For the last thirty years, WWAV has been working to end Mass Criminalization and advance Reproductive Justice. Working against Mass Criminalization requires us to center all of the interlocking systems of oppression that the women and girls we stand with move through daily: predatory policing, school suspensions, family separations, job instability, housing insecurity, and the list goes on. Working for Reproductive Justice is how we affirm our community’s power and vision to survive, thrive, and renew across generations.
Since our founding, we have mobilized this analysis in service of transformative policy and systems change. Today is the seven-year anniversary of a major milestone in our NO Justice Project’s fight against the criminalization of sex work as a ‘crime against nature.’ On May 24, 2011, HB 141, which we worked in partnership to craft, was unanimously approved the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice. One month later, it had passed the House, the Senate, and was signed into law by Governor Bobby Jindal.
Our NO Justice Project was not a legal fight, nor was it a legislative fight. It was a fight for women’s lives and wellbeing. It was a fight, simply put, about everything. What the NO Justice Project taught us is that we need partnerships to win. Mass Criminalization works by dividing up our communities and trying to scatter us into single-issue fights. But we are unstoppable when we refuse these boundaries and work together to build the world in which we want to live.
That is why we are so excited to have worked collaboratively to realize The Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act, signed into law on May 23, 2018 by Governor John Bel Edwards. This victory for Reproductive Justice came through sustained collaboration with our partners at Operation Restoration, the Power Coalition, VOTE, and #Cut50. Each of us brought our own strengths and analysis to the table. Together, we were able to imagine and win significant protections for our incarcerated sisters:

• access to feminine hygiene products
• restricts male staff from conducting pat down searches, and
• prevents male staff from entering areas where incarcerated women may be undressed.

We count this as a victory for criminalized women and their families. And we thank our partners for walking with us to realize justice and liberation for all.
Today we celebrate… And still we rise!