09/03/2026
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What is: BRIDGING THE GAP
Wisconsin has more people sitting in prison today than at any other time in our state’s history. As of August 28, 2026, there were 23,854 people incarcerated in Wisconsin’s adult correctional system. The system was designed for 17,867. Racine Correctional Institution alone was built for 1,171 people and is currently holding more than 1,800.
At some point, we have to stop acting like doing more of the same is going to get us somewhere different.
For years, people who have actually lived through incarceration have been talked about, studied, evaluated, and brought into conversations after most of the decisions have already been made. We get asked to tell our stories. We get invited to sit on panels. Sometimes we get asked what we think. (eye roll)
But too often, we are still not in the rooms where the real decisions are being made. That has to change.
People who have been impacted by the system understand things about incarceration that cannot be learned from a textbook, a policy manual, or an office outside the institution. We know what isolation does to a person. We know what institutionalization looks like. We know what it feels like to lose hope, lose trust, and start believing that survival is the only thing that matters.
We also know what it takes to reach somebody who is in that place.
That is why we created ECHO — Every Choice Holds an Opportunity.
ECHO was designed by people who have lived this experience. Not because lived experience makes us the only people with answers, but because it gives us an understanding that the system simply cannot create for itself.
That matters.
Wisconsin DOC reports that among people released in fiscal year 2021, within three years 52.8% were rearrested, 36.7% were reconvicted, and 33.1% were reincarcerated. Those are disgusting numbers!
At the same time, research around mentoring and peer support continues to show something we already know from experience: people do better when they have somebody walking with them who understands where they have been. One major reentry initiative found that participants who worked with mentors were 35% less likely to return to prison for a new offense within one year than those who did not receive mentoring.
That is what we mean when we talk about bridging the gap.
The gap between programming and real connection.
The gap between incarceration and healing.
The gap between people making decisions about us and people making decisions with us.
And the gap between knowing that something is wrong and actually being willing to try something different.
At a time when Wisconsin has the highest prison population in its history, we cannot afford to keep leaving impacted people outside the conversation.
We are not saying we have every answer. We are saying we are part of the answer.
And programs like ECHO show what can happen when people who have lived through the system are given the opportunity to come back into that system with something different to offer.
If this mission speaks to you, help us move it forward by sharing the campaign or giving a donation.
DONATE: https://givebutter.com/echo-bridging-the-gap-zgkcl8
