EX-Prisoners Organizing (EXPO)
is a group of formerly incarcerated people who drive WISDOM’s ROC Wisconsin campaign to end mass
incarceration. Other organizations in Wisconsin provide direct services to
previously imprisoned people, but EXPO is the only group of previously
imprisoned people in the state who organize to change the system.
My experience with Wisconsin’s punishment
system inspired me to join EXPO and help lead WISDOM’s campaign. Public
officials in Wisconsin forced me to spend 20 months of my life in Wisconsin
prisons for a non-violent crime and six months of my life in the Milwaukee
Secure Detention Facility for violating a rule of supervision that did not
involve a new crime. When I was in prison, I witnessed the racial injustice of
Wisconsin’s penal system. The majority of people I was incarcerated with were
African American men and Latino men. Many of these men were serving very long
sentences for non-violent crimes.
I know how difficult the reentry process
can be. When I got out of prison in 2000, I learned that the box on job
applications which inquires about conviction history can be a significant
barrier to employment for people with records. After I got released, I applied
for many jobs that required me to check the box, and I did not get interviewed
for any of these jobs. Later on, I experienced discrimination in housing. In
2009, I moved to Chicago to attend a graduate school there. Even though I had
not been convicted of any new crimes in nearly a decade, many companies would
not let me live in their apartments because of my conviction history.
I completely turned my life around over
the last 16 years. During this time period, I earned two master’s degrees and
worked for several nonprofit organizations. I currently chair WISDOM’s
Post-Release Issues Workgroup. I am also a PhD candidate at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a board member of Project RETURN, a nonprofit
organization in Milwaukee that helps men and women leaving prison make a
positive and permanent return to our community.
EXPO aims to influence conversations about
penal policy and people who have experienced incarcerated. We also aim to
restore people with records to full participation in the life of our
communities. EXPO wants everyone to view people with arrest and conviction
histories as human beings, members of families, and assets to communities. We
fight to end all forms of structural discrimination against formerly
incarcerated people. All EXPO members have the
opportunity to attend one-day, two-day, and weeklong leadership development programs
conducted by WISDOM and the Gamaliel Foundation. Over
100 people have already participated in our training programs.
EXPO
is needed in Wisconsin for several reasons. Wisconsin incarcerates African
American men and Native American men at rates higher than any other state.
Wisconsin spends more on corrections than on the University of Wisconsin
system. Although Wisconsin and Minnesota have similar crime rates and similar
populations, Wisconsin imprisons people at twice the rate of Minnesota and spends
more than twice as much on corrections. The opportunity costs of mass
incarceration in Wisconsin are huge. The huge amount of money we waste on
unnecessarily incarcerating people should instead be spent on public education,
public transportation, health care, and other needed services.
The
stories of many EXPO leaders show that people with records cannot only change,
but can become key leaders of social movements and organizations. EXPO members have led organizing efforts
around issues like ban the box, sentencing reform, crimeless revocations,
treatment alternatives to incarceration, solitary confinement, and transitional
jobs. We work to transform Wisconsin’s unjust penal system and raise awareness
of problems facing formerly incarcerated people by
·
participating
in WISDOM’s public actions and policy workgroups,
·
doing
presentations at community organizations,
·
writing
opinion pieces,
·
meeting
with legislators,
·
testifying
at public hearings, and
·
appearing
on radio and television shows.
The
efforts of EXPO leaders have already had an impact on state and federal
policies. Our work prompted policymakers in Wisconsin to reduce the use of
solitary confinement in Wisconsin prisons, expand the state’s Treatment
Alternatives and Diversion (TAD) program, and expand a transitional jobs
program that helps people with barriers to employment find jobs.
During our weeklong
training program in the summer of 2015, we decided to join a national campaign
that aimed to get President Obama to issue an Executive Order to ban the box
for federal jobs and federal contractors. We initially reached out to state and
local elected officials throughout Wisconsin and asked them to call on
President Obama to ban the box. Dozens of politicians supported our campaign.
In July, EXPO leaders joined formerly incarcerated leaders from across the
nation to participate in a ban the box rally in front of the White House. After
the rally, we met with some of President Obama’s policy advisors. In addition,
we educated, organized, and mobilized communities across Wisconsin. In
November, President Obama banned the box for federal jobs.
The idea of starting EXPO originated at
Project RETURN. One member of Project RETURN’s alumni group told me that “now,
we would always say that if everybody in the state who is incarcerated or has a
relative who is incarcerated started to vote you could control every political
position in the state of Wisconsin and probably the country. Well, guess what,
it’s starting to happen because it’s completely unfair, and all kinds of people
are seeing how unfair the system is.”
People
with records have the potential to become one of the most politically powerful
groups in the United States, but we have often been excluded from the
policymaking process and professional conversations on mass incarceration.
Nearly one out of three adults in the nation has a conviction or arrest
history. In the coming years, EXPO will continue to build the power of people
with records.
WISDOM
3195 South Superior St., Suite 313
Milwaukee, WI 53207
414-831-2070
