Women and Prison: A Site for Resistance makes visible women's experiences in the criminal justice system. Documenting these stories is integral to this project of resistance. The stories are supported by a collection of resources, such as organizations, reports, essays, and links to a wide range of information on women and prison. The contents of this website are fluid and constantly changing. We expect to add stories, articles and resources on a regular basis. Your feedback and contributions are welcome.
This site serves as a dedicated space for prisoners, those previously incarcerated, activists, students, academics, and everyone who strives for social justice. Through the use of this website, we hope to promote strategies and actions that challenge the system and the ways that it reproduces all forms of discrimination, violence, and social injustice in the treatment of women and their families.
The invisibility of women's perspectives in discussions of the growing prison industrial complex constitute a serious gap, given that the numbers of women in this system are rising at an alarming rate. Moreover, by making women more visible, we expand the analysis, vision, and strategies being developed to seriously challenge the prison system. The incarceration of women is linked to a multitude of interconnected issues facing poor women, drug-addicted women, women of color, lesbians, and women in prostitution, including interpersonal and state violence, poverty, racism, reproductive rights, homophobia, harassment, lack of quality healthcare, homelessness, and more. Women and Prison: A Site for Resistance aims to make connections among these issues. By drawing attention to the interconnectedness of issues and strategies, we hope to further develop the grounds for coalition and alliance across organizations and movements.
Website Volunteers and Staff Bios
Joanne Archibald, Associate Director of CLAIM, began her involvement with CLAIM as a member of Visible Voices, and joined CLAIM's staff in 1993. She struggled for years to help her now 20-year-old son heal after she spent a year in prison when he was an infant. Ms. Archibald served on the Board of Directors of the Community Media Workshop and now serves on the Community Advisory Board for Grace House, a residential program for women leaving prison. She earned her bachelor's degree at Northeastern Illinois University in 1994. She was trained in community organizing at the National Training and Information Center and the Leadership Training Institute of the National Network for Women in Prison, for which she then was chosen to serve as a trainer. She has taken part in extensive training through Community Media Workshop and as a group facilitator by McAlpine Consultants. She evaluates Criminal Justice grant proposals for the Funding Exchange as part of their criminal justice initiative. top
Salome Chasnoff, Executive Director of Beyondmedia Education, is a video and installation artist, media activist and educator, whose work is dedicated to expanding media access for the diverse stories of women and girls. She has a masters degree in Theatre and Performance and a doctorate in Performance Studies with a certificate in Women's Studies from Northwestern University. She has been an arts educator for the past 20 years in university and community settings, and an artist-activist in the prison moratorium movement for 8 years. She has created more than 20 documentaries and other work on women's issues, and she is a single mother with three fabulous children. top
Keely Jones is a dancer, activist, organizer, and a Chicago native. Bouncing back and forth between the Bay area and Chicago she has worked on various projects and social justice endeavors that involve bridging the arts with activism. In the dance world she has had the pleasure of working with Brooklyn's Urban Bush Women, Santa Cruz's Haluan, and initially received her training here in Chicago at the Joel Hall Dance Center. She is also the Project Manager for a women's fair trade, non-governmental organization in Ghana, West Africa during the summers. She has a B.A. in women's studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz. top
Lise McKean is Deputy Director of the Center for Impact Research in Chicago and director of the Alternatives to Incarceration Project. Prior to coming to CIR, she worked in publishing at the University of Chicago Press as managing editor of Public Culture and at Encyclopedia Britannica. top
Erica Meiners is an Assistant Professor of Women's Studies and Education at Northeastern Illinois University. Her research is in the areas of ethnography and ethics; identity, access, and technology; race and authenticity; and pedagogy, trauma, and the construction of the historical memory. She is involved in popular literacy projects at the Cook County Jail in Chicago Illinois, and she is the co-recipient of a 1999 grant from the US Department of Education to support a project that encourages marginalized communities to develop technological skills. She has articles in Race, Ethnicity, and Education, Gender and Education, the queer issue of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies, and is working on a book, Research Ends. top
Rebecca Messineo, Development Assistant for Beyondmedia Education, is a visual artist with a BFA from Cornell University. She has experience facilitating art workshops in youth prisons and is currently an advisor with the Gay-Straight Alliance at Sullivan High School in Rogers Park. She has also done grant writing for art organizations including d.u.m.b.o. arts center in Brooklyn, NY. top
Dylan Mira, Beyondmedia program staff, is an activist and artist who majors in video/installation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has also focused in cultural studies and philosophy at the Evergreen State College. Mira is a domestic violence advocate at Apna Ghar shelter and has worked with youth at Architreasures and the ACLU in the past. She is currently broadcasting feminist experimental media as an organizer of the PILOT TV project. top
Kelly Noah, Technology Director of Beyondmedia Education, is a web/graphic designer and photographer with 7 years of teaching experience who completed her B.A. in Interactive Multimedia at Columbia College. Noah's experience in web design ranges from working on corporate sites to personal sites and freelance projects. Prior to facilitating media workshops with Beyondmedia, she assisted in teaching digital imaging classes at Columbia College, taught elementary school chilren as a part of Sam's Lab, and taught digital classes for all ages at the Museum of Contemporary Art. As an artist, Noah has exhibited multimedia work at the Chicago Cultural Center and Heaven Gallery. top
Ann Russo is an Associate Professor in Women's Studies at DePaul University. She is author of Taking Back Our Lives: A Call to Action for the Feminist Movement (2001), co-author of Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (1998), and co-editor of Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (1990). top
Zaida Sanabia, Beyondmedia program staff, began learning video production when she participated in a Beyondmedia workshop at Horizon's Young Women's Drop-In Program in 2001. In 2002 Beyondmedia Education partnered with Sanabia to produce A Fish (Almost) Eaten by a Shark. She has just completed her first year of college and she's begun working on a new Beyondmedia project, Can LGBTQ + School = Safe?, gathering stories of anti-gay violence and sexuality-based discrimination from students in Illinois schools. Most recently, Sanabia won Chicago Foundation for Women's Ripple Effect Award as "a shining example of the triumph of women and girls when given opportunity" and the Aixa Diaz Scholarship for her work in creating safe schools. top
Michelle VanNatta is currently Director of Criminology at Dominican University, believes in prison abolition and works with CLAIM (Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers). top
Carolyn Watson was incarcerated from 1995 to 1999 in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Upon her release, she became involved as an advocate for women in prison and has been an active voice for those she left behind. She is currently enrolled in a master's program at Dominican University to become a social worker. top
