SnowFlower Sun Reflections
November 13, 2018 |

Meet MOSES (Madison Organizing in Strength, Equality and Solidarity)

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Meet MOSES (Madison Organizing in Strength, Equality and Solidarity)

It’s been wonderful to have so many new SnowFlower participants in the last two years! This article is to update everyone about MOSES because SnowFlower was one of its founding members and has been a financial supporter for 6 years.

MOSES is an interfaith organization in Madison dedicated to criminal justice reform in Wisconsin, especially the highly negative impact of mass incarceration on the poor and people of color. MOSES is one of ten WISDOM affiliates in Wisconsin. We work at the level of public policy on issues such as Reducing Solitary Confinement, Post-Release Employment, Ban the Box, Alternatives to Incarceration, etc. MOSES was responsible for getting a detailed Ban the Box/Fair Chance Ordinance passed in Madison and Dane County. We work at the City, County and Sate level.

Unfortunately, at the moment we do not have a working MOSES Justice Team at SnowFlower and we need one to seize the opportunities offered by a new governor who has endorsed the WISDOM/MOSES criminal justice agenda. A justice team usually has between 3 and 10 members. Carol Rubin is willing to chair such a Justice Team and attend MOSES’ monthly meetings on Sunday afternoons. But we need more members to periodically attend and support big MOSES/WISDOM events like the Madison Day of Action which takes place in March 2019 at the Capitol to influence the bi-annual State Budget. For example, over the years, WISDOM has gotten $7 million into the State budget for Treatment Alternatives and Diversions from prison (TAD) but we need at least $20 million to support all the counties seeking funds for Drug, Alcohol and Veteran Courts.

Another option is for 3-4 individuals to form a Circle of Support sponsored by Madison-area Urban Ministry (MUM). This requires a once/week commitment for six months to meet with a formerly incarcerated person just returning to our community, to discuss employment, family, housing and emotional challenges and help that person re-integrate into the community and stay out of prison.

It is often refreshing to actually be out in the world practicing Engaged Buddhism.