. This build-up of America as a prison nation happened over decades as politicians passed legislation that imprisoned more and more people for increasing numbers of years, cut funding for social safety nets, and increased funding for police and prisons. For many years, this build-up failed to garner widespread public attention, let alone outrage.
This includes the myth that people in prison do not organize and resist and that incarcerated women, in particular, do not participate in acts of rebellion and defiance. As long as there have been prisons, there have been acts of individual resistance and collective organizing within them.
Second, women are often not part of the same outside networks and coalitions that support incarcerated men’s organizing, leaving them excluded from calls for mass actions. For instance, women incarcerated at Alabama’s Birmingham Work Release Center, where women are both imprisoned and allowed outside on work release, were unaware of the 2016 call for a statewide prison work strike — and unaware that any organizing had been taking place. “[I] never heard about a work strike and ask[ed] around.
Talking to other women is not easy within prisons where movement is strictly limited. Want to go from the housing unit to the library? You need a pass for that. Want to go to the yard? You have to wait until your approved movement time — and that could be canceled at any time. Want to go to another housing unit to talk to the women there? That probably won’t be permitted.
The transfer led to even more organizing. After arriving in Basile, the women formed the Longtermers/Insiders group. “The group wanted to have a voice in the decision making,” wrote Sissy. “We feared that once in Louisiana, we would be ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ … We felt it was time to speak up, make a stand, and be heard.”
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