Women Beyond Walls
Around the world, nearly one million women are behind bars — and that number is rising. Often this is not for serious crimes, but because they are poor, because they’ve survived violence, or because the system failed them long before a conviction. Women Beyond Walls is a podcast that takes you beyond tired prison stereotypes to listen to real-life stories from incredible individuals: from women who have lived through incarceration, as well as from those reimagining what justice could look like.
Episodes
In Iran, under the country’s “blood money” laws, even in death, women are valued less. And for those facing the death penalty, discrimination runs deep from child marriage to poverty and domestic violence.
Today’s guest is Leila, a British-Iranian human rights advocate with Iran Human Rights, an organization fighting to abolish the death penalty. Leila reveals how Iran’s justice system is used as a tool of repression against women a...
Today Lawyer and human rights advocate Nicolás Laino discusses how poverty, violence, and inequality contribute to women’s criminalization. He shares stories from his work as a public defender in Argentina, the importance of early, gender-sensitive legal aid, and how lawyers and policymakers can better support women behind bars. Nicolás also highlights global efforts to train legal professionals and include people with lived experi...
Harriet Wistrich is a pioneering lawyer and activist who has spent 30 years supporting survivors when the criminal legal system falls short. Today, we go beyond prejudices to discuss landmark cases where women were punished for defending themselves against abuse. Harriet explains why it’s so important for courts to consider long-term abuse, coercive control, and trauma and why legal reform is still needed to ensure women get fair t...
Women are the fastest-growing prison population worldwide, often locked up for low-level drug offenses tied to poverty, coercion, or survival. In this minisode, Marie Nougier from the International Drug Policy Consortium talks about moving beyond punitive drug laws that harm women and what compassionate, evidence-based alternatives could look like.
Learn more about the International Drug Policy Consortium: idpc.net
10-point ...
Today, Rosma Karlina talks about her experiences with drug use and her time in prison, highlighting the harm caused by incarceration and forced rehabilitation programs. She also explains why health-focused, human-rights approaches like peer support, counselling, and community programmes are so important for women who use drugs.
Rosma is the director of SPINN, an Indonesian community group supporting women and trans women who use dru...
Some say that when you imprison a mother, you imprison a family. Today, Dr. Shona Minson, Researcher at Oxford University’s Centre for Criminology, shares her groundbreaking work on the often invisible impact of maternal imprisonment on children. She goes beyond stereotypes that label incarcerated women as “bad mothers,” showing how poverty, stigma and systemic discrimination push women into prison and how these injustices reverber...
Pamela Winn discovered she was pregnant while incarcerated in the USA. Shackled during transport and denied proper medical care, she endured harsh conditions no pregnant woman should face.
Today, Pamela asks us to go beyond stigma and recognise the humanity of incarcerated women, including mothers. She also talks about her work with RestoreHER, an organisation pushing for real policy change to help women caught up in the criminal le...
From unpaid fines to laws that punish women for surviving violence, the system is locking up women who are simply trying to survive. Instead of addressing root causes, we’re criminalising poverty.
In this minisode, Olivia Rope, Executive Director of Penal Reform International, challenges us to go beyond the surface, to really listen to women’s stories and even question the system itself.
We also talk about what’s working, including t...
Today, Teresa Njoroge asks us to look beyond poverty and see the potential in women caught up in the criminal legal system.
Teresa is a former banker in Kenya who was imprisoned with her 3-month-old daughter. That traumatic experience transformed her understanding of justice and inspired her to found Clean Start Africa, an organisation that supports women and children impacted by incarceration.
Today, Teresa challenges the way socie...
Across the world, women are being locked up in growing numbers—often not for serious crimes, but because they are poor, they’ve survived violence, or the system failed them.
In Season 2 of the Women Beyond Walls Podcast, we speak to women around the world who’ve lived through incarceration and those reimagining what justice could look like.
On the final episode in the inaugural season of the Women Beyond Walls podcast, host Sabrina Mahtani is joined in conversation with Lady Unchained, the Founder and Creative Director of Unchained Poetry, an artistic platform for artists with lived experience of the Criminal Justice System. On this episode, author, poet, mentor and broadcaster, Lady Unchained shares her journey and explains why writing poetry became an important crea...
On the fifth episode in the inaugural season of the Women Beyond Walls podcast, Sabrina Mahtani is joined in conversation by Debbie Kilroy OAM, the CEO of Sisters Inside, one of Queensland’s leading criminal solicitors, and one of Australia's leading advocates for the human rights of women in the criminal justice system. On this episode of Women Beyond Walls, Debbie shares her own compelling life-story and shines a powerful spotlig...
On the fourth episode in the inaugural season of the Women Beyond Walls podcast, Sabrina Mahtani is joined in conversation by Jhody Polk, the Founder/Director of the Legal Empowerment and Advocacy Hub (LEAH) and Director of Community Justice at the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding in the USA. LEAH is the home of the National Jailhouse Lawyers Initiative and is the first Participatory Defense Hub in the state of Florida. Jhody...
On the third episode in the inaugural season of the Women Beyond Walls podcast, Sabrina Mahtani is joined in conversation by Samantha Chong, a former prosecutor and practicing criminal defence lawyer based in Malaysia. In this insightful episode Samantha and Sabrina examine some of the reasons behind the incarceration of women in Malaysia and discuss why the mandatory death sentence given for many drugs offences needs to chall...
On the second episode in the inaugural season of the Women Beyond Walls podcast, host Sabrina Mahtani is joined in conversation by her friend and former colleague Simitie Lavaly from Sierra Leone. Simitie is the former Executive Director of AdvocAid, a qualified lawyer and women’s rights specialist, and is currently serving as a Commissioner on Sierra Leone's Human Rights Commission. In this episode, Simitie and Sabrina ...
Over 741,000 women are in prison worldwide. The rate of women’s incarceration is growing at a faster rate than that of men’s. Women Beyond Walls is a podcast that takes you beyond tired prison stereotypes to listen to real-life stories from incredible individuals – women with lived experience of the justice system, feminist lawyers, activists and experts – all committed to seeing an end to the over-incarceration and over-criminaliz...
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