The Gamaliel Foundation in Wisconsin

August 20, 2014

Secretary Ed Wall
Wisconsin Department of Corrections
3099 E. Washington Avenue
P.O. Box 7925
Madison, WI. 53707-7925

Dear Secretary Wall:

The Department of Corrections is out of control.

More than a month ago we told you that there was injustice in your prison system. We spoke of
torture through excessive solitary confinement, of bureaucratic confusion regarding old law
prisoners and of excessive revocations sending people back to prison for rule violations rather than
for new crimes.

Much of what we told you in public testimony at the State Capitol on July 9 has been confirmed by
the reporting of award-winning investigative journalists. They have reported on the secret,
inscrutable system that has effectively kept many old law inmates from getting a fair chance for
parole. They have documented the systematic abuse of prisoners in solitary confinement in
Waupun. These injustices have been condemned by editorial boards across the state

Your public response has been to do almost nothing. What you have done is put Anthony Brown
in solitary confinement. We learned over the weekend that Anthony was put into solitary
confinement and informed that he was being investigated for unauthorized forms of
communication. He is being punished for having talked to the press and for having told the truth.
He was placed in solitary confinement because he had talked to Gina Barton, of the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel who had put his story on the front page of the biggest newspaper in the state.

Anthony Brown is in solitary confinement because he exposed the secret process the Department
of Corrections uses to interfere with the work of the Parole Commission and keep inmates in
prison who are legally eligible to go home. Anthony Brown is in solitary confinement because he
is living, breathing, truth-speaking proof of the billion dollar a year mismanagement of the
Department of Corrections.

Secretary Wall, you spoke convincingly on July 9 of your recent awakening to the horrors of
solitary confinement, and you told our members they would be pleased to see the actions you had
planned. Still, you have refused to ask for an outside investigation of the documented abuses in
MICAH CUSH RIC SOPHIA JOSHUA ESTHER JONAH AMOS NAOMI RUTH MOSES
Milwaukee Kenosha Racine Waukesha Green Bay Fox Valley Eau Claire La Crosse Wausau Manitowoc Madison
Phone: 414-831-2070 Email: wisdomforjustice@gmail.com
Address: 3195 S. Superior St. Suite 313, Milwaukee, WI 53207

the solitary confinement unit at Waupun. And, you have allowed solitary confinement to be used
as the punishment for Anthony Brown for the crime of speaking a truth that reflected badly on
your department.

We have offered repeatedly to meet with you in person, and we have offered repeatedly to meet
with Governor Walker, who is ultimately responsible for the mismanagement of a $1.2 billion
Corrections budget. Neither of you has chosen to meet with us or to explain the actions of the
Department of Corrections.

Why have you and the Governor chosen to respond to evidence of mismanagement and abuse by
trying to tighten the cloak of secrecy around the Department of Corrections? We can only hope
that election year politics have not overshadowed your sense of professional responsibility.


Sincerely,


Ms. Sandra Milligan Rev. Willie Brisco Rev. Marian Boyle
WISDOM President (Kenosha) WISDOM V.P. (Milwaukee) WISDOM V.P. (Green Bay)


cc: Governor Walker