Women with incarcerated loved ones are the backbone of family connections across California’s prisons and jails. We will do whatever it takes to have access to our loved ones through healing visits that break cycles of trauma. 🧵

AB 2434 (Bonta) and AB 1645 (Gonzalez) have passed the CA Assembly Floor! Both bills would ensure stronger visitation protections for women, children, and families visiting their loved ones in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCr) facilities. Stay tuned for more updates!

We’re proud to announce our co-sponsorship of AB 1645 – The HUGS Act (Asm. Gonzalez) & AB 2434 – Visitor Protections & Safety Act (Asm. Bonta)! 🧡✊🏾 Both bills would ensure visitation protections in CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCr) facilities, for women, children, and families. 🧵

We mourn the passing of Ruby Duncan, a visionary welfare rights activist whose love for her community changed the lives of low-income families. Her legacy is a testament to the love labor and leadership of Black women that has grounded our work in organizing women with incarcerated loved ones. 🧡

Until now, no U.S. Attorney General has ever launched a civil rights investigation after a catastrophic climate disaster. Read our Essence feature for more on how the leadership of the Black women behind Altadena for Accountability won a first-of-its-kind civil rights precedent:

Protecting women and girls is non-negotiable. Women with incarcerated loved ones stand with Dolores Huerta, Ana Murgia, Debra Rojas, and all survivors of gender-based violence.

We honor the transformative leadership and care of women with incarcerated loved ones this #InternationalWomensDay and every day. ✊🏾🧡

Join Essie Justice Group's FREE Healing to Advocacy Program to access a safe space of belonging, healing, leadership development, and life-long community! You can sign up anytime, but sign up today if you want to join the cohorts starting later this month: essiejusticegroup.org/nominate 🧡

This #BlackHistoryMonth, and always, we celebrate Black women, whose love, joy, leadership, and vision holds a legacy of freedom. 🧡✊🏾

Here are some member reflections from Essie's Our Duty to Win 2026 Member Summit that brought together 100+ Essie Sisters from across the country to disrupt the systems that try to divide, isolate, and harm us and our communities! ✊🏾🧡 (1/6)

New year, same goal: combat the narratives around incarceration that harm women and our incarcerated loved ones. Tune into Pillars to learn more about our lived experiences, available now on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts: pillarspod.com #Podcast #Women

If you are a woman with a currently or formerly incarcerated loved one, you can find healing, life-long community, and belonging at Essie. 🫂💜 Connect with us: pillarspod.com/untold #PillarsPod #Women #Podcast #Jail #Prison

If you are a woman who has a currently or formerly incarcerated loved one, you belong at Essie Justice Group. 🧡🫂 Take five minutes to nominate yourself or someone you know to our free Healing to Advocacy Program! essiejusticegroup.org/nominate #SisterhoodIsPowerful #Community #Healing

Curious about how to support the care-centered leadership of women with incarcerated loved ones this #GivingTuesday? 🤔🧡 (1/4)

We're still feeling the love and power from our historic Fall 2025 Healing to Advocacy Graduation season! 🎉🧡 Check out our latest blog for highlights from our biggest Healing to Advocacy cohort season to date. #SisterhoodIsPowerful #Leadership #Community

We're hiring! Join a team of dedicated organizers who are working to develop the care-driven leadership of women with incarcerated loved ones that we need now more than ever. Visit the link in bio for our open positions. #Hiring #BlackFeminist #MakeAnImpact

We closed out our Fall 2025 Healing to Advocacy Graduation season in LA, welcoming 54 graduates from our Pasadena, Compton, and Inland Empire cohorts into our loving and powerful Sisterhood! Stay tuned for a special recap of our historic graduation season! #SisterhoodIsPowerful (1/2)

Want to improve the mental health of women with incarcerated loved ones? #EndMassIncarceration ✊🏾

No matter if it’s a shutdown, lapse, or partial payment—any impact to #SNAP is deeply felt by system-impacted Black and Brown families. #GovernmentShutdown

Congratulations to our Fall 2025 National Healing to Advocacy graduates! Our 59th cohort graduation welcomed 23 women with incarcerated loved ones from 12 different states into our Sisterhood. #SisterhoodIsPowerful #Healing #Advocacy #Graduation 🧡💐 (1/3)

Introducing Paris Hatcher of Black Feminist Future and Melonie Griffiths of Freedom to Thrive: Essie’s Advocacy Spotlight Speakers for this weekend's Fall 2025 National Healing to Advocacy Graduation! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠🙌🏾🧡 We can't wait to hear the wisdom they'll share with us!

We kicked off our Fall 2025 Healing to Advocacy Graduation season in Oakland, welcoming our 58th cohort of 16 women with incarcerated loved ones into our loving and powerful Sisterhood! Stay tuned as we celebrate more this weekend during our National graduation ceremony. (1/2)

Our staff came together in Oakland for an annual #StaffRetreat! We focused on skill-building, power-based campaigning, and organizing strategies to deepen connection in this political moment. Thank you to Chantá Parker for facilitating and bringing deep expertise to our space! 🧡

Last weekend at #MentalWealthAlliance and @iheartradio.bsky.social’s #MentalWealthExpo, we hosted Power & Connection: The Impact of Incarceration on Mental Health—a breakout session exploring how incarceration isolates women, harms our mental health, and ways we can combat isolation. 🫂🧡

"Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer." — #bellhooks 🧡 Happy birthday to bell hooks, whose legacy embodies radical love as a force for healing, community building, and liberation. #BlackFeminist

If you have a loved one in jail or prison, you are not alone. 💜🫂 To hear more of Okha's story, check out Pillars: Untold Stories of Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones: pillarspod.com #PillarsPod #Women #Podcast #PrisonStories

We stand against The Supreme Court's ruling and continue in our fight to end the incarceration and detention of our families and communities.

📣 BONUS Pillars Episode 📣 Reentry experts Alice and Raylene talk about the unseen ways they hold down their formerly incarcerated loved ones. Tune in: pillarspod.com #PillarsPod #Women #Reentry #Podcast

Essie’s member-led Campaign Team kicked off our Campaign Development Launch! ✊🏾 Our Campaign Development Subcommittee is leading with the skills and tools we learned from Campaign School to identify our future campaign work. Subscribe for updates! essiejusticegroup.org/subscribe

Our Fall 2025 Healing to Advocacy Program has officially begun! The leadership of women with incarcerated loved ones this summer helped us collect 455 nominations and made 1300+ calls inviting women to join our Sisterhood. #SisterhoodIsPowerful #Community #Healing

Are you a woman with a currently or formerly incarcerated loved one? You are not alone. Join our FREE Healing to Advocacy Program to access a safe space for healing, resource sharing, and life-long community. 🧡 Nominate yourself or someone you know: essiejusticegroup.org/nominate

Thank you @npquarterly.bsky.social for highlighting The Hidden Heart of Reentry Report! Read the full article here: nonprofitquarterly.org/new-report-l... Check out the report here: bit.ly/HiddenHeartReentry cc: @nationalbailout.bsky.social @nbwji.bsky.social #Reentry #FreeBlackMamas

This #BlackAugust, we honor the #FreedomFighters who relentlessly fought for our liberation. Our ancestors' sacrifices remind us of the determination that’s required to bring about change, and is all the evidence we need to continue the fight.  cc: @mauricewfp.bsky.social @workingfamilies.org

Okha spends $850 per prison visit to see her father. Are you a woman with an incarcerated loved one who's faced a similar price tag? We want to hear from you. Share your untold story with us at pillars.com/untold. #PillarsPod #Women #Podcast #PrisonStories

TUNE IN NOW: Ep. 2 of Pillars Podcast — Okha’s Story. In this episode, Okha shares what it’s like to be the daughter and primary caregiver of an incarcerated parent. Available now on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/watchpillars #PillarsPod #Women #Podcast

Earlier this month, 14 member leaders came together for advanced facilitation training through our Facilitator's Training Program 201! ✊🏾 (1/3)

In our debut episode of Pillars: Untold Stories of Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones, Carmen shares what it’s like to be one of the 1 in 4 women in the U.S. with an incarcerated loved one. Watch: bit.ly/watchpillars Listen: bit.ly/pillarspod #PillarsPod #Women #Podcast

We stand in unwavering solidarity with immigrant communities and families impacted by the Los Angeles ICE raids. 🧡 cc: @chirla-org.bsky.social, Black Alliance for Just Immigration #Immigration #NoICE #WeKeepUsSafe #LosAngeles #Community

Reminder: We keep us safe! 🛑 If you see ICE in LA, don’t stay silent. Report it to the LA Rapid Response Network. 📲 #ImmigrantsBelong #NoDeportations #SomosCHIRLA

Leading the Black Mama’s Bail Out campaign, ‪@essie4justice.bsky.social‬ has bailed out 21 Black mothers & caregivers from CA jails. Every year, we experience intentional, onerous, & negligent tactics inside CA's jail system, writes Tanasia Newman in an op-ed. prismreports.org/2025/06/02/b...

PASADENA & LOS ANGELES: Register for State of the People POWER Tour June 6 & 7! Show up for two days of action powered by community and rooted in local solutions. Register now at stateoftheppl.com! ✊🏾 @stateoftheppl.bsky.social #StateOfThePeople #PowerTour2025 #LosAngeles #Pasadena #Altadena

"It’s always the expertise of women with incarcerated loved ones that ensures safe homecomings for all of the Black mothers and caregivers we’ve bailed out." Shout out to @prismreports.org for publishing our op-ed on the impact of CA's jail system on Black mothers. cc: @nationalbailout.bsky.social

The State of the People POWER Tour is a national campaign to meet Black communities where they are with truth, care, and power—and it’s coming to Los Angeles June 6 & 7! Register today: stateoftheppl.com/los-angeles/ #StateOfThePeople #PowerTour2025

Earlier this week we held our Spring 2025 Los Angeles Healing to Advocacy Graduation, welcoming 21 more women with incarcerated loved ones into our loving and powerful Sisterhood! 🧡(1/4)

Led by our Campaign Team, this weekend we hosted Moment to Breathe, a day of healing and connection for our wildfire-impacted Altadena and Pasadena neighbors 🧡 (1/4)

Last night we hosted Raise the Bay in Your Voice—a listening session focused on identifying community-centered solutions for a better Oakland. ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾 (1/2)

“[The Hidden Heart of Reentry report] really underscores the ways that women with incarcerated loved ones are the invisible leaders at the heart of care and reentry." — Tanasia Newman, Essie’s Sr. Communications Manager for Davis Vanguard News Group Read here davisvanguard.org/2025/05/essi... (1/2)

Last week, we spoke to elected officials in Sacramento during California Black Power Network's Legislative Day of Action. ✊🏾🧡 #California (1/3)

We’re spending our 11th anniversary freeing a Black mama! #SisterhoodIsPowerful #FreeBlackMamas #Anniversary  (1/4)

In this special follow-up episode, Essie's Founder & Executive Director, Gina Clayton-Johnson, shares her Brief But Spectacular take on putting the pieces back together after losing her home to the Eaton Canyon Fire in Altadena. cc: @pbsnews.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td6H...