The House that Hope Built: Topeka Sam and LOHM
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“I didn’t learn anything from prison, but I learned a lot from the sisters I met there, and I wanted change.”
Incarceration
I Was ‘Sent to the Hole’ for Trying to Stop a Suicide
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Now, other prisoners will be afraid to help stop someone from killing themselves, the woman says. The incident occurred at a California facility under scrutiny for a lax approach to suicide prevention and mental health.
Incarceration
Suicides Put California Women’s Prison Under Mental Health Scrutiny
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In January, suicide-prevention practices at the California Institution for Women were found to be lacking. Now, two suicides and 10 attempts later, an advocacy group is petitioning state lawmakers to do something.
Evin Prison
Iranian Slips Notes into Shourd’s Solitary Cell
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Americans Sarah Shourd, Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer were arrested for crossing into Iran while hiking in 2009. Shourd spent 14 months in Iran’s Evin Prison. In this excerpt from “A Sliver of Light,” she recounts how another inmate temporarily relieved loneliness.
Egypt
In Egypt, Detention of Female Students Drags On
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The appeal date for the Al-Azhar University students is postponed to April 2. The young women were detained in what is being described as the biggest roundup of Egyptians in two decades; AP reports an unofficial detention figure of 16,000.
Mental Health
Prison Baby Revisits Jails to Support Incarcerated
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Deborah Jiang Stein was born in prison and now she’s back in a new role. “The women feel safe telling their stories in this circle. A corner of their filters drops–they know I won’t judge,” she writes in this excerpt from her memoir “Prison Baby.”
Arab Spring
Outcry Grows over Abuse of Jailed Egyptian Women
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A democracy activist calls the current conditions in Egypt worse than under Mubarak and the treatment of women in detention as “horrific, absolutely horrific.” Her assessment is echoed by a variety of groups; anti-military outrage has spread beyond pro-Morsi Islamists.
Human Rights
Report: Iraqi Women Illegally Detained, Tortured
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The Human Rights Watch report documents cases of women illegally detained and sometimes tortured. Far fewer women are in jail than men, but they face a “double burden” of social stigma after release, authors find.
Crime & Law
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Faith-Based Housing Helps Women Leave Prison
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Calls from the bus station can come at 2 a.m. for two Christian centers run by women, one in Texas, the other in Tennessee. The job is to keep the lights on for female ex-cons with nowhere else to go.
Arab Spring
After Prison in Syria I Cannot Ever Forget
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The author was imprisoned after participating in a nonviolent protest and carrying a sign that read: “Only in Syria: the thinking mind is imprisoned.” Since her Jan. 9 release, she has felt a responsibility to share the stories of those she left behind in that prison cell.