Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration - V-Day - Page 2
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Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration

24 Jun

Posted at 17:16h in Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, One Billion Rising, V-Day

As an advisory board member of Donna Hylton’s A Little Piece of Light, I was invited to attend the organization’s trip to touch base with their California partners. A Little Piece of Light is a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower and facilitate healing for women, girls, and gender-fluid individuals who are directly impacted by trauma and involvement in the criminal justice system. Our flight was on time and we all settled in for the 6-hour trip. We were fully vaccinated and excited to be traveling again. We arrived, and LaVell Baylor, Deputy Director for Freedom4Youth, was there to greet...

03 Jun

Posted at 15:16h in Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, One Billion Rising, V-Day

Donna Hylton is a Jamaican-American author and criminal justice activist. She founded, A Little Piece of Light, the non-profit, which bears the same name as her book, both created out of her lived experience of 27 years of incarceration. Ms. Hylton pulled off a fantastic event in the community of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Since her release, she has been a staunch advocate for the rights of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, cis, trans, and those who hold fluid identities. Her work and dedication to this cause have led her to speak at the Women’s March in 2017, the Democratic National...

02 Apr

Posted at 08:42h in Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, One Billion Rising, V-Day

According to the Sentencing Project, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 700%, rising from a total of 26,378 in 1980 to 222,455 in 2019.1 Though many more men are in prison than women, the rate of growth for female imprisonment has been twice as high as that of men since 1980. Nationally, about 1 in 8 (13%) of all individuals released from state prisons and more than 1 in 6 (18%) jail releases are women.2 We rarely hear the stories of women after they have been home and what their lives look like now. I want to highlight three...

02 Apr

Posted at 08:20h in Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, One Billion Rising, V-Day

The pandemic hit hard and restricted our travels, so I have not had the opportunity to travel and report on criminal justice reform issues since early 2020. This was my first time visiting Washington D.C. and I was proud to be doing it in a capacity to advocate for incarcerated women’s release from prison. There are over 200,00 women incarcerated in prisons across the United States. The United States incarcerates1 more people than any other country in the world. On March 12th, I traveled to DC to participate in a campaign with The National Council for Women and Girls to...

27 Sep

Posted at 16:00h in Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, V-Day

A Meaningful Journey: Discussing Re-entry with New Hours’ Emerge Program: In today's world, where second chances are often hard to come by, some organizations stand as beacons of Hope for those who have faced the challenges of reentry into society after incarceration. New Hour, a remarkable non-profit organization, is one such Beacon. New Hour is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting justice-impacted women and providing successful support for mothers and children seeking a fresh start. It is located in Brentwood, Long Island, a far cry from my roots in the bustling city of Brooklyn, New York. They offer a range of...

15 Sep

Posted at 15:59h in Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, V-Day

Most women don’t think twice about where they are going to acquire menstrual products, yet that is not the case for incarcerated women in prison, jails, detention centers and women’s shelters across the United States. Incarcerated individuals and other people in the criminal justice system often have to resort to begging or bargaining with staff[1]for basic hygiene needs. Thirty-eight states do not require prisons to provide menstrual products[2] to incarcerated people. The voices of incarcerated women are not broadcast as loudly as their male counterparts. Now that the influx of women coming to prison has vastly increased,  women’s unique issues need attention with...

09 Jun

Posted at 15:58h in Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, V-Day

"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 these...

04 May

Posted at 15:57h in Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, V-Day

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 for all...

21 Mar

Posted at 15:57h in Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, V-Day

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 go each...

18 Nov

Posted at 15:56h in Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, V-Day

Gabriel Sanchez' article "Here's What It's Like For A Woman To Serve Life In Prison" (Buzzfeed, September 12, 2019, by Gabriel H. Sanchez) highlights the work of Sara Bennet's "PhotovilleNYC", who represented me in the early 90's when I was applying for clemency. My first petition was sent when Governor Pataki was in office and then another one when Patterson took over, both denied my petitions. The women in this article, (many of whom I know) from my 39 years spent at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the only maximum security prison for women in New York, are only sharing...