Dear New Hour Friends,
This month is Women's History Month and how fitting that for the first time ever in the history of the NYS Legislature, a joint hearing was held by the New York State Senate committee on Crime Victims, Crime, and Correction and the Ethics and Internal Government committee to examine sexual assault in prison.
I was honored to testify before state lawmakers about the continuing crisis of abuse and violence that those incarcerated in women's prisons face. I shared, "Incarcerated women are very often survivors of violence and often as a direct result of this violence, have perpetrated crimes as a result of coercion or substance abuse disorder brought on by years of abuse."
Our panel of experts spoke about the abuse gender-expansive people behind bars face, the unintentional consequences the Prison Rape Elimination Act created and the need for oversight of DOCCS grievance procedures as we seek to work with our partners in government to end systems of abuse.
The work that we do here at New Hour is critical to uplifting and supporting incarcerated people who identify as women.
