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This year, nearly 1,000 women and girls will have to spend Mother's Day locked in York Correctional Institute, Connecticut's state prison for women, which is known for widespread medical neglect and sexual violence. They are mothers, caretakers, and survivors of violence. Our goal is to end the state violence that separates families and causes so much pain in our communities.
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We fight for mamas inside prison and fight to make sure no more mamas have to go to prison! We recently launched the Boston Participatory Defense Hub - a weekly space for people fighting criminal legal battles and their families. We support each other to get the best possible outcome for people who are being prosecuted.
We're currently organizing a listening tour to talk to 100 women from the most incarcerated neighborhoods in Boston through a participatory research process. We're collecting our stories and recommendations so we can use our lived experience and expertise to shape criminal punishment policy in our city and state."
Challenging the Prison Industrial Complex is no small feat. Yet, these organizations and many others do this work every day, year after year.
As a mother of a beautiful toddler, I'll hold close the 120,000 mothers who won't be with their children on this day and the families impacted by their absence.
Kendra Hicks
Co-Director, Resist
