Contributors
Donnie Belcher
Donnie Belcher is a senior at DePaul University, majoring in Education. A published poet, Donnie also writes for the DePaula, the school newspaper, and Melanin,…
1 submission.
Silja Talvi
Silja Talvi is a senior editor at In These Times, an investigative journalist and essayist with credits in many dozens of newspapers and magazines nationwide,…
1 submission.
Kathleen Desautels
Kathleen Desautels is a Sister of Providence and a human rights worker on the staff of the Chicago-based 8th Day Center for Justice. At age…
1 submission.
Andrea Smith
Andrea Smith, is a co-founder of Incite! Women of Color Against Violence and the Boarding School Healing Project. She is the author of Conquest: Sexual…
1 submission.
Rachel Roth
Rachel Roth is a 2006 Soros Justice Fellow who writes about how prisons affect women's reproductive rights. She has worked as a professor and as…
3 submissions.
Carolyn Shapiro
Carolyn Shapiro, MA, YES! director, has more than 30 years experience as an educator in high schools and colleges and as an initiator of numerous…
Linda Field
Linda Field, CCWF, has been a regular contributor to The Fire Inside, the newsletter of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, since its first issue…
Patricia Wright
Patricia Wright is a survivor of martial abuse 17 years after her ex-husband's murder she was arrested and charged with the crime. She is now…
2 submissions.
Annette Anderson
"Since taking part in the film “Turning A Corner”, I have in much amazement been approached by people that I have never seen come up…
1 submission.
Laura Whitehorn
Laura Whitehorn, was released from prison in August 1999 after a little more than fourteen years. She lives in New York City with her lover,…
1 submission.
Ann Russo
Ann Russo, is an antiracist feminist writer, educator, and activist who is currently the Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at DePaul University.…
1 submission.
Heather Johnson
Heather Johnson writes, "I am 31 year old, and I have been writing poetry and short stories since the age of 7. I became a…
1 submission.
Tracy
Tracy, is 34 years old. She is sentenced 15 years and will parole after serving 7 years. She was a victim of domestic violence for…
1 submission.
Dr. Beth Richie
Dr. Beth Richie is Professor and Chair of the African-American Studies department at University of Illinois-Chicago.
Deanna Lynd
Deanna Lynd is a 31 years old single white female whom is serving a 15 yer minimum mandatory prison sentence in South Florida. She is…
2 submissions.
Gina Autrey
Gina Autrey was born in a small town in South Carolina. She grew up in a loving home, with her parents and her sister. Throughout…
1 submission.
Lucretia Clay-Ward
Lucretia Clay-Ward, is happily married and is working as a outreach worker and doing HIV casemanagement. Life is really good her, higher power has done…
1 submission.
Ann Folwell Stanford
Ann Folwell Stanford is professor of multidisciplinary and literary studies at the School for New Learning, DePaul University. She is also the founder and director…
1 submission.
Stormy Ogden
Stormy Ogden is a California Indian woman, Kashaya Pomo, and a recognized member of the Tule River Yokuts tribe. She has a B.A. in Native…
1 submission.
Joanne Archibald
Joanne Archibald is the Associate Director at Beyondmedia. She worked at Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM) for 14 years, beginning as Advocacy Coordinator,…
1 submission.
Alexandra Cox
Alexandra Cox is a Doctoral candidate in Criminology at the University of Cambridge. Her research is about young people's experiences of punishment and social control.…
1 submission.
Debi Zuver
Debi Zuver is a battered woman who received a 21-year sentence on a manslaughter charge after a plea bargain. Her appeal of her sentence was…
Salome Chasnoff
Salome Chasnoff, Salome Chasnoff is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, installation artist and media activist who has been guiding Beyondmedia’s artistic production since founding it in…
1 submission.
Pamela Thomas
Pamela Thomas is the Client Services Manager for the North Lawndale Employment Network's ex-offender program, where she supervises case managers and develops community resources for…
2 submissions.
Barrilee Banniste
Barrilee Bannister was one of seventy-eight women sent to a male prison in Arizona run by the Corrections Corporation of America, where they were sexually…
1 submission.
Sara Olson
Sara Olson is a Minnesotan in a California prison. She was a fugitive for 24 years, living in various places including the Country of Zimbabwe,…
9 submissions.
Michelle VanNatta
Michelle VanNatta is currently Director of Criminology at Dominican University, believes in prison abolition and works with CLAIM (Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers).
1 submission.
Tori Marlan
Tori Marlan, has been a feature writer for the Chicago Reader since 1995. She has won two Peter Lisagor Awards for exemplary journalism, an Association…
1 submission.
Rebecca Seiber
Rebecca Seiber, Rebecca Seiber is 41 years old in 2008, and she has been incarcerated since she was 26 years old. She is 5'2", 130…
2 submissions.
Anna Bell Chapa
Anna Bell Chapa, CCWF, is a poet, gardener and lover of rabbits and mice whom she has befriended in the prison. She is a regular…
Health and Medicine Policy Research Group
Health and Medicine Policy Research Group is an independent policy center with a twenty-three year history of evaluating local health policy. For more information, see…
1 submission.
Dawn Harding
Dawn Harding, is a 32 year old and is sentenced to 14 months for sales of cocaine from Cape Conaveral. She has a 6 year…
1 submission.
Danielle Metz
Danielle Metz, FCI Dublin, is serving three life sentences for conspiracy to distribute five kilograms of cocaine. Her story is typical of the countless women…
Tammica L. Summers
Tammica L. Summers "I am 34 y.o. (but I look 24!). I'm 4'11", 120 lbs., Petite, Sweet, and Single! I was raised in Florida, but…
3 submissions.
Tina Reynolds
Tina Reynolds received a Master in Social Work from Hunter College in 2003, co-founded WORTH (Women on the Rise Telling Her Story) for women affected…
Diana Block
Diana Block is a member of the planning committee of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and part of the editorial collective, which produces its…
1 submission.
Pilar Maschi
Pilar Maschi, is the Former Prisoner and Family Coordinator of Critical Resistance. She is a former prisoner who is a single parent and lives in…
1 submission.
Girl Talk
Girl Talk was a program that worked with young women involved in the juvenile justice system in Cook County from 1993 to 2006.
1 submission.
Linda Evans
Linda Evans is a former political prisoner and anti-imperialist who served 16 years of a 40-year federal prison sentence for actions against the U.S. government.…
Gail T. Smith
Gail T. Smith, is the executive director of CLAIM (Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers). She earned her JD at New York University in 1985.…
1 submission.
Kebby Warner
Kebby Warner is incarcerated in Michigan. After losing custody of her daughter, Helen, she became active in the struggle against the prison-industrial complex and is…
2 submissions.
Rachel Williams
Rachel Williams is an Assistant Professor of Art Education at the University of Iowa. She is the editing author of Teaching the Arts in Prison,…
1 submission.
Chesa Boudin
Chesa Boudin has been awarded 2003 Rhodes Scholarships for study at Oxford University. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Boudin majors in history and is a…
1 submission.
Angela Davis
Angela Davis is a world-renowned political activist and leader educating various audiences on the prison industrial complex, the criminal justice system, women's issues, issues affecting…
1 submission.
Marilyn Buck
FCI Dublin, is a political prisoner who is serving an 80-year sentence for her activities in support of the Black Liberation movement and other struggles…
2 submissions.
Margaret Byrne
Margaret Byrne is an attorney in private practice who represents battered women in clemency petitions and in the defense of criminal cases.
1 submission.
Karen Johnson
Karen Johnson I'm a 45 year old mother of 4; including an 8 year old with Autism. Currently, I'm serving a 6 year sentence at…
1 submission.
Laurie Schaffner
Laurie Schaffner is the author of Girls in Trouble with the Law, (Rutgers 2006), a qualitative study of court-involved girls. Her other work includes Teenage…
2 submissions.
Jean Lathrop
Jean Lathrop, MA, co-director of YES!, has more than 30 years experience as an educator in high schools and colleges and as an initiator of…
Charisse Shumate
Charisse Shumate was a founding member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, a lead plaintiff in a groundbreaking lawsuit about health care conditions for…
Diana Delgado
Diana Delgado is a 35 yr. old survivor of domestic violence and recovering addict single mother of 4 incarcerated numerous of times due to my…
1 submission.
Victoria Law
Victoria Law, has been working with prisoners since high school. She is a co-founder of Books Through Bars-New York City, a project that sends free…
1 submission.
Wenona Thompson
Wenona Thompson served two and a half years in Illinois' Juvenile Justice system and went on to become the Coordinator for Girl Talk, a program…
1 submission.
Mary Field Belenky
Mary Field Belenky, Ed.D. is an educator, researcher, and writer who focuses her work on women's intellectual and ethical development. She studies projects and organizations…
1 submission.
Patricia Elaine Mason
Patricia Elaine Mason is a prisoner and a fine poet who is trapped in the claws of the criminal justice system.
Kari Lyderson
Kari Lyderson, is a reporter in The Washington Post's Midwest Bureau, an instructor in the Urban Youth International Journalism Program serving students who live in…
1 submission.
Judy Harden
Judy Harden, Ph.D., a psychologist and educator, has studied, taught, and worked with criminal justice issues and women in prison in particular for the past…
1 submission.
Patricia O’Brien
Patricia O'Brien has a long history of activism, social work practice, education, and research focusing on women’s concerns in Kansas City, Little Rock, AR and…
1 submission.
Theresa Cruz
Theresa Cruz, CIW, is a battered woman who is serving a seven to life sentence for conspiracy to murder her abuser, even though her abuser…