Norton Holds First Ever Video Conference for Incarcerated DC Women (6/2/09)
Norton Holds First Ever Video Conference for Incarcerated D.C. Women
June 2, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is inviting D.C. residents to the first ever video conference dialogue between D.C. residents and D.C. women incarcerated at the Hazelton Secured Female Facility (SFF) in Hazelton, West Virginia. The video conference, part of a town hall meeting, will be held on Thursday, June 4, 6-8 p.m., at One Judiciary Square, 441 4th Street, NW. A panel of experts familiar with the lives and needs of women returning from prison will help lead this unusual D.C. inmate dialogue. The panelists will be: Tonie Rhones, coordinator, Our Place; Reesa Motley, director, Fairview Halfway House; Gretchen Rohr, director, University Legal Services D.C. Jail Advocacy Project; Cedrick Hendricks, acting deputy director, Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA); Chancay Mahogany, member, Community Relations Board for Fairview Halfway House; Issac Fulwood, member and nominated chair, U.S. Parole Commission; Rahim Jenkins, former director, D.C. Re-entry Initiative.
Currently, 222 women from the District are incarcerated in Bureau of Prison (BOP) facilities outside the District; 29 are in halfway houses. Congresswoman Norton visited the Secured Female Facility (SFF) in Hazelton, which houses 36 women from the district, last October. In preparation for the upcoming town meeting, the Congresswoman visited women on parole at the Fairview halfway house in the District during Women's History Month, taking flowers and offering words of encouragement.
Norton also is planning a first ever video conference for D.C. youth incarcerated in BOP facilities. A second video conference is also planned for D.C. male inmates, following a video conference and town hall meeting Norton held in 2007 for D.C. men incarcerated in the Rivers Correctional Institution, a federally-contracted private prison located in North Carolina. The hearings and video conference are held to help inmates prepare for the realities of re-entry and to help Norton prepare for congressional hearings to improve services and reduce recidivism for incarcerated D.C. residents.