Who is EXPO?
EXPO (EX-incarcerated People Organizing) works to end mass incarceration, eliminate all forms of structural discrimination against formerly incarcerated people, and restore formerly incarcerated people to full participation in the life of our communities.
EXPO emerged in 2014 when formerly incarcerated people from around Wisconsin began to gather to discuss what it would look like to have our own statewide organization. Our members provide support to each other and organize to change Wisconsin’s unjust penal system. Previously imprisoned women and men lead EXPO. Our members provide support to each other and organize to change Wisconsin’s unjust penal system. We receive support from family members of currently and formerly incarcerated people and allies who have not experienced incarceration. EXPO is a project of WISDOM, a statewide organization that links faith communities to work for justice.
Accomplishments: EXPO members have helped lead campaigns that prompted policymakers to:
• ban the box for federal jobs;
• ban the box for jobs in the City of Madison, City of Milwaukee and City of Racine;
• expand funding for Wisconsin’s Treatment Alternatives and Diversion (TAD) Program;
• reduce the use of solitary confinement in Wisconsin prisons; and
• expand funding for Wisconsin’s transitional jobs program.
Formation: EXPO Leaders have participated in 2-day (Friday evening and all day Saturday) leadership training events. 18 EXPO Leaders participated in a first-ever “Week-long Leadership Training” in Milwaukee in June 2015. Dozens of EXPO leaders have completed this specialized training since then. Many have completed a Fellowship Program designed to sharpen organizing skills and build the network. This is the first training of its kind held anywhere in the U.S., with the exclusive goal of empowering formerly-incarcerated people to build a powerful organization that can have a voice in the future of the criminal justice system.
Here is the link to EXPO Radio: http://www.riverwestradio.com/show/expo-ex-prisoners-organizing/
To contact EXPO directly, check out our chapters page.
EXPO of Wisconsin 