Vogue: In Washington, New Hope for Fixing America's Female Incarceration Problem

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Now 27, Benton is a communications student and an associate at the Women & Justice Project, a nonprofit that helped successfully lobby New York to pass the 2015 Anti-Shackling Bill, a new state law currently preventing female inmates from being restrained in the way Benton described while pregnant and for eight weeks postpartum. She spoke to Vogueyesterday following her panel at Women Unshackled: Policy Solutions to Address the Growth of Female Incarceration, a daylong symposium held on the seventh floor of Washington, D.C.’s Newseum. Hosted by the Justice Action Network and backed by Google—in partnership with the Coalition for Public Safety and New York University Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice—the event was touted as the “first of its kind forum” to delve into America’s skyrocketing population of female inmates. Speakers included Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.)—who, with Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), unveiled the proposed Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act last week—as well as Representatives Doug Collins (R-Ga.) and Mia Love (R-UT), plus Governor Mary Fallin (R-Okla.), one of the first sitting governors to specifically address the plight of imprisoned women (her state has more than any other).

https://www.vogue.com/article/united-states-female-incarceration-problem