Submitted photo
Jerome Dillard and Dennis Franklin at the grand opening EXPO's four-unit apartment.
EXPO executive director Jerome Dillard, right, and Dennis Franklin, interim associate director, at the group’s four-unit apartment building on Axel Avenue.
At one time, Deandrea “Dee” Hardman considered herself a “frequent flier” at the Dane County jail. Jailed for a series of drug-related offenses, she would return within months every time she was released. Eventually, she was sentenced to prison in June 2022 and spent more than two years behind bars.
When she got out in December 2024, she tried something different. Hardman went to live in a transitional house in Madison run by Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO), a statewide nonprofit that focuses on challenges faced by former prisoners upon their release from institutions.
Support offered by workers and peers at the nonprofit’s “Safe House,” says Hardman, provided her a real chance at a life outside of bars. She now works for the organization as a peer support specialist and was named EXPO’s woman of the year at the group’s annual gala in October.
“Every other time that I’ve been incarcerated in some sort of institution, when I got out, I didn’t have love and support, that nice soft landing and people who were willing to help me figure this stuff out,” says Hardman. “If I would not have had the Safe House to go to, I promise you, I’d probably be back in prison or dead, because I was not living a great life before this.”
The house is located near Fitchburg and has five beds. It is the nonprofit’s first move into supportive housing, says operations director Marianne Oleson. Oleson, like Hardman, has real life experience for the work she now does: she spent more than five years in prison before being released in 2017.
The house opened in 2023, providing shelter so far to 11 women, who pay 30% of their income, up to $500, for monthly rent.
Staff assist women at the house in securing such vital documents as birth certificates and Social Security cards if they do not already have them, and with enrollment in BadgerCare and food assistance. The women also participate in peer support groups and training for employment in retail jobs; the nonprofit has relationships with such businesses as Firehouse Subs and the Target in Fitchburg to help residents get hired during and after their stay. Typical stays range from 12-18 months, Oleson says.
Tommy Washbush
Deandrea Hardman, left, and Marianne Oleson of EXPO.
Deandrea Hardman, left, and Marianne Oleson draw on lived experience in their work at EXPO.
So far, no current or former residents have returned to jail or prison. And two women once estranged from their families have been reunited with them since leaving the house, Oleson says.
EXPO is now expanding operations. It started accepting residents into a four-unit apartment building on Axel Avenue in October that is meant for permanent housing. There, formerly incarcerated people and their families can take advantage of low rent and supportive services. Similar options in Madison are few — most supportive housing options focused around reentry are designed to be short term.
Oleson views the nonprofit’s housing options as a model for how reentry should work.
“Housing cannot be your reward for stability,” says Oleson. “It is the foundation of stability, and to just throw someone in a room and give them a key is not the answer.”
Around 41% of Wisconsin prisoners released in 2016 were reincarcerated within three years, according to a 2021 report from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. People released from prison face substantial obstacles, including barriers to employment, medical care, and, most crucially, housing.
Broad criminological research has found housing insecurity increases rates of recidivism. Offering former prisoners subsidized or free housing can produce significant reductions in repeat offenses, a 2018 pilot program conducted in Maryland found.
In Madison, formerly incarcerated people comprise a growing number of Madison’s homeless population, Isthmus reported in November. That’s in part because landlords are often unwilling to rent to people with a criminal record.
“We see individuals coming home with substantial release accounts. The money is not always the barrier,” says Oleson. EXPO’s new apartment building is meant to house women who have completed the Safe House program. Rent is 30% of their income a month, and residents have, at minimum, twice-a-week check-in meetings with peer support staff.
The Dane County Board of Supervisors in January approved a $575,600, 40-year interest-free loan, administered through the county’s housing authority, to EXPO to purchase and rehabilitate the apartment. At the end of 40 years, the $575,600 loan will be fully forgiven and the house will be permanently transferred to EXPO.
Things have been going well since the October opening, Oleson says, and staffers have been busy helping residents look for assistance with various services. She’s bullish about the potential of such projects to reduce recidivism rates and direct former prisoners to better futures. Says Oleson: “We need to have people wrapped around us, especially during that first year when we first come home.”
