Mass Incarceration Has A Face

• Build a national platform for more than three million women who identify with the program's mission,
• Identify elected officials who hand out harsh punishments,
• Reduce mass incarceration and over-reliance on a system of harsh punishments,
• Identifying racial disparities while promoting a path to fairness and equity,
• Identify for those who sit on judicial boards effective alternatives to incarceration and new approaches to address crime and drug policy,
• Emphasize prevention over punishment,
• Provide public information regarding tax dollars expended for the justice impacted,
• Empower formerly incarcerated people to act on behalf of those left behind,
• Empower formerly incarcerated women to realize the power of the inner-verse.
• Raise funds to assist those we select to assist in seeking their freedom.

Since organizing, we have held discussions and broadcast stories about those suffering the fate of mass incarceration. We are currently working and highlighting stories and seeking funds to obtain legal counsel for the cases we are working on. For example, a young man named Wayne Jones has been incarcerated for 23 years, and as of this date, the courts have not provided him with his transcripts. His mother received a court letter stating his transcripts could not be found. We discovered that the court report was not a licensed court reporter, and the judge on the case resigned as a result. Yet, Wayne Jones is still in prison.

Stories like those of Wayne Jones and others birthed this organization. Our coalition consists of business owners, nonprofits, and community members who want to see change and are working with Women Woke Within to reduce and end mass incarceration. Individuals are incarcerated for so long that society has forgotten they ever existed, especially those whose families have transcended. Some are people who are charged with crimes such as Aggravated Assault. Such Individuals received 10-20 years in prison even when no one died, and the weapon used in the offense was a glass bottle. It seems that the "War on Crime and War on Drugs" only benefited the prison systems.    However, we need your support to become the change we all want to see and experience. 

Many of us have either suffered the bondage of prison, were unjustly sentenced, or received ineffective counsel from a paid or court-appointed attorney. Women Woke Within study the rules and laws as they relate to parole and probation and realize that those who designed them had one thing in mind: enslave our loved ones in prison camps for as long as they want. We must not only speak up; we must shine a light on those who are behind the walls of prison and are statistics of mass incarceration. We must apprise the public and other interest groups of the truths we discover regarding an incarcerated person and help them obtain their freedom.

We ask: When is an incarcerated person rehabilitated, and who is qualified to say so?

We understand that prisons serve a purpose, but the United States has more people in prison, on probation or parole, than any country. This picture is wrong, and Women Woke Within will illuminate the problem and offer solutions. Moreover, we desire to assist families in obtaining legal counsel to get their loved ones released from prison. We intend to work with families throughout the process, making the attorneys do the work they agreed to do when hired by individuals or groups that most likely had to borrow or raise the money. This work is difficult, but somebody must do it, and we stand ready.