The Cut: Topeka K. Sam on Why She Created a Home for Incarcerated Women

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After her incarceration, Sam opened the Ladies of Hope Ministries in the Bronx to temporarily house and help women adapting to life after prison. The residence has housed 15 formerly incarcerated women since opening in 2017. Last year, Sam helped pass the federal First Step Act, which will better prepare people for jobs and life after prison. Through her involvement with the Justice Action Network and #cut50, her political work has also taken her to the White House. Last spring, she met with Jeff Sessions, Jared Kushner, and Mike Pence to talk about her experiences in prison. She told them about being in prison and having to “quantify” her period to get more pads as part of her daily money allowance — by gathering used pads in a paper bag that she would show to a male officer. “If you could see the look on Jeff Sessions’s face.”

https://www.thecut.com/2019/03/topeka-k-sam-on-creating-bronx-home-for-incarcerated-women.html