As part of my ongoing series about Laura Scott's life, today I will focus on how women prisoners in San Quentin were treated by staff and how they treated each other in the early 20th century. For this, I am once again relying on the first-hand account of an unnamed ex-San Quentin female prisoner published in the book “Crime and Criminals.” Let’s begin by exploring the apparent corruption of the staff at the prison:

Numerous instances of favoritism in this, as in other regards, are cited, especially where the prisoners were able to do embroidery and other fine needlework for the matron. There is supposed to be a stringent rule forbidding making presents to or doing work for a prison official. “If anyone were so interested as to investigate he would find ‘Buzzard’s Roost’, as the matron designated her abode, literally lined with pillows, table covers, pillow shams and other articles too numerous to mention, forced from the women who hoped by thus catering to her greed to enjoy some of the favors they knew she could and did give to those who worked for her.”

According to the former San Quentin woman prisoner, the matron who oversaw the “Female Department” was capricious and cruel:

“…she is described as having been an incurable gossip, of the foulest kind, showing special partiality to negresses, and completing a day’s work that averaged about five hours by leaving the establishment to itself at 4:30 p.m.”

The matron is alleged to have discouraged church services at the prison in favor of gambling and dancing instead:

“Many a time after the California Club women or the Salvation Army lassies had held their services in the office, the table would be rolled back and the negro women, and those of the white women who were low enough in their tastes to enjoy such a spectacle, would be called in and, while one would strum on a banjo, the rest would raise their clothes and give a leg show. The higher kickers they were the better the matron enjoyed it.” At the same time gambling would be in progress. An attempt to form a bible study class was stopped. No books that could be used for educational purposes were obtainable, and every effort toward self-improvement was discouraged.

It appears that this testimonial was offered by a white female prisoner because it is peppered with allegations of reverse racism while offering racist descriptions of female prisoners of color. For example, “White women who are cleanly and neat are next to some vile-smelling negress, Chinese or Mexican women.” The writer provides some interesting anecdotes that depict “negresses” like a cook who was promoted to “librarian” as terrorizing white female prisoners with impunity while being protected by the white matron of the prison. Here’s an anecdote that was offered:

It is charged that the abuse of the white women by the negresses was deliberately encouraged, and that repeatedly, to the accompaniment of guitars, the matron could be seen waltzing with the big negress cook, whose relations with her were a constantly discussed and most revolting scandal. This negress is said to have ruled the women’s department and, “notwithstanding the fact that she was one of the worst women there, by the matron’s own statement, yet she had the most privileges; she was never punished or even reprimanded for her dreadful statements and wicked talk; she was given the place of cook, which carries with it special privileges, such as warmth, baths, good food, being unlocked at night, and many other favors. The white women were at her mercy.” This is the woman whom the matron, as mentioned previously, appointed librarian.

This seems to be an unusual racial dynamic for that era but I honestly don’t know enough about the history of other women’s prisons to know if this was a unique circumstance or more common. Could it really be possible that a black prisoner like Laura Scott might benefit from her race in prison in 1905? This seems incredible to me. However, the overall account provided about life at San Quentin was corroborated by several other prisoners before it was published by the Prison Reform League. It’s a puzzle.

Some of the most harrowing stories in the account address the abusive treatment that some female prisoners experienced at San Quentin. They were basically tortured.

“A colored woman named Belle N. was serving a term of ten years. At the end of three years, after having been accorded the privileges accorded to all colored women, she turned on the matron and made threats that she would do her bodily harm. This woman was locked in her cell, and for three years, or nearly four, was never allowed to leave it save for one hour every Friday. Just one month before her release should have come she was removed to an insane asylum, and in two weeks was a corpse. A great, healthy animal she was, but dangerous to the matron.

The unnamed female prisoner who offered this testimony ends with these words: “I have not, and I cannot, tell one-hundredth part of the awfulness of the place, which is fitly described by all the women as a ‘veritable hell on earth.’”

Shortly after this account was written, the matron of San Quentin tendered her resignation. Upon hearing about the stories of the horrible conditions for female prisoners at San Quentin, women reformers mobilized to press for improvements and eventually successfully advocated for building a separate facility to house women in California. Hester Griffith (not related to Griffith J Griffith) was part of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). She was a prison reformer who stated at the end of the published account that she had corroborated the allegations about the terrible conditions at the Prison for women. She also highlighted the allegation that in 1904 and 1905 visiting members of the state legislature had used the women’s quarters as a brothel. As Cristina Rathbone writes: “Rape had always been a problem – really the problem — for women in prison in America (p.66).” So we know that female prisoners at San Quentin must have been subjected to sexual abuse especially because they usually shared the same facility as male prisoners and more importantly male guards.

The next edition of Laura’s story recounts her second trial in 1907 for larceny.

Note: I have always appreciated librarians. They ROCK. In particular, the staff at the California Archives have provided me with INVALUABLE help. There is no way that I could write about Laura Scott without the information that they have helped me to unearth. Next time you have a moment, please stop by your local library and thank the librarians on staff for what they contribute to our culture.

In California as in the rest of the country, little to no attention was paid to women prisoners in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Their numbers were very small relative to male prisoners. In 1904, a year before Laura Scott first entered San Quentin Prison, there were 1,451 men and 27 women incarcerated there (source: First Biennial Report of the State Board of Charities and Corrections, 1903-1904, p. 11).

After a highly publicized trial, Griffith J Griffith was convicted of shooting and wounding his wife and served two years in San Quentin Prison from 1904 to 1906. Before he was imprisoned, he had been very successful as a California business man and philanthropist. He made his fortune in the mining business. Throughout his trial, he consistently maintained that the incident with his wife had been an accident. As soon as Griffith was released from prison in December 1906, he began working on an expose of the conditions there. His account of his time at San Quentin is published in a book by the Prison Reform League (that I have referenced on the blog before) titled “Crime and Criminals.” Everyone with an interest in the early history of prisons in the U.S. should read his account of his time behind bars.

Griffith also offered an expose of the terrible conditions for women at San Quentin that relied on the written account of an unnamed female prisoner who had spent several years incarcerated there. This account was corroborated by several other prisoners before it was published in Crime and Criminals. It is one of the only available first-hand testimonials of life inside San Quentin Prison for women at the turn of the 20th century.

Female prisoners at San Quentin were supplied with only the bare minimum of clothing and other items:

The state supplies each female prisoner every six months with six yards of white cotton, six yards of tennis flannel, and two pairs of hose. She is given also two blue denim dresses and one heavy blue flannel dress, called a “reception dress”. But it does not supply any underwear, corsets, underskirts, garters, hats, bonnets, coats or overshoes, and the sufferings of those who enter without such supplies and have no money to buy them are extreme. For there is no heat in the cells, and the thick walls, when thoroughly wetted and chilled, remain so all winter. ” It would have been amusing, were it not so pathetic, to see the straits to which the women were reduced to find something that would answer for underclothes, and they picked up from the sewing-room floor scraps of cotton flannel and, by great ingenuity and much labor, made garments. These garments, being most bulky, were refused by the laundry, as they broke the wringer.” In one of such garments the writer counted two hundred and forty pieces. The further comment is made that, although the state is supposed to issue the supplies previously mentioned every six months, they are habitually held back. If, therefore, for example, a woman’s supplies are due in April and she is to be released in May, she will be told that the supplies have not arrived, and will leave the prison without getting them.

What kind of work did the women at San Quentin Prison do?

From eighty to a hundred suits of underwear have to be made each week for the use of the men, but this, like the other work, is divided up. One woman acts as cook and there is a diningroom girl, whose duties are entirely below stairs. Nothing is taught that can be of the lightest use to the prisoner after her discharge, the accomplishments to be learned being cigarette smoking — each woman receiving every Monday afternoon her sack of tobacco and package of papers — and other vices. As to which the writer remarks : ” Nearly every woman there has voiced the sentiment, not once but many times : ‘I shall be a thousand times worse a girl when I leave this living hell than I ever dreamed I could be.’ And it is true, for the viler, lower traits are so encouraged, and whatever better impulses one possesses are so smothered and killed, that the entire nature is changed for the worse. This is no idle statement, for we all know that constant fear breeds hate, and from hate spring all the baser passions.”

Interestingly this account about life at San Quentin at the turn of the century spans the years when Laura Scott would have been incarcerated at the prison. Given this reality, when Griffith’s unnamed source mentions that a two-time negress convict worked as the dressmaker of the prison, one might wonder if this could have been Laura Scott herself. Remember that her occupation was listed on prison and arrest records as dressmaker/seamstress. Many of the dates mentioned in the account range from 1906 to 1909. These would have years that overlap with Laura’s time as a prisoner at San Quentin.

The next installment of this story will focus on the purported racial dynamics between women prisoners as well as on how female prisoners were treated by staff (both male and female) at San Quentin. Stay tuned!

I think that the re-entry industrial complex is a racket. Yet real people get out of prison and jail every single day and need to navigate hostile waters on the outside. One such person is Tracey Stevens who narrates her story. I think that her words are poignant and should compel us to REALLY focus on providing opportunities for formerly incarcerated people.

Entering San Quentin for the first time at the turn of the 20th century as a prisoner would likely have been a terrifying experience for most 19th century women. The prison was infamous for its brutal treatment of inmates and for its extremely poor conditions. Below is a partial description of the women’s quarters of the Prison from a book titled Crime and Criminals.”

“A door opens from an office, and you enter a place that looks for all the world like a bear pit, with its thick, gray walls on four sides and cement floor. This pit, by actual measurement, is 60 ft. by 90. Out of this oblong a building, 40 by 20, is taken; so, if you are good at figures, you can see just what room is allowed for clothes lines, exercise, garbage cans, etc. The feet of these poor women never touch the ground of mother earth, and all exercise, which is optional, has to be taken on this cement floor. Midway in the place is the hopper, and on the other side hang the thirty or forty buckets used in the cells from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. Opposite stand the immense garbage cans, and, as they have no covers, the aroma that greets the olfactory nerves is indeed overwhelming. No benches, whereon one might sit to get the sun, are in the pen, and the matron will not allow the women to carry out a chair; so, if one must have a little sun and air, the only alternative is to squat on the stairs leading out of the yard to the cells, or sit on the cement flat and let one’s feet hang down. Either plan is conducive to sorry comfort, helping the rheumatism and stiffness of joints so much in evidence among the inmates. Why cannot the warden allow a few benches to be placed along the gray walls?’ was asked many times, and the reply was that seats would injure the cement! Never mind the women. They are here for punishment; and I can add feelingly that no stone was left unturned to see that they got all that was coming to them.

“The hopper referred to deserves a special article.It is situated in the laundry room, and is an oldfashioned thing, about eighteen inches in diameter. Into this must go the contents of the buckets I have mentioned, and as this deposit must take place as soon as the women are dressed, the scene that follows beggars description. There were two large holes in the floor of this laundry, and as the filth from human bodies accumulated and overflowed the hopper, a stream ran into these holes and this filth flowed, under the dining-room and kitchen, out under an office, emitting a stench that finally attracted the attention of some officer. The matter was then remedied slightly, but the vile conditions of the hopper remain.

“The pen, or pit, is also the playground at night of an ever increasing army of the most gigantic rats, and the stairs, platforms and yard bore unmistakable evidence of their nocturnal ramblings. As the women emerged from their cells in the early morning they reminded one of cave-dwellers, and the agility which had to be used to clear away these remembrances of his ratship was something long to be remembered. They also invaded the kitchen and pantry, and mute evidence of their presence was often seen in the beans, rice and other foods, if the cook was not careful. Try, if you can, to imagine the air in such a place. Small wonder that the health gives way, and that tuberculosis, rheumatism, sore throat and kindred diseases are prevalent; while the only remedies are a handful of calomel at night, and a dose of salts in the morning, ladled out by the wholesale to the miserable creatures.

These were the conditions that greeted Laura Scott when she arrived at San Quentin Prison. She spent every day and night from August 8, 1905 until her June 8, 1906 discharge sleeping in one of fifteen 7 by 10 foot cells perhaps with one or two other women crowded together. Her cell would have included: “Old-fashioned wooden bedsteads, with boards for springs, [that] are covered with hard straw ticks and heavy gray blankets.” She would have had to roll up her coat for a pillow or “collect enough cotton flannel pieces from the floor of the sewing-room to form one.”

Laura Scott was one tough lady though. Not much seems to have rattled her. In March 1905, a man named Frank McVeigh hit Laura over the head with an ax almost cracking her skull. She went to the police station to give her statement about what transpired and then calmly walked out still bleeding. An account of the incident appeared in the March 13 1905 edition of the Los Angeles Herald under the headline: “Negress' Head Too Hard Even For Ax: Racial Characteristic of Skull Probably Saves Woman From Fatal Injury.” Putting aside the supreme racism of the headline, it paints an incredible portrait, doesn’t it? Below is the entire article which gives us incredible insight into who Laura Scott was:

Because she asked him to repay a small sum of money which he had borrowed from her a few nights previous, Laura Scott, a negress, who lives on San Pedro street, was made the victim of an assault by Frank McVeigh, also a negro. That she was not instantly killed was due as much to the racial characteristic of a thick skull as to anything else, for McVeigh hit her on the head with a heavy hand ax and succeeding in cutting a deep gash from which the blood flowed freely.

According to the story told to the officers by the Scott woman, McVeigh borrowed some money from her a few nights ago, and promised to give it back Tuesday. Last night, when she went for the money, the woman found that McVeigh had gone to 131 Central avenue. Thinking to get her money before it was all spent for liquor, the woman followed McVeigh to the Central avenue place and found him there. When she asked for her money McVeigh seized a hand ax and hit her over the head with it.

McVeigh says the Scott woman has been persecuting him for some time and that the blow he dealt her on the head was only to warn her that he was not to be bothered.

The pair was taken to police headquarters and McVeigh locked behind bars. Although she had been hit a powerful blow and the scalp had been cut open the Scott woman did not lose consciousness for an instant, and after she gave her testimony to the desk sergeant walked out of the station as though nothing unusual had occurred.

This gives a new meaning to the term hard-headed. Could this incident be the culprit for that scar above her left eyebrow that I referenced in a previous post? We can only speculate…

Note: Based on suggestions from a couple of readers, I will be posting the installments of Laura’s story on a regular schedule. They will usually appear on Fridays. Thanks for the good suggestion and thanks for reading.

by Danny Lyon

When a group of young women in rural Georgia were placed under lock and key after protesting segregation at the local library, photos like the one above, which was snapped through the bars by new journalism pioneer Danny Lyon, helped secure their release. – from Flavorpill

When we last left the story of Laura Scott, I was previewing the fact that I would be sharing more about her life in the coming weeks. Well my first discovery was that the Bertillon card that I purchased actually represented her second incarceration at San Quentin Prison in 1908. That’s right, from what I have been able to gather so far, Laura Scott did at least two stints at San Quentin. The first seems to have been in 1905 and the second in 1908. However, my research is ongoing so I could still discover new information that could change these facts.

In 1905, Laura Scott was arrested in Los Angeles County. The charge was grand larceny. She was sentenced to one year at San Quentin Prison. Two items appeared in the Los Angeles Herald which provide us with the context for this incident. First, this on July 14th, 1905:

Then, this on August 5, 1905:

“Laura Scott, negress, pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of grand larceny and was sentenced to one year in San Quentin prison. The woman was accused of stealing (.85?) and a gold watch and chain from Carson. ”

We have an unusual amount of information about Ms. Scott’s appearance through her arrest records, mug shot photographs, as well as information gathered from her prison records. In San Quentin’s Descriptive Register of Prisoners housed at the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, Laura Scott is described as having heavy ears, a scar near her left eyebrow, and thick lips. [There's an interesting story about that scar which I will share at a later date.] She weighed 150 lbs, was 5 foot 6 inches tall, wore size 5 shoes, had a black complexion, brown eyes, and black hair. Her 1908 Bertillon criminal card describes her as having lips that were “thick” and “protrude.” Her skin had numerous dark blotches and her build is listed as medium.

Laura was one of only a few women arrested in California in 1905. It was rare for women in that period to come into contact with the law. Therefore, in this way, Laura Scott was exceptional. In an article about female violence in pre-1910 California, historian Linda Parker writes that:

“From 1880 through 1910, 231 women (1.4%) entered San Quentin out of approximately 16,630 prisoners. Murders, assaults, and robberies represented twenty percent (forty-six inmates) of the convictions, which was less than that for male prisoners. ”

Theft was the most common reason women found themselves incarcerated in California at the turn of the century. Once again Linda Parker (1992) is instructive: “The San Quentin Prison Register from 1880-1910 showed that the women imprisoned at the facility committed grand larceny (forty-seven percent) far more often than any other crime.” In this, Laura Scott seems not to have stood out.

Laura was a “dress-maker/seamstress” with a grade school level education. Available prison records describe her education as poor or fair (depending on the year) and she seems to have attended a public school. According to the 1910 Federal Census, Laura was literate, she could read and write. It seems that she had some basic level of schooling as a child, perhaps attending one of the Freedman Bureau schools in Alabama. Her religion is listed as Protestant.

Linda Parker provides some insight into life for women in California during this period:

“Before 1910 the women of California, like people in other states, lived under state laws that favored male dominance. Many towns enacted laws prohibiting women from wearing men’s clothing even though shirts and trousers were more comfortable and practical for a number of occupations, including farm work. In a typical marriage, fathers assumed sole guardianship of all children, including their care, education, custody and services. Community property of a marriage was also controlled by the husband. He could not sell it without the wife’s consent but he could will one-half of it away. If the wife died first she had no rights to convey her share of the property. Although women paid taxes, they could not vote in California until 1911. Women accused of law violations were “arrested by men, imprisoned with men…tried in a court by men lawyers, jurors, and judges according to man-made laws.”

Laura Scott seems to have eschewed the conventions of her time. She was divorced and did not have any children. An interesting notation appears in her San Quentin records: “habits Liq. and Tobacco.” This suggests that Ms. Scott drank alcohol and smoked. These habits would certainly not have been considered ladylike. Laura Scott was ahead of her time to be sure. Some questions to leave you with: “What was Laura Scott doing with a white man from Arizona in her home at midnight?” Perhaps she was sewing him a new suit given her skills as a seamstress…

Stay tuned for the next installment of Laura Scott’s story…

It was the hat that did it…

As regular readers of this blog know, I collect prison artifacts. I mostly focus on pre-1960s items (with a particular interest in the early 20th century). A couple of weeks ago, I decided to add to my collection of original vintage mug shots; I have dozens ranging from the early 20th century through the 1970s. I won’t go into why I started collecting these photographs — that will be a story for another day.

So I came across this Bertillon criminal card for sale online. These mug shot cards were known as Bertillon cards after the French law enforcement officer, Alphonse Bertillon, who pioneered criminal identification techniques such as anthropometry (measurement).

I knew instantly that I had to have this one. The card provides some basic details (though I won’t list them all).

Criminal Name: Laura Scott
Reg No: 23187
Age: 40
Birthplace: Alabama
Height: 67.8 inches
Weight: 150
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Complexion: Black
Race: Negress
Occupation: Dressmaker
Crime: Pt. Larceny & Prior
Sentence: 5 years
Measurements taken: August 8, 1905

Laura Scott’s face is mesmerizing. There is a look of defiance in her eyes. This is the look of a woman who has been through this before. And then that incredible hat…

Aren’t you curious to know Laura Scott’s story? Well I certainly was and since I am a complete nerd, I set out to learn everything that I could about this black woman who was incarcerated at the infamous San Quentin Prison in 1905.

How did Laura Scott end up on that Bertillon card? Well, an item that appeared in the August 5, 1905 edition of the Los Angeles Herald offers some initial clues:

“Laura Scott, negress, pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of grand larceny and was sentenced to one year in San Quentin prison. The woman was accused of stealing (85?) and a gold watch and chain from Carson. ”

Over the next few weeks, I will share a story of Laura Scott with you. It’s a story that has led me to the California Archives and to Census Records from the 1800s. It’s a story cobbled together from disparate sources and is based on my original research. Laura Scott’s story has its roots in Reconstruction era Alabama, in the Black Belt and takes us all the way to California at the turn of the 20th century. Through Ms. Scott’s story, I hope to provide a portrait of what life was like for female prisoners in the late 1800s-early 1900s in the U.S. I hope that you’ll continue with me on this journey.

P.S. Reading about the history of San Quentin Prison makes me appreciate this song by Johnny Cash even more…

I spent my afternoon giving pedicures to incarcerated girls. I am not a Christian but I remember something about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples on the night that he was betrayed by Judas. Supposedly this act was meant to convey his humility and his abiding love for his disciples. There is something moving about the act of touching feet. Particularly if those feet belong to people who you know have experienced profound suffering.

As I massaged the feet of girl after girl, we would talk. Mostly, we spoke about how long they had been incarcerated and about when they would be released. Some girls asked whether I was a professional nail technician and when I said that I was just a volunteer, their eyes would widen and they would thank me for being there. “God bless you,” a young woman said. “No one has ever done something so nice for me.”

That is a travesty. If the nicest thing that you’ve ever had done to you in 17 years of living is a pedicure inside a prison, then your life must have been pretty awful. And that’s just it. As I listened to the young women talk about having been incarcerated for 7 months, 1 year, 24 months, I felt a heaviness settle in my heart. Prison is no place for children. It is no place for anyone really.

The heaviness of my heart co-exists with the constant (if sometimes fleeting) hope that I also carry within me. I looked around the room where I was sitting and saw my friends and some strangers also painting nails. Most importantly, I listened as they spoke with care and love to the young women who were receiving manicures and pedicures from them. The older I get, the more convinced I am that nothing worthwhile can be done in isolation. I am thankful for the community of women who I am blessed to share space with on this planet. I don’t think that women only hold up half of the sky; I think that we carry at least 3/4 of it. Time and again, when I put out the call for support it is my sisters in struggle (friends and strangers) who answer. They give of their time, they contribute money, they donate items, they organize, they nurture… and basically they just SHOW UP. As I recover from organizing these two self-care events this weekend, this is what continues to inspire me and give me fuel for the next endeavor. My profound gratitude to everyone who helped make these two days wonderful.

People still laugh in jail… This seems a trite thing to say. However it never ceases to amaze me. I have been inside enough prisons and jails to last me a lifetime. I have always had the option to leave.

The saddest places on earth to visit are juvenile detention facilities and youth prisons. No matter how many painted murals are on the walls, no matter how many colorful works of art hang in the classrooms, they are awful places to be. When you think of the fact that young people under the age of 18 reside there, how can they be anything else?

Yet today I was reminded that people still smile in these places. I am thinking about this tonight after having spent a couple of hours at a self-care event at my local juvenile jail earlier in the day. I was speaking with a couple of the incarcerated girls and we were laughing together. I glanced over and another young woman sat stone-faced. No smile on her face.

I thought to myself: “That’s how I would be if I were locked in this place for God knows how long.” I wouldn’t be laughing. I would be sitting in a corner looking devastated. Yet for the majority of the girls today, there were smiles and there was banter. They are after all still children even if the world treats them like adults.

For a few hours this afternoon, volunteers (each an amazing woman in her own right) did yoga and aromatherapy with the girls. They offered intuitive readings and painted fingernails. They massaged the girls’ hands and spoke with them. And yes, we even laughed. Thank God for small miracles.

By a young woman at JTDC (August 2010)

I have spent a big chunk of this week organizing two self-care events for incarcerated girls that will take place this weekend. I am doing this as part of a great program called Girl Talk.

One might wonder what it really means to “care for oneself” while locked in a cell. If you are a prison abolitionist, as I am, you might even bristle at the idea of organizing a “self-care” day for incarcerated girls. It seems like a contradiction. Our goal as abolitionists should not be to make prisons more livable; it should not be to make prison a more bearable place. As abolitionists, we know that prisons cannot be reformed; they must be abolished.

So why have I spent countless hours organizing these two days of pampering and self-care for incarcerated girls, you might ask. It is because as my friend Erica often points out: “there are real people and real bodies behind bars.” Abolishing prisons is a long-term project. It is likely not to happen in my lifetime. In the meantime, though, millions of people pass through prisons and jails across the country every year. These people need to know that those of us on the outside care about their well-being. They need to know that they are not forgotten.

So the best that I can do, as the holiday season approaches, is to call on my friends and some volunteers to come in from the outside to offer their many talents & skills in the service of incarcerated girls. I am blessed to know people who are healers, bodywork therapists, yoga instructors, and just genuinely caring. We are planning to offer manicures, pedicures, yoga and stretching classes, reiki, chair massages for a few hours this Saturday and Sunday. Is this contributing to dismantling the prison industrial complex? No, not in a structural way. However, I believe that it helps to create relationships between those of us on the outside and those who are locked up. This connection helps to reduce isolation and makes it harder for our politicians to demagogue issues of crime. However this is not the real reason to organize such events. We should offer self-care days for incarcerated girls because they deserve them. They deserve to be reminded of their humanity when everything on the inside offers the opposite. They deserve to be touched in ways that are not about abuse but instead focus on healing and love. We all need these things. We all deserve them.

So as I head out to a local discount store to buy some mixing bowls that will hold ingredients to make homemade lip gloss, I look forward to the weekend and to connecting with the girls.