Mental Illnesses, Addictions, Wrongful Convictions = Mass Incarceration In U.S.

Join us Thursday, May 26, 2022 from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. (EDT).    Call In Number (657) 383-1630. 

Hello everyone, I am Leonna Abraham Brandao, Host for Blog Talk Radio/ Shedding Light.

Our Guest, Jeffrey Deskovic, could not be here today, although He will be back with us next Thursday, June 2nd,  same time.  Shackled, ankles bloodied, shivering in a T-shirt with the temperature barely above 30—this was Evie Litwok’s introduction to the Federal Women’s prison. She experienced first-hand life behind bars. In prison, she wrote an article on the death of a fellow inmate due to lack of medical care. Her unapologetic voice as a women and LGBTQ+ advocate and an open lesbian made her a target, resulting in atransfer to solitary confinement. Leaving prison homeless and penniless, Litwok continued her advocacy. She became a founding member of the National Criminal Justice LGBT/HIV Working Group, focusing on sexual violence in confinement. She convened formerly incarcerated LGBTQ+ sexual-violence survivors in a report called “Sexual Violence Against LGBTI People in Confinement: There is No #MeToo Movement Behind Bars,” featured on the DOJ National PREA Resource Center website.  Litwok is a respected speaker on criminal justice. A “Formerly Incarcerated Jewish Lesbian,” her story spread nationwide. She has spoken for the White House Panel on LGBTQ Criminalization. Witness to Mass Incarceration was born from her struggles inside the prison system. Its mission is to promote voices of formerly incarcerated women and LGBTQ+ in finding alternatives to mass incarceration and Ms. Litwok has a MA in psychology, which is another attribute to her already mount of achievements.