One in four women has a loved one in prison, according to the Essie Justice Group. But, the extensive trauma of incarceration can get lost in the numbers, especially the pain of loved ones who are suddenly deprived of a central figure of their family — be they a parent, spouse, sibling, or child.
Together with civil rights lawyer and author of TheNew Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Michelle Alexander, the Essie Justice Group produced this film revealing the faces, voices, and lives hidden beneath the narratives and statistics that fill our discourse about women and families with loved ones in prison.
Listen to our eye-opening podcast with Michelle Alexander on the far reach of our punitive culture, and the hope she finds in our collective capacity to grow beyond it: