About Us: Fair Shake Team

Fair Shake Team:
These are the folks making Fair Shake tick. Team members offer short biographies as well as answered the question: Why do you think people coming out of prison should get a fair shake?

We would love to read your answer to that question. Please reply here if you are willing to have your answered posted. You may see your comment on our website one day! (optional: name and region/city)

Alex Wikstrom – head of the research team, email liason
Alex is the youngest employee of Fair Shake. Rolling in initially to just put a few bucks in his pocket through needed part time work, Alex now considers himself a full fledged Fair Shake enthusiast.  Having lived a low-income life, Alex knows all about the difficulties around finding good work and the importance of doing so.  “Life’s tough; and even tougher is to know your goals and to make your choices count toward those goals.”

Finding real comfort in doing the right thing, Alex has developed a goal of starting an electric car converting company and is developing paths toward that goal.  Puzzles and math are his strong points; nothing makes him more satisfied than finding a solution.  Paying attention to the full scope of life, Alex loves snowboarding, mountain biking and spending time with his dog Gretel.

Cosmic Egg (Eric Lineback / Michael Aubert / Cindy Rosario)
web design and graphic artists

Kai Huschke – writer
Individually Kai's work background is made up of what look like disparate puzzle pieces, however when you put them all together the picture of who Kai is reveals a valuable breadth, depth, and awareness of human and natural systems. Construction, wild land firefighting, commercial crab fishing, landscaping, anthropological research, guidebook writing, and disaster clean-up make up a few of the short-term jobs Kai has had over the last eight years. In addition, for 15 years now, Kai has been active in professional level positions in the areas of marketing and communications, strategic partnerships, and organizational development within industries ranging from outdoor recreation, literary publishing, human services and environmental justice. Kai is also a community activist currently leading an initiative to drive a bill of rights into his home city's governing charter (Spokane, Washington). Kai's dedication to people and place make him a perfect Fair Shake family member.

Lane Butz – graphic artist

Sue Kastensen – Director
Sue has led a diverse life: teaching snowboarding, studying Native American ethnobotany, trimming trees, co-managing a young natural foods coop, making snow, and founding a natural body care company…all while growing with two terrific children. She founded Sue’s Amazing Lip Stuff and Sun Dog Hemp Body care in the early 1990’s while touring with the Grateful Dead in the summer and snowboarding in the mountains of Colorado during the winter. The company grew steadily with the increasing interest in natural products, along with the revival of hemp. In 2001, however, she was gripped by a new passion. Through letters received from inmates around the country, Sue felt the lure to start a business in support of prisoner reentry. In 2005 she sold her body care business to Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, where her products were reformulated to be certified organic. They immediately became the first line of truly organic body care on the US market under their new name: Dr. Bronner’s & Sun Dog’s Magic. Initially she was the national sales manager for the company, then the Marketing Director and now she holds the title of Marketing & Creative Specialist. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to be the first Executive Director and Instigator at Fair Shake. She serves on the Fair Shake board as well as the boards of MOSA (Midwest Organic Services Association), DFTA (Domestic Fair Trade Association), and is board chair for the Viroqua Food Cooperative. Other passions include hemp, snow play, democracy, disc golf and cycling. She lives in Westby, Wisconsin.

Why do you think former felons deserve a Fair Shake?

To err is human; to forgive, divine. 
-Alexander Pope

Alex Wikstrom says...
Sometimes progress is made because of an error.  In these progressions (errors) we feel the end justifies the means.  All of us make mistakes, and if the mistakes are serious enough we can end up are in prison for a long time. 

When people are released from prison, they are often different than when they were admitted.  I'm 25 years old, I can’t even come close to counting how many changes I've gone through since I was 18.  We are only talking seven years of time, how different would I be after 20 years?

Eric Lineback says...
The world is changing fast, someone released now who has been imprisoned for 20 years isn't going to know much about the internet or cell phones.  So there is constant change, if we want their prison experience to have a positive impact (and yes, that would affect us), then they need to be prepared and willing to work WITH the world.

Kai Huschke says...
For me it comes from that place of believing in the power of story, the power of individual stories and those stories as part of a greater collective. When I say stories I do think of the ones told and the ones that will eventually find voice, but more so I think of the stories that will never be told but that we all know hold a wisdom feed from on a daily basis. As far as current and former prisoners are concerned I know very little of their personal stories, but what I have come to know is the larger collective story of the correctional system. Part of that story has me very concerned, concerned enough to be motivated to get involved. I'm concerned that over incarceration combined with under preparation for reintroduction are creating massive fissures in communities all across the country. The systems have, in very real ways, replaced individual stories with a pseudo-collective story that honors structure and control way above personal potential, free will, accountability, and responsibility. It is well known in the biological world that the more you can connect the individual elements of an ecosystem to itself the faster and more completely it can heal and become healthy again. Our society and communities have many harmful points of disconnection one of them being how we integrate former prisoners back into society. I have come to see that it is our charge to find the means and practices to have all peoples of society connected to one another in order to bring about the vibrancy that we all want to see within the towns and cities we call home.

Sue Kastensen says...

• Because I have made mistakes, and I continue to make mistakes. I understand what it’s like to want another chance to be trusted to not mess things up. I also understand how it is possible to be remorseful and earnest about making a change.  I see that we all have the same potential for good and evil; and that evil can be as effortless as selfishness, and good can be as simple as a smile.    

• Because folks who have come out of prison need a way to prove intentions to re-engage. For us to believe that returning prisoners are somehow all the same just encourages the “nothing works” strategy that has driven reentry inaction for the last 30 years, while the tax revenue we want to use to support our children, elderly and communities is being diverted to prop up an inefficient, debasing, and vaguely accountable system.    

• Because I know from experience that the ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ idealism of the American Dream is still possible.  After a former felon has completed her or his sentence, it’s time for them to transition and contribute!  We are all integral and valuable collaborators in building our democracy, and our (entire) society is a reflection of our values! 

• And, on a personal level, I’m actually rather selfish.  It is my relentless quest to enjoy life to the fullest – or, as the Anishinaabe say, bimaadiziiwin.  I have found that it is much easier to enjoy life when I feel safe, respected and engaged in my community.  Since I am responsible for my happiness, I realize I have an important part to play in making my world a great place to hang out.