Photo by Susan Madden Lankford
A group Danbury, Connecticut female federal prisoners have taken a stand against mass incarceration and discrimination within the U.S. judicial system, rallying supporters to create change. Out of their efforts a new advocacy group, WomenOverIncarcerated.org, (WOI.org),
recently kicked off its “Enough is Enough: End Mass Incarceration” campaign. The organization is rallying for alternatives to lengthy sentences for nonviolent federal prisoners, urging people to sign an online petition at www.womenoverincarcerated.org requesting Congress to reinstate federal parole and mitigate federal sentencing.
Last fall, after prisoner Jamila T. Davis received a letter of support for fairness in the justice system, regardless of race, gender or income level, from U.S. Congressman Elijah Cummings, a group of white-collar offenders housed at the Danbury Federal Prison Camp For Women (featured in the hit Netflix show Orange Is The New Black), initiated a sentencing-disparity study. It revealed that these women received 300% harsher sentences than affluent white males who committed the same or similar white-collar crimes—and a shocking 480% harsher for African American females. (View this study at http://www.womenoverincarcerated.org).
To correct these injustices and reunite families, WOI.org is advocating for alternatives to lengthy prison sentences for nonviolent offenders, and the organization is urging Congress to reinstate federal parole. Unlike most state offenders, some of whom serve less than one-third of their time, due to the absence of parole, all federal prisoners serve 85% of their time, with no recourse. Consequently, the federal prison system is nearly 40% over capacity, and taxpayers are spending $6.1 billion to house nonviolent offenders.
Determined to change the common misconceptions and images of women behind bars, Danbury prisoners came together to create the 2014 WomenOverIncarcerated.org calendar, where each month features a different woman’s story. All women featured are serving lengthy sentences in federal prison, and two of them are serving life sentences for nonviolent offenses. The cost of incarceration to taxpayers, and the faces, backgrounds and stories of these women (many of whom are first-time offenders) have astounded calendar viewers.
Jamila T. Davis, a 36 years old federal inmate/author serving a 12 ½- year sentence for allegedly victimizing the now-defunct Lehman Brothers Bank, said:
It was important to me to help create a platform where women could share their stories. After writing my book The High Price I Had To Pay, based on my own case, I realized that the American people have no clue who we are and the type of sentences we are serving.
“While not one Wall Street banker is serving time for the events that spiraled the 2008 financial crisis, ‘small fries’ like me are serving big time! Many of us are women. I received a seven-times greater sentence than the two white males—a seasoned lawyer and banker—who instructed me on what to do. I felt my sentence was totally unjust, so I decided to speak out.
Women are not only punished for the crimes they committed, but they are also punished for entering the so-called ‘man’s’ world of business. The organization believes that President Obama, policymakers and judges should correct the unfair sentencing practices women encounter in the U.S. judicial system, or else our whole society will be negatively affected.
The U.S. female incarcerated population continues to grow at alarming rates, and more women are entering the country’s prison system annually than anywhere else in the world. The number of incarcerated women in U.S. prisons increased 646% between 1980 and 2010, rising from 15,118 to 112,797. Today there are more than 205,000 women incarcerated in state and federal prisons here. Most of them are mothers, and many are first-time offenders.
According to a study cited at womenoverincarcerated.org/facts/, Out of the approximately 14,500 female federal prisoners in the U.S., many are serving lengthy sentences for federal offenses, while for comparable charges, state offenders are serving significantly shorter sentences. Contrary to popular belief, these women are not violent offenders who pose a physical threat to society. Most are nonviolent offenders who can be effectively rehabilitated through alternative means to incarceration.
These women have been ripped away from their children and families, causing psychological and financial hardships. Unlike state prisoners, female federal prisoners are often housed in states far away from their residences, and it is common for families to have to travel in excess of 500 miles to visit women in federal prison. As a result, many federal female inmates only get to see their children a few times each year, or if they lack the necessary finances, they don’t get to see their children at all. This vicious cycle of incarceration spirals an epidemic of youth vulnerable to criminal behavior, because of the lack of guidance and support from their maternal figures.
Tragically, female federal prisoners are simply being “warehoused” in prisons throughout our nation, without receiving adequate programming to foster true rehabilitation. Taxpayers shell out a hefty price to house these prisoners, and in many cases, we also pay for the care of their children. The average cost to house each woman is approximately $30,000 a year, not including medical expenses. The large overcrowded population of female offenders lack access to effective programming and often have insufficient healthcare. More than 57% of females reported abuse before admission to prison, but their special needs tend not be addressed.
Womenoverincarcerated.org believes:
Instead of locking mothers away and throwing away the key, at great expense to the general public, these women, of every demographic, deserve a second chance to restore their lives and correct their paths. There are more adequate solutions for rehabilitation than are currently available. These alternatives will save taxpayer dollars, and at the same time will offer female offenders an opportunity to become productive, contributing, members of society.
The organization has five primary goals: (1) To enlighten the general public about the alarming growth-rate of women in prison; (2) to focus light on the true personas of female prisoners, versus those created in movies and on television; (3) to assist in eliminating the stigma of being a “criminal” upon re-entry into society and the workplace, by changing the general public’s perception of women in prison; (4) to advocate for reform in the U.S. judicial system, and to support programs that truly rehabilitate and serve to help women; and (5) to support alternative sentencing for female offenders in order to stop the breakup of families, which is a severe consequence of female incarceration.
