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Dan Fitch

Dan Fitch is a local writer, noisemaker, and activist in Madison.

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Dan's Latest Articles

A photo of the now cleaned-up "Halloween house" on East Gorham Street shows the facade of a house with tan siding and maroon-trimmed windows. On the front of the house is a string of pennants that spell out "EVERY DAY IS HALLOWEEN."
Goodbye, Halloween House

An inexplicable Tenney-Lapham landmark has gone quietly into that spooky night.

An illustration shows a black-and-white photo of Van Vleck Hall on the UW-Madison campus, photographed from below at a steep angle. Bleeding through some of the windows are images of COVID molecules, a rapid COVID test, an N95 mask, and a do-it-yourself air purifier.
Guest column: Under Mnookin, UW-Madison is repeating its COVID-19 mistakes

Campus workers and community members address the new Chancellor’s lax safety plan for fall, and her responses to COVID concerns.

A glowing box descends, about to block the exit of a pedestrian construction scaffolding that leads out into a sunny day. Spiderwebs, trash, and abstract building-like boxes climb around the scaffolding.
Digging into the latest opposition to a smaller Dane County Jail

Dane County skirts meaningful reform and looks to bypass resistance to building a new jail.

A photo of a Progressive Lane street sign under a cloudy sky and a tree, covered with shadows from an encroaching set of abstract red jail bars, overlapping at strange angles.
Dane County’s jail project barrels down a familiar road, but there are always more off-ramps

The County Board counts costs, Sheriff Barrett moves incarcerated people, and the Black Caucus recommends an alternative—as budget season heats up.

The Dane County Board pairs more jail funding with toothless calls for reform

Another absurd, expensive, and politically craven turn in the drawn-out quest to build new cages.

New co-responder programs for mental health crises offer different approaches—including whether they send police to the scene

Who can you expect to show up when you call for help in Madison?

A dotted purple cube opens up and a series of smaller purple cubes escape it, over a picture of 2020 protests near the jail in downtown Madison, with the street and sidewalks full of people. A sign reads "EXIT". Illustration by Dan Fitch. Photo by Oona Mackesey-Green.
Misframing decisions about the County jail does the public a disservice

Dismantling is difficult. Making the same mistakes is easy.

Public health, public safety, and the people caught in the coils

What’s in Dane County’s 2022 budget for care and incarceration.

When it comes to cash bail, Dane County has too many blind spots

A deeper look at who gets stuck in jail pre-trial and how we got here.