The Dane County Jail is a place where people are supposed to be rehabilitated and prepared to reintegrate into society. However, for too many people, our jail remains a place where they are further traumatized and their chances of success are diminished.

I have seen this firsthand in my work as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) for children in the foster care system. As it is Volunteer Appreciation Month, I thank Sup. Collins’ wife and others who share in this work. In this role, I have met many young people who have been in and out of the jail, and I have seen the devastating impact it has had on their lives, on their families and on our community. 

One young man I worked with, T, was 16 years old when he was first taken into Dane County custody. He had a low IQ and a history of acute seizures. His mother was unable to care for him, so he was placed in foster care.

T struggled. He was moved from home to home, school to school. He was often disruptive and aggressive. He was ALSO struggling with mental health issues.

In December 2020, T made a mistake. He jumped a cop in Cottage Grove. He was arrested and taken to yet another new residence, this time with a downtown Madison address, the Dane County Jail.

T spent two months there. During that time, he was not given any mental health treatment. He was also not given any education or job training. Only because of a call from a concerned jail staffer, did he get access to his meds that kept him alive.  

T was simply warehoused.

When T was released from jail, he was no better off than when he went in. Although he was ruled incompetent to stand trial, his mental health issues worsened. He was also still unemployed and still homeless.

He was now 18 years old, and he proudly asked me to become his legal guardian after he was deemed to be “too great of a liability for Dane County”. I gratefully accepted. 

After a 3 month stay at Mendota Mental Health, we found placement for T in a group home. One morning, T became aggregated by a fellow resident and put him in a headlock. An hour later, I received a call. It was a collect call from a scared T asking me, “Rick, why’d you put me in jail?”

The jail and Dane County courts could clearly see that he was previously ruled incompetent for a similar charge, yet T spent another senseless two months at DCJ.  Even if T could have bonded out, there was nowhere for him to go. 

Once again, we missed an opportunity here.

T's story is not unique. It’s the same story for his younger brother. And the same story for 2 brothers and 2 nephews of another CASA youth I work with. And It’s the same story for 200 additional black men all who currently share residency at our county jail.  

And while I have the majority of us have always remained in favor of building a new jail to replace the decrepit and inhumane parts of our current jail, hopefully through this process, we also learned that we need to put our money where our mouths are.  Across the board. We need to rehabilitate within the jail and reform the criminal system that that has failed us miserably.  

We need to start today with our votes.

I want to thank my colleagues, Supervisors Kigeya and Pellebon specifically, as well as Supervisors Grey and Wright along with Chair Miles, Sheriff Barrett, and the many advocates on the side of prison reform including Moses for bursting what many call the “Dane County glass bubble” which we hide under.  We as a county call ourselves progressive, caring, and forward thinking yet we all too often ignore the real world happening around us.  

On a personal note, I never doubted that my friends Dana and April could continue to crack the glass that Hilary began breaking many years ago. So, thank you.

In summation, while debating funding a new jail didn’t come across as a black and white issue, it has been complicated as all get out. But at the heart of the matter this remains a REAL “black and white” issue of racial divide. 

We need to do better.  My hope is that the next time we build more beds, that we build those beds in the right place for the right people at the right time for the right need. Sure, we can work on both issues at the same time: reform and build. 

Today, I rise with the challenge to you Chair Miles and our fellow Supervisors as well as Exec Parisi that when we prioritize our 2024 Dane County Budget, let’s be sure that  there is an additional $179.5 million dollars placed into sustainable reform models and that there will be a pay off in investment in 20 years so that T and others like him can look back in 2050 and say thank you to each and every one of us.