2015 Year In Review

The WIRE had a great year increasing awareness about the challenges women face returning from incarceration, and expanded our outreach beyond the DMV area!

Following a year after the ‘Ban the Box’ legislation, Women of The WIRE facilitated a workshop and panel discussion and spoke at a national rally on behalf of formerly incarcerated women. Women of The WIRE Member, Theresa Johnson-Thompson, collaborated with Georgetown University students to create a video about the legislation and raise awareness.

In June 2015, The WIRE collaborated with DC’s Mayor’s Office on Returning Citizen Affairs (MORCA) and the Howard University School of Law to host the 2nd Annual Female Reentry Leadership Conference.

The WIRE continued to expand our outreach and participated in the “Free Her” Conference in Boston, Massachusetts with national advocates to discuss gender-responsive criminal justice reform.

Women of The Wire Member, Joice Russell, spoke with NBC about the benefits of President Obama’s pilot program to reinstate the Federal Pell Grant.

In October 2015, The WIRE participated in a panel discussion at the Adult and Juvenile Female Offenders (AJFO) Conference on women and girls in the criminal justice system, DC’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) Public Meeting on women and girls in the criminal justice system, and DC’s Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA) panel for Community Supervision Officers.

For our family reunification efforts, we were very excited to raise enough funds from our community to fly a child in DC to Texas to visit his mother two days before his high school graduation. It was a moment the family will never forget – and one The WIRE will forever cherish.