California
The California chapter of Poetic Justice began in 2019 at Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility in San Diego. Since then, we have expanded to the California Institution for Women, the Central California Women’s Facility, the San Diego Youth Transition Center, and East Mesa Reentry Facility. Our chapter of Poetic Justice uses a community-based approach as we acknowledge the loss of our neighbors, family, coworkers and friends from our communities, and the urgent need to heal. With help from our Incarcerated Advisory Board, Poetic Justice system-impacted team members uplift the voices of people experiencing incarceration today.
Poetic Justice California currently teaches in the following facilities:
California Institution for Women, where Voices On The Inside and the Children’s Literature Project were started, where we teach both In-Person and Distance Learning classes weekly, and offer programming and special events that reach approximately 415 incarcerated poets each year.
Central California Women’s Facility, the second largest women’s facility in the US, where Poetic Justice aims to reach approximately 125 incarcerated poets each year.
Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility, the only women’s jail in San Diego County, where we teach in-person classes in various units, some of which have no other programming available. Our impact reaches between 200 and 300 incarcerated poets each year.
San Diego Youth Transition Center, the only juvenile facility that houses girls and gender-diverse individuals in San Diego, where Poetic Justice looks forward to the first year of trauma-informed programming with youth in the Fall of 2025.
East Mesa Reentry Facility, where, for the first time, Poetic Justice has launched, a unique, bilingual workshop series.
Demographic Breakdown
Poetic Justice believes in providing transformative healing for all individuals in women’s prisons, jails, and youth facilities. Like our team members, our participants come to this work with a variety of lived experiences, diverse cultural & ethnic backgrounds, and varying ages. As a community, we celebrate our differences while holding a belief in our shared humanity. We work in collaboration with our participants to create a space to heal, for everyone.
Oftentimes, people with lived experiences are left out of the conversation. With the acknowledgement that 70% of our participants are mothers, we knew there was an urgent need to address the harm done to our communities when mothers, grandmothers; and caretakers are not provided with alternatives to incarceration. Poetic Justice hopes to provide a space where through their words women can heal, not only themselves, but their children, families, and communities.
In just one current Poetic Justice California class of 18 participants, a total of 253 years have been served in prison so far. There are 191,600 women incarcerated in the US today (PPI, 2024).
Read our words.
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Life goes on as the clouds drift by
Never taking the same shape up high in the sky.
Clouds in forms beyond imagination
Depicting everything from creation to damnation.
Clouds so dark and full of rain
Seeming to only bring sorrow and pain.
Endless clouds, the only things in sight
Blocking out everything, never letting in the light.
But far in the distance I see clouds of ethereal white
Letting me know the future soon will be bright
So though the darkness seemed forever to loom
I know my days won’t always be filled with gloom.
Because life goes on as the clouds drift by
Never taking the same shape up high in the sky.
-
Dear Phone, you don’t get much credit
Day after day you must listen
To boring and awkward conversations
Handle the beating of your buttons and
The slamming of your handset.
We often get mad at you when you don’t work
But that isn’t always your fault
The reality is, dear phone,
You’re our connection to the outside world
You let us hear the loving voices
Of loved ones and friends
And catch up on the gossip of the world.
Without you we wouldn’t be sane
So I thank you, dear phone
For dealing with us all and being so kind.
-
What if I opened the door
and all my secret desires,
hopes, dreams and goals were
possible - and I had no limitations,
no restrictions, no fear of failure,
no second guessing or doubting?
Would I embrace the opportunity
or take advantage of its endless
possibility?
Would I do it all a little at a time
or would I lose the nerve to
commit?
What if all that was behind
the door was too much to grasp?!
would I know that I had the
power to set some free?
What if the first thing I seen
was a mirror facing someone
I used to be?
Hear our voices.
Interested in joining the California team? Learn more.
