Thread by @Womans_Place_UK

THREAD: Following the aggressive protest at our #WPUKPrisons meeting, we rushed out the films so that people could see for themselves what people were talking about inside. Now we are pleased to be publishing films of the speeches with improved audio. /1

Charlie Weinberg opened A Woman’s Place is NOT in prison on behalf of @CrimeandJustice with an explanation of why the issue of women in prison needs urgent action.
#WPUKPrisons

She was followed by our Chair for #WPUKPrisons @BluskyeAllison “From the walls of academia to the women’s prison estate, women are catching hell”.

In her last speech as CEO of @TheHowardLeague @francescrook “Women’s sex-based services in the community provide support to women who would otherwise be in prison. They work. They are lovely. They provide a wrap-around. They are doing fantastic work.”

Lucy Baldwin on pregnant women in prison: “It is not humane. It is not safe. There is a better way. What do we need? We can’t have good criminal justice without good social justice. We have to invest. We have to provide services to support women earlier.”

Please sign and share this petition from @we_level_up @Brthcompanions @WIP_live calling for an end to the imprisonment of pregnant women. #WPUKPrisons
act.welevelup.org/campaigns/preg…

Thank you to @francesbarber13 for reading the words of women prisoners at the meeting. Here is their testimony womansplaceuk.org/2021/11/04/tra… #WPUKPrisons

Then @JoPhoenix1 rallied us to act: “Let’s hope this evening kickstarts a campaign to stop the routine use of imprisonment for women - and short of that, to get the @MoJGovUK to apply single-sex exemptions to prisons." #WPUKPrisons

Please support @JoPhoenix1 in her legal case to hold the @OpenUniversity to account for the public campaign of harassment against her for her views on sex and gender crowdjustice.com/case/harassed-…

Honoured to host @RosieDuffield1 "I'm a woman, a single mother. I'm someone who knows a little bit about the slippery slope that might just be the only one available to many women...Choices are usually between yet another rock and yet another hard place."

And then @Mocha_Soul closed the meeting for WPUK: “Sex matters. Sex matters for women because it is on the basis of sex that women’s bodies and labour are appropriated. It is on the basis of sex that we are discriminated against.”
#WPUKPrisons

In her speech, @Mocha_Soul read from the testimony of former prisoner @hogotheforsaken - full text is on our website womansplaceuk.org/2021/10/12/pri… #WPUKPrisons

We would like to thank everyone who made this event possible. Thank you to @deeinsidefilm for filming and producing these recordings. Please support this project if you can.

https://twitter.com/deeinsidefilm/status/1459538636739854345?s=20

@deeinsidefilm It is astonishing to us that a meeting of this importance was protested at all. Our meetings are open to the public. We want people to come in and be part of such discussions. We certainly do not expect attendees and volunters to be subject to vile abuse. womansplaceuk.org/2021/10/30/ope…

We have been clear that the response to our complaints about the abusive protest is simply not good enough. womansplaceuk.org/2021/11/06/swp…

But we are also clear that we want to use our energy campaigning for women in prison. We will not be deterred from doing that. Please write to your political representative about women's prisons. For a start, they must be single sex... womansplaceuk.org/2021/07/07/wom…

But there is much, much, more to do. Please see our manifesto for the other demands we have for women in the criminal justice system. Please take action to change things for the better. Thank you. womansplaceuk.org/wpuk-manifesto… /END