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09 Jun “Free in the Time of Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter Movement” by Roslyn Smith, V-Day Beyond Incarceration Project Manager
“We are a society that has been structured from top to bottom by race. You don’t get beyond that by deciding not to talk about it anymore. It will always come back; it will always reassert itself over and over again.” – Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw I was released from prison in October of 2018 and have been home now for a year and eight months. I remember counting the years and days of my confinement with a heavy heart, now I count my days of freedom with pleasure and gratitude. We measure time in many different ways but for me...04 May “Covid-19: The First Reported Death at The Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women” by Roslyn Smith, V-Day Beyond Incarceration Project Manager
Covid-19 is an unprecedented and unpredictable global crisis, a defining moment in our history. This virus has affected everyone, but not equally. The deep structural inequalities in economics, health care systems, prisons, race, class and gender around the world are being exposed with devastating results to the most vulnerable people, particularly women. The general population at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility was informed about the death of a fellow resident Lulu, on April 29th, 2020. There were 627 women housed there; now one is gone and we mourn for her with her family and friends. This is a sad time...21 Mar “Covid-19 & Incarceration” by Roslyn Smith, V-Day Beyond Incarceration Project Manager
This virus is affecting all of us, those in prison are especially vulnerable. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, nearly 2.3 million people are held in prisons and jails nationwide (Prison Policy Initiative). Prison populations cannot “self-isolate,” “social distance” or “flatten the curve,” nor are they allowed sanitizing gel or disinfectant liquids because it is considered contraband. Most of the time they don’t even have running water in their cells. Prison populations tend to have higher rates of elderly people (due to longer sentences) with serious health issues. In addition, the prison staff come and...
18 Nov Roslyn Smith Joins V-Day Team as Beyond Incarceration, Program Manager
Please join us in welcoming Roslyn Smith to the V-Day team. As Program Manager, Roz will oversee V-Day’s new Beyond Incarceration project which will further expand and deepen V-Day’s ongoing work with formerly incarcerated women and incarcerated women, engaging and educating activists throughout the US and worldwide in a dialogue around restorative justice. Roz brings her personal experience from long-term incarceration as a vehicle for her work as a criminal justice reform advocate. “As I think about both the roots of my involvement in violence and the issue of responsibility, I know that increasingly it is understood that people who...
12 Jan RISE 2023, Celebrate V’s Newest Book Reckoning & V-Day’s 25th Anniversary at 92NY, & Join Roz Smith in Day of Advocacy for Parole Justice
RISE for Freedom, Create the New Culture Our One Billion Rising 2023 call is to Rise for Freedom & Create the New Culture in order to address the devastating consequences of the ongoing vicious systems of patriarchy, imperialism, capitalism and racism in the world today and the destructive battle for power fought over women’s bodies and the body of the earth. This year’s campaign celebrates 10 years of One Billion Rising and urges communities worldwide to utilize art and activism, creative resistance events and gatherings, both online and offline, to demand an end to violence against women, girls, gender nonconforming...
30 Dec Your support fuels the V-Day movement, it makes everything possible
2024 marked the twenty-sixth year of V-Day, a year during which survivors, artists and activists gathered together, channeling art and creativity with a shared vision and mission for a world free from violence. They rose to address the devastating consequences of the ongoing vicious systems of patriarchy, fascism, capitalism and racism in the world today and the destructive battle for power fought over women’s bodies and the Earth. Photo Credits: Australia (Lyn McCarthy), South Africa (OBR South Africa), Hong Kong (@phyang81), Eswatini (Colani Hlatjwako), India (Jagori Grameen), Philippines (Sarah Elago) This year, V-Day and One Billion Rising activists once again...09 Dec Reflections on the Second Annual Global Prison Nursery Network Symposium
Posted at 19:29h
In November, Columbia Law School hosted the 2nd Annual Global Prison Nursery Network Symposium, a pivotal event organized by Children of Incarcerated Caregivers (CIC) in collaboration with the Columbia Journal of Gender & Law. This year’s symposium focused on the pressing issues surrounding parental incarceration, particularly the unique challenges faced by women who give birth while in prison. As a moderator for a panel discussion featuring women who have navigated the complex realities of motherhood in prison, I had the profound honor of facilitating a conversation that brought their experiences to the forefront. The symposium gathered an impressive array of...
26 Jul Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration
Posted at 16:16h
Roslyn Smith, V-Day’s Beyond Incarceration Project Manager, has been writing blog posts as part of V-Day’s 2019 Spotlight on Women in Prison, Detention Centers, and Formerly Incarcerated Women. In her newly expanded blog, Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, Roz writes an ongoing series about her experiences as a formerly incarcerated women, including short and long dispatches on prison reform and prison abolition, often highlighting news articles around the experiences of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, pieces highlighting what she’s thinking about, what she’s worried about, including interviews with formerly incarcerated women, stories from prison, visions of a world without prison, how...
