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…