Women Beyond Walls

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

July 18, 2025 1 min

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.

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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 Brenda Birungi, best known as author, poet, mentor and broadcaster Lady Unchained, shares her journey and explains why ...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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 ...

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November 18, 2021 31 mins
On the first episode in the inaugural season of the Women Beyond Walls podcast, host Sabrina Mahtani is joined in conversation with Susan Kigula. In 2002, Susan, then a young mother, was convicted of the murder of her husband and was sentenced to death. At the time, Uganda carried the mandatory death penalty for murder. Susan spent over a decade on death row in Uganda. During her time in prison, she invested in her own education an...
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November 15, 2021 2 mins

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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