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 both of the California women’s state prisons. Our chapter of Poetic Justice uses a community-based approach as we acknowledge the loss of women from our communities and the urgent need to heal. With the help of our Incarcerated Advisory Board, system-impacted team members and our community we hope to uplift the voices of those who society has rendered voiceless.
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 and where we teach both In-Person and Distance Learning classes.
Central California Women’s Facility, the second largest women’s facility in the US, where we teach both In-person and Distance Learning classes.
Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility, the only women’s jail in San Diego County, is where we teach in-person classes in various units, some of which have no other programming available.
Demographic Breakdown
Poetic Justice believes in providing transformative healing for all individuals in women’s prisons and jails. 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 systemically removed. Poetic Justice hopes to provide a space where women can heal, not only themselves, but their children, families; and communities through their words.
In just one 2024 California Poetic Justice class of 18 participants, a total of 253 years have been served in prison to this date. There are currently 191,600 women incarcerated in the US (Prison Policy Initiative, 2024).
Read our words.
-
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.
