How the @wpa_nyc Is Working to Keep Mothers With Their Children 🦋 Photographed by @lilikobielski for @voguemagazine ✍️@emmaspecter 80% of women in jail are mothers, and most are primary caregivers for their children, but the prison system—built, as it is, upon isolation and family separation—frequently forces women to choose between serving their sentences and being active participants in their children’s lives. Founded in 1845 and headquartered in New York City, the @wpa_nyc works to provide formerly incarcerated women with a wider array of options than they might previously have had; the organization’s Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) initiative offers programming designed entirely around keeping women in their communities instead of jail or prison. The ATI structure provides women involved in the criminal legal system with everything from trauma-focused therapy to court accompaniment and advocacy letters arguing for lesser sentences, and considering that New York’s already-high incarceration rate just keeps growing, resources like those can be vital. Beyond ATI, the WPA also helps formerly incarcerated women locate safe, affordable housing, accessible health care, and job opportunities—and when you’re coming out of a prison system that routinely strips those who populate it of their most basic human rights, those hallmarks of stability can be game-changers; not just for one individual, but for their whole family. Recently, five WPA participants—Kamilah Newton, Elaine Daly, Jennifer Montano, Tamanika Evans, and Merlyn Mejia—allowed Vogue to spend the day with them to discuss their experiences as women in prison, how WPA programming helped them to rebuild their lives after incarceration, their hopes for their children, and the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their families.