CEO Corner: Why Women’s Voices Must Be at the Center of Justice Reform
This past March, as we recognized Women’s History Month, I had the honor of attending the San Quentin Film Festival @ Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF). Presented by the team at SQFF, including Rahsaan Thomas and Cori Thomas, it was the first film festival set inside a women’s prison — hosted in partnership with the newly created CCWF Media Center team, home of Paper Trail, an online publication written entirely by incarcerated writers at the facility. Importantly for me, it was my very first time setting foot inside a women’s prison facility, a realization that set in only the night before.
The population of incarcerated women has grown by over 600% since 1980* — far more than incarcerated men. It is sometimes understated and overlooked because of the total population size, but raw numbers alone don’t tell the full story of what communities lose without the strong presence of women. For example: 80% of those women incarcerated are mothers — most often, primary caregivers for their families. A similar percentage of women enter the system having been the victim of intimate partner violence, a mitigating circumstance and driver of violent offenses that is still not legally recognized in sentencing decisions by judges in many states. Despite these systemic barriers, women have played a revolutionary role in our collective liberation, and play a vital role in our society in all of the incredible ways in which they repair, fix, heal, and build up our communities.
What I witnessed and felt in Chowchilla from the incarcerated women was one of the warmest, deepest levels of community support I had seen in a long time. Connection, intention, and care for one another. We laughed together at So Boom, a project by Abby Pierce and Tiny Cruz. The film was brilliant and at times humorous about Tiny’s experience, who played herself as “Sweet Tea” preparing her little sister for what she may experience in jail. But at its root, it was about the ability to do so much when so little is given, an experience women go through routinely that we all must witness and speak out about. It is a shameful injustice that there are not more resources for incarcerated women and consideration of women in the national narrative about incarceration. As I left the festival, I reflected on it being my first time visiting a women’s facility in 6 years of leading Represent Justice, a feeling that humbled me and reinforced the work to be done.
At Represent Justice, we are so deeply proud to have helped produce and to have supported campaigns for 21 short films produced by women — not only stories of womanhood, but the unique perspectives around healing, solutions, and policies championed by women. It was an honor to partner, and I hope and pray for the continued development of the CCWF media center, and we at RJ will continue to fight for the empowerment of women in the narrative about the harms of the legal system.
*Sources: Historical Corrections Statistics in the United States 1850-1984 (1986); Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear Series (1997- 2023), Prisoners Series (1980-2023). Bureau of Justice Statistics.