A new coalition wants to let women out of prison

What if you did the crime, and you did the time but it wasn’t in jail?

A local coalition, convinced that putting women in jail has only fed mass incarceration, wants to close the city women’s jails and come up with more meaningful ways for women to do their time.

Closure Is possible, an abolitionist campaign, says women are the fastest growing segment of the incarcerated population, over 834% over the last 40 years, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, and much of that increase has been located in local jails.

As of February, the latest statistics available, 344 inmates, or 7% of the population of Philadelphia jails, was female. But rarely do the crimes they commit require jail time, claims the Closure Is Possible coalition.

And rarely does jail time prepare them for reentry into the community.

“More women have been incarcerated and they have received more extensive sentences,” said Madusa Carter. Carter, a formerly incarcerated woman, is a lead organizer of the Still We Rise Freedom Coalition, the collective organizing the Closure Is Possible campaign. It was founded 30 years ago by the Pennsylvania Prison Society to improve jail conditions for incarcerated women, trans and gender non-conforming people. Currently, it is supported by the Gender Justice Fund.

Incarceration will make every problem for women worse — from losing their children to the foster care system, losing their housing through eviction, losing their jobs by being fired and, when they get released, getting the help they need to rebuild their fragile lives.

During an initial Closure Is Possible panel session last December, Court of Common Pleas Judge Stephanie M. Sawyer started with the question “What is it about the system that maintains a system of mass incarceration? Is there a legitimate public safety issue?”

Her answer led her to launch a nonprofit in 2023, the Sentencing Foundation, to work on introducing restorative justice practices into sentencing and supervision. Now she is trying to get other judges to take a restorative approach.

The second panel on Closure Is Possible is next week, April 3 at 6 p.m. at the Friends Center and will focus on service providers who can give judges an option for alternative sentences. “We want other judges to piggyback on the Sentencing Foundation and do a lot of work with service organizations where the automatic response isn’t jail,” Carter said.

Carter also said that Philadelphia Prison Commissioner Blanche Carney’s recently announced retirement is also an opportunity to think through what is needed to lead the jails. “I think the next person should have some mental health background,” said Carter.

» READ MORE: Philly’s prisons commissioner retires after years of disorder and recent escapes

Several members of the Coalition gave their insights why we should close the women’s jails.

According to the Rev. Michelle Anne Simmons, founder and CEO of Why Not Prosper, the problem starts not with the jails, nor with probation officers. It begins with the judges and that’s where she she believes that the fight has to begin.

“We have to stop locking women up for for stupid things like technical violations, or locking them up because they got high or they moved. The prisons just house who they tell them to house. Probation officers don’t say who should get probation,” Simmons said.

“We have to stop locking women up for for stupid things like technical violations, or locking up because they got high or they moved.”

Like many incarcerated women, substance abuse landed Simmons behind bars with felony convictions for possession, prostitution, and receiving stolen property. Freed from prison after six years, the stigma of being a returning citizen made rebuilding her life outside the prison walls and connecting with her children almost impossible. She designed Why Not Prosper to be the program she wish she had upon leaving prison.

Very few women end up in prison because of violence, rather it is the result of trauma, grief, abuse.

“Look at women, they have significant trauma before being incarcerated. Prisons and jails aren’t the mechanism to support mental health and wellness,” said Jacqui Johnson , founder of the Sankofa Healing Studio and a board certified art therapist. Johnson volunteers weekly providing art therapy group classes at the women jail.

“Many people have access points to the legal system but there are few ways to get out of it.”

Often it is the only therapy available to them, and helps the women with their anxiety and depression by providing a coping mechanism for dealing with anxiety, depression and isolation.

“Many women didn’t have a place to talk about what happened to them. We really can’t incarcerate our way out of pain and violence. Their stories incredible saddening, what I hear is they never have a space to talk about it never had time to receive. Many people have access points to the legal system but there are few ways to get out of it.”

Behind woman’s crime is woman’s poverty.

“I believe wholeheartedly the reason poor people make self-destructive decisions is because their basic needs — food, shelter, clothes, safety — are not met. And when they aren’t met, then higher aspirations don’t happen. When daycare tells you can’t bring your child in because the bill is not paid, your car gets repossessed, your cell phone doesn’t work — you are going to make some desperate decisions. That’s what drives a lot of crime,” said Reuben Jones, a formerly incarcerated man, and one of the founders of Frontline Dads Inc.

The group started out as a volunteer youth mentoring organization in 2001 but became a nonprofit in 2015.

“When daycare tells you can’t bring your child in today because the bill is not paid, your car gets repossessed, your cell phone doesn’t work - you are going to make some desperate decisions.”

For Jones, jail won’t solve the economic crisis.

“It is extremely punitive with no opportunity for redemption. Once you are in the system, you are basically there for life. The social stigma is like a burn mark that will never go away.”