“Some of them were merely lookouts... There’s been a lot of young men who I talked to and spent time with in the federal prison in Minnesota. And just hearing their stories, I just felt that this is a form of genocide. They were charged under the RICO Act, something that was put together for the Mafia. But the fact is, it really devastated our community and took all the big brothers and the uncles and fathers and men. The children were coming into our prison and it felt like a genocide to me. I just felt that I need to make a difference in my community, and so that was my mission.”
Dillard has since spent the last 20 years working directly with the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated population of Wisconsin. He served with the Madison Area Urban Ministry as a re-entry specialist, focusing on helping ease the adjustment back into civilian populations. This experience led him to spend 9 years as President of Voices Beyond Bars, a group of formerly-incarcerated individuals designed for support and to provide direct services to those in need of housing, employment, treatment, and transportation after completing sentences. “I just felt that I need to make a difference in my community, and so that was my mission.” - Jerome Dillard
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