a way to greatly reduce Revocations.  (Pew helped Texas and other states to do this.)  They needed the support of the Governor, the Department of Corrections and the heads of the Senate and Assembly to get started.  Everyone, Republican and Democrat alike, agreed to work together on the plan EXCEPT Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.  Against even the wishes of his fellow Republican legislators, Speaker Vos refused to give his approval, and Wisconsin lost a great opportunity to leave politics at the door for a moment and to focus on learning best practices from around the country.
  
 ~ A final note:  This Thursday will be Transit Call-In Day in Wisconsin, to push our legislature to fully fund Transit in the new budget.  Watch for a message about that and be ready to reach out to legislators!

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