New Episode of Ms.’s On The Issues With Michele Goodwin Podcast: Mass Incarceration: Don’t Forget About the Women

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | February 10, 2021

On the Issues with Michele Goodwin is a new issues- and policy-focused podcast featuring feminist analysis, insightful conversations and exciting guests. This is the first podcast from Ms. magazine, a legacy feminist publication. In each bi-weekly episode, host Dr. Michele Goodwin and special guests will tackle the most compelling issues of our times, centering feminist concerns about rebuilding our nation and advancing the promise of equality.

A new episode—Mass Incarceration: Don’t Forget About the Women (with Sue Ellen Alen, Piper Kerman, and Kamilah Newton)—is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and MsMagazine.com.

Women make up the fastest growing incarcerated population in the U.S—yet, politicians and the media frequently frame incarceration as an issue that affects only boys and men.

This week, Dr. Goodwin and her guests ask: Why is so little attention paid to women and mass incarceration?  What does the failure to include women in the analysis on mass incarceration mean for communities, families and the women themselves? What are the unique challenges women and girls face behind bars and after they are released?

Dr. Goodwin is joined by Sue Ellen Allen, founder and executive director of Reinventing Reentry; Piper Kerman, author of the memoir Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison; and Kamilah Newton, writer for Yahoo Lifestyle and associate producer for MAKERS.

Their conversation covered a wide range of topics; you can find a full transcript here, as well as a few excerpts below:

“We can’t trust these COs [correction officers]…I mean, we’ve been yelled at by COs. I mean, COs have exposed my breasts in public spaces…We talk about police mistrust.” —Kamilah Newton

“Women’s experiences in the system tend to highlight the flaws in the system overall for everyone.”—Piper Kerman

“At the darkest time of my life… the drug addicts and the murderers and the thieves looked after me.  And I will never forget, you know, I’m one of them. I’m a sister in an orange.” —Sue Ellen Allen

Meet the Host of On the Issues: Dr. Michele Goodwin is a frequent contributor to Ms.Magazine and on MsMagazine.com. She is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and also serves on the executive committee and national board of the ACLU. Dr. Goodwin is a prolific author and an elected member of the American Law Institute, as well as an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Hastings Center. Her most recent book, Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and The Criminalization of Motherhood , is described as a “must read.”

About Ms. Magazine: Co-founded by Gloria Steinem in 1972 and published by the Feminist Majority Foundation since 2001, Ms. magazine has been a trusted, popular source for feminist news and information in print and online for nearly 50 years. Ms.’s time-honored traditions of an emphasis on in-depth investigative reporting and feminist political analysis have never been more relevant, bringing a new generation of writers and readers together to share news, analysis, research and strategies for fighting back and moving forward, for shaping the future.

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If you would like more information on the On the Issues with Michele Goodwin podcast, or to schedule an interview with Host Michele Goodwin or Executive Producer & Ms. Executive Editor Katherine Spillar, please email press@msmagazine.com.

Launched in 1971, Ms. is the most trusted, popular source for feminist news and information in print and online with a tradition of in-depth investigative reporting and feminist political analysis. Ms. is wholly owned and published by the Feminist Majority Foundation.