[Applause]
I’ve always been a fearless person
always I remember my mother telling me
when I was 2 years old that she asked me
to go get some diapers for my little
brother and I told her with my hand on
my hip
that’s your baby you get it yourself and
so that fearlessness took me to walking
in the streets of New York and wee hours
in the morning to going to Jamaica
duct-taping
hundreds of thousands of dollars on my
body to selling kilos of cocaine with
the Mexican cartel which ultimately
landed me in federal prison I didn’t
know that this one train of fearlessness
would lead me on a journey that would
change the course of my life and
ultimately hundreds of girls in the
process and so I think back to my
childhood my parents they beautiful
they were franchise business owners have
been married over 50 years today and
they wanted to provide the best
opportunities for my siblings and myself
since the seed in the world in which
they knew would be stacked against us
and so they thought by giving us the
so-called American Dream the big house
with the pool in the backyard and the
white neighbors would make things better
right it wasn’t that simple and so when
I left the protection of the suburbs and
went to college in Baltimore City things
were not so black and white and so in
1994 I remember walking onto the campus
of historically black Morgan State
University and I remember being so
excited when I saw the sea of beautiful
faces that look just like me and I
remember a young man saying to me you
sound like you’re white where are you
from
said I’m from New York well you sound
white and I’m like what did that mean
and I was confused and so I began to try
and sound like what I thought I was
supposed to sound like black and then I
started venturing off campus into the
city hanging out going all the hot spots
being young naive you know with college
students do and so I remember just
feeling so powerful from the attention
that I received and so this went on for
years and I stumbled into a lifestyle
that most people see on television shows
and in music videos and yeah I was
working and I was in school and you know
on and off and I was a down chick side
chick Maine chicks chicks chick and I
went from sitting pretty in the
passenger seat to now wanting to drive
the car and I thought if they’re doing
it why can’t I and so I did and so this
went on for years and then in 2005 I
remember receiving a phone call to come
to New Jersey and I went and when I got
there was 50 kilos of cocaine and I
wasn’t afraid and so every week like
clockwork they came for a year until one
fateful day a homeboy of mine calls and
says I was just robbed for five keys and
that was about $100,000 and I remember
saying look my dude that’s not my
problem that’s yours and I never saw him
again but I did receive a phone call yo
you need to leave town
your boy paid me to kill you but I don’t
kill women or children but I don’t know
what he’ll do and so I left and soon
after I was arrested but no jail time
and I had vowed that I wouldn’t do
anything or be around anyone that
remotely looked like my past and so I
moved to Harlem
I started working I mean I always had a
job but I sought another job and I
started a business and everything seemed
good but yet again it’s not that simple
and so I fast forward to 2012 and I find
myself caught in a sting operation in
Richmond Virginia on federal drug
conspiracy charges and I thought like
every other time I was going to get
through this until the judge says no
bail your drug Queen Penn and the threat
to society and so I knew I would be in
jail until I either a decided to go to
trial and fight my case or be take a
guilty plea and so this is where the
real journey began and so I was housed
in a small county jail in Hanover
Virginia Pamunkey Regional Jail and I
remember seeing the same women come in
and leave come in and leave never to
come back and be told that they had
overdosed and then I decided it was time
for me to really start asking questions
and find out what was going on and so
for the 3 to 5 hours a day that they let
us out the cells I asked some of the
women could I interview them and I
started going to any meetings and asking
questions because I thought that people
who use drugs did it because they wanted
to and that I wasn’t doing anything
wrong and that they knew what drugs were
doing so they had choices right until I
heard the tragic stories like my dad was
raping me and he gave me the heroin and
told me to take it in the pain will go
away or the only time I was able to
spend time with my mother was when we
smoked crack together and the stories
came and came and I cried and cried and
I could not believe what I contributed
to and my spirit was convicted
and I and I woke up and so I decided to
take a guilty plea because in fact I was
guilty and I prayed to God and I asked
God for forgiveness and I forgave myself
and I knew I was redeemed and so I was
sentenced and off to federal prison and
so the most horrific experience of my
incarceration was the transport and I
can remember being handcuffed and
shackled and telling the guard that the
shackles were too tight and they made it
tighter and to this day I still have
scars and I remember seeing about 50
buses out at the airlift filled with
prisoners from all around the country
that needed to be transported to
Oklahoma to the federal transfer center
and the marshals had their guns pointed
at us and I remember going on the plane
and asking are you gonna take these
cuffs off and the marshal laughed at me
and he said you’re property of the
federal government you don’t ask
questions and so when you think of a
plane you have first class in the front
coach in the back the women sat in the
front and the men sat in the back and so
if the women had to go to the restroom
we went to the back of the plane and so
of course I had to go and so I remember
sliding down and handcuffs and shackles
and I remember some of the men groping
on me and I remember telling them to
stop and I remember the officer standing
behind me telling me not to talk to them
and watching them continue to grope on
me and I thought how could another woman
allow this and I went into that bathroom
and I cried like I had never cried
before in my life and so you may wonder
why I’m standing here right now telling
you this story and telling my story to a
roomful of strangers I’m sharing my
story because it’s the same tragedies
traumas and experiences that every
formerly incarcerated women goes through
when
she’s applying for a job trying to get
housing or even trying to go back to
school
acts to tell her story to a reporter or
to lend her voice to a conference panel
for authenticity but my story was not
like Santo Rucker who was sentenced to
13 life sentences in federal prison has
been in almost 20 years right now for
first-time non drug nonviolent drug
offense who left her two-year-old
daughter can do Riley Alice Johnson who
too was sentenced to federal prison for
life without the possibility of parole
for first-time nonviolent drug offense
conspiracy Michelle West who was
sentenced to two life sentences plus 50
years plus an additional ten years
supervised release as if right
she’s been incarcerated now 25 years or
26 years I believe for a first-time drug
conspirator trial mikkel West and so
from the day of my Redemption I knew
that it was my mission and purpose from
God to create and build platforms for
women incarcerated and Foley
incarcerated to use their voice and
create change and so I started the
ladies of Hope Ministries an
organization that helps marginalized and
disenfranchised women and girls and
tomorrow we are opening Hope House in
the Bronx
a safe housing space for women and girls
and I’ve had the distinct pleasure of
traveling around this country alongside
Andrea James the executive director of
the National Council for incarcerated
and formerly incarcerated women and
girls and met brilliant women all over
this country and a 20-17 soils justice
fellow working on parole and probation
accountability which is a whole nother
TED talk and it looks like I’m already
out of time but so I just want to give
you a little context on usually I don’t
stand and talk about the degradation and
humiliation that I went through but
instead I talk about the brilliant women
that I’ve met who were incarcerated just
like me women like leshawna Thompson
who’s right here in DC and formed the
wire Theresa Hodge DC mission launch
Cerritos I’m Martin New Orleans
operation restoration Fox rich Fox
motors New Orleans Donna Hilton and
Susan Burton you all should know who
they are
Michelle Jones incarcerated 20 years and
Indiana State Prison has been home two
months and is a doctoral student at NYU
Delores Canales can be a Riley you saw
Sandra Walker that’s her daughter she’s
a student and University of Virginia and
Sarah zarbor a student in the School of
Social Work at Columbia University the
children of incarcerated parents
evany Underwood and Miko Underwood both
of their parent orbs are their father
William Underwood has been incarcerated
first-time nonviolent conspiracy charge
over 28 years Susan Rosenberg and her
partner dawn real and my little black
friend Stella I always call him my
little black friend
and again Susan Rosenberg and Laura
Whitehorn who are both political
prisoners of war and are fighting for
political prisoners still in this
country and Lois Aran’s who is not
formally incarcerated but it’s been
doing this work the real cost of Prisons
project for 50 years and she stands
beside us Shonda and her daughter Jam
Shonda is the most brilliant research
assistant in data
Tara and sue from Washington State and
Ivy who I was incarcerated with in
Danbury Project liberation tre John’s
director of black and pink Aimee PAVA
can do clemency since her release and
clemency from President Clinton she has
worked 16 years to free prisoners around
this country Sahiba Bane and Layla
Martinez both students Layla and at
school of GS and has a beyond the box
initiative where she’s trying to remove
not only the box on college applications
at Columbia University but also
statewide in New York or country
nationwide actually my sister’s from
YWCA in California I’m gonna rush
through these slides now cuz sometimes
up North Carolina and Alaska sisters all
over this country sisters from Dallas
Celeste has her own business
saved my edges entrepreneur patent
holder my just leadership sisters who
are doing amazing work around this
country and so today right now in this
very moment I stand for every formerly
incarcerated woman in this world
turning the pages on our past and we
have used our experiences to triumph and
to do amazing work that God wants us to
do and so I urge you to continue to help
us fight and our feet to end the
incarceration of women and girls free
her
[Applause]
I’ve always been a fearless person
always I remember my mother telling me
when I was 2 years old that she asked me
to go get some diapers for my little
brother and I told her with my hand on
my hip
that’s your baby you get it yourself and
so that fearlessness took me to walking
in the streets of New York and wee hours
in the morning to going to Jamaica
duct-taping
hundreds of thousands of dollars on my
body to selling kilos of cocaine with
the Mexican cartel which ultimately
landed me in federal prison I didn’t
know that this one train of fearlessness
would lead me on a journey that would
change the course of my life and
ultimately hundreds of girls in the
process and so I think back to my
childhood my parents they beautiful
they were franchise business owners have
been married over 50 years today and
they wanted to provide the best
opportunities for my siblings and myself
since the seed in the world in which
they knew would be stacked against us
and so they thought by giving us the
so-called American Dream the big house
with the pool in the backyard and the
white neighbors would make things better
right it wasn’t that simple and so when
I left the protection of the suburbs and
went to college in Baltimore City things
were not so black and white and so in
1994 I remember walking onto the campus
of historically black Morgan State
University and I remember being so
excited when I saw the sea of beautiful
faces that look just like me and I
remember a young man saying to me you
sound like you’re white where are you
from
said I’m from New York well you sound
white and I’m like what did that mean
and I was confused and so I began to try
and sound like what I thought I was
supposed to sound like black and then I
started venturing off campus into the
city hanging out going all the hot spots
being young naive you know with college
students do and so I remember just
feeling so powerful from the attention
that I received and so this went on for
years and I stumbled into a lifestyle
that most people see on television shows
and in music videos and yeah I was
working and I was in school and you know
on and off and I was a down chick side
chick Maine chicks chicks chick and I
went from sitting pretty in the
passenger seat to now wanting to drive
the car and I thought if they’re doing
it why can’t I and so I did and so this
went on for years and then in 2005 I
remember receiving a phone call to come
to New Jersey and I went and when I got
there was 50 kilos of cocaine and I
wasn’t afraid and so every week like
clockwork they came for a year until one
fateful day a homeboy of mine calls and
says I was just robbed for five keys and
that was about $100,000 and I remember
saying look my dude that’s not my
problem that’s yours and I never saw him
again but I did receive a phone call yo
you need to leave town
your boy paid me to kill you but I don’t
kill women or children but I don’t know
what he’ll do and so I left and soon
after I was arrested but no jail time
and I had vowed that I wouldn’t do
anything or be around anyone that
remotely looked like my past and so I
moved to Harlem
I started working I mean I always had a
job but I sought another job and I
started a business and everything seemed
good but yet again it’s not that simple
and so I fast forward to 2012 and I find
myself caught in a sting operation in
Richmond Virginia on federal drug
conspiracy charges and I thought like
every other time I was going to get
through this until the judge says no
bail your drug Queen Penn and the threat
to society and so I knew I would be in
jail until I either a decided to go to
trial and fight my case or be take a
guilty plea and so this is where the
real journey began and so I was housed
in a small county jail in Hanover
Virginia Pamunkey Regional Jail and I
remember seeing the same women come in
and leave come in and leave never to
come back and be told that they had
overdosed and then I decided it was time
for me to really start asking questions
and find out what was going on and so
for the 3 to 5 hours a day that they let
us out the cells I asked some of the
women could I interview them and I
started going to any meetings and asking
questions because I thought that people
who use drugs did it because they wanted
to and that I wasn’t doing anything
wrong and that they knew what drugs were
doing so they had choices right until I
heard the tragic stories like my dad was
raping me and he gave me the heroin and
told me to take it in the pain will go
away or the only time I was able to
spend time with my mother was when we
smoked crack together and the stories
came and came and I cried and cried and
I could not believe what I contributed
to and my spirit was convicted
and I and I woke up and so I decided to
take a guilty plea because in fact I was
guilty and I prayed to God and I asked
God for forgiveness and I forgave myself
and I knew I was redeemed and so I was
sentenced and off to federal prison and
so the most horrific experience of my
incarceration was the transport and I
can remember being handcuffed and
shackled and telling the guard that the
shackles were too tight and they made it
tighter and to this day I still have
scars and I remember seeing about 50
buses out at the airlift filled with
prisoners from all around the country
that needed to be transported to
Oklahoma to the federal transfer center
and the marshals had their guns pointed
at us and I remember going on the plane
and asking are you gonna take these
cuffs off and the marshal laughed at me
and he said you’re property of the
federal government you don’t ask
questions and so when you think of a
plane you have first class in the front
coach in the back the women sat in the
front and the men sat in the back and so
if the women had to go to the restroom
we went to the back of the plane and so
of course I had to go and so I remember
sliding down and handcuffs and shackles
and I remember some of the men groping
on me and I remember telling them to
stop and I remember the officer standing
behind me telling me not to talk to them
and watching them continue to grope on
me and I thought how could another woman
allow this and I went into that bathroom
and I cried like I had never cried
before in my life and so you may wonder
why I’m standing here right now telling
you this story and telling my story to a
roomful of strangers I’m sharing my
story because it’s the same tragedies
traumas and experiences that every
formerly incarcerated women goes through
when
she’s applying for a job trying to get
housing or even trying to go back to
school
acts to tell her story to a reporter or
to lend her voice to a conference panel
for authenticity but my story was not
like Santo Rucker who was sentenced to
13 life sentences in federal prison has
been in almost 20 years right now for
first-time non drug nonviolent drug
offense who left her two-year-old
daughter can do Riley Alice Johnson who
too was sentenced to federal prison for
life without the possibility of parole
for first-time nonviolent drug offense
conspiracy Michelle West who was
sentenced to two life sentences plus 50
years plus an additional ten years
supervised release as if right
she’s been incarcerated now 25 years or
26 years I believe for a first-time drug
conspirator trial mikkel West and so
from the day of my Redemption I knew
that it was my mission and purpose from
God to create and build platforms for
women incarcerated and Foley
incarcerated to use their voice and
create change and so I started the
ladies of Hope Ministries an
organization that helps marginalized and
disenfranchised women and girls and
tomorrow we are opening Hope House in
the Bronx
a safe housing space for women and girls
and I’ve had the distinct pleasure of
traveling around this country alongside
Andrea James the executive director of
the National Council for incarcerated
and formerly incarcerated women and
girls and met brilliant women all over
this country and a 20-17 soils justice
fellow working on parole and probation
accountability which is a whole nother
TED talk and it looks like I’m already
out of time but so I just want to give
you a little context on usually I don’t
stand and talk about the degradation and
humiliation that I went through but
instead I talk about the brilliant women
that I’ve met who were incarcerated just
like me women like leshawna Thompson
who’s right here in DC and formed the
wire Theresa Hodge DC mission launch
Cerritos I’m Martin New Orleans
operation restoration Fox rich Fox
motors New Orleans Donna Hilton and
Susan Burton you all should know who
they are
Michelle Jones incarcerated 20 years and
Indiana State Prison has been home two
months and is a doctoral student at NYU
Delores Canales can be a Riley you saw
Sandra Walker that’s her daughter she’s
a student and University of Virginia and
Sarah zarbor a student in the School of
Social Work at Columbia University the
children of incarcerated parents
evany Underwood and Miko Underwood both
of their parent orbs are their father
William Underwood has been incarcerated
first-time nonviolent conspiracy charge
over 28 years Susan Rosenberg and her
partner dawn real and my little black
friend Stella I always call him my
little black friend
and again Susan Rosenberg and Laura
Whitehorn who are both political
prisoners of war and are fighting for
political prisoners still in this
country and Lois Aran’s who is not
formally incarcerated but it’s been
doing this work the real cost of Prisons
project for 50 years and she stands
beside us Shonda and her daughter Jam
Shonda is the most brilliant research
assistant in data
Tara and sue from Washington State and
Ivy who I was incarcerated with in
Danbury Project liberation tre John’s
director of black and pink Aimee PAVA
can do clemency since her release and
clemency from President Clinton she has
worked 16 years to free prisoners around
this country Sahiba Bane and Layla
Martinez both students Layla and at
school of GS and has a beyond the box
initiative where she’s trying to remove
not only the box on college applications
at Columbia University but also
statewide in New York or country
nationwide actually my sister’s from
YWCA in California I’m gonna rush
through these slides now cuz sometimes
up North Carolina and Alaska sisters all
over this country sisters from Dallas
Celeste has her own business
saved my edges entrepreneur patent
holder my just leadership sisters who
are doing amazing work around this
country and so today right now in this
very moment I stand for every formerly
incarcerated woman in this world
turning the pages on our past and we
have used our experiences to triumph and
to do amazing work that God wants us to
do and so I urge you to continue to help
us fight and our feet to end the
incarceration of women and girls free
her
[Applause]
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