WoLF ATTENDS PRISON PROTESTS IN MAINE AND MASSACHUSETTS

By Board Vice President of WoLF Margot Heffernan

This has been an exciting week for WoLF. We have been on the ground at two protests against the incarceration of men in women’s prisons. New England Women’s Solidarity, a group centered around the sex-based rights of women and girls, spearheaded a protest on Wednesday at the Maine Women’s Correctional Facility in Windham and Friday at the Massachusetts Correctional Center in Framingham. Semaus Othot of the  Maine Wire covered the first event. His article, Women’s Groups Protest Men in Women’s Prisons Outside Windham State Prison, appeared on Oct 8th in the The Maine Wire. 

Three Maine State reps were also in attendance and spoke, along with members of various women’s groups, including a WoLF volunteer and Lawyer, Dawn Harkness. Her rousing speech spoke not only to the audience, but to the inmates of the prison who have no control over the placement of men in their cells and private spaces.

Attorney and former Maine State Legislator Cynthia Dill also spoke. She is representing ten of the women who are or have been incarcerated here in a lawsuit against the prison.

Friday’s protest attracted an even larger crowd, including five male correctional officers from Massachusetts who are offended by the presence of men in women’s prisons. WoLF is also supporting a Massachusetts female correctional officer’s legal challenge to policies requiring her to strip-search male prisoners who identify as women, continuing our fight for women’s safety and dignity!

We also attracted the attention of The New Boston Post, and a Boston Herald photographer who covered the protest. Today was a fantastic day for women and girls. WoLF and all the other women-centered groups spoke out with gusto! It is exciting to know that WoLF is gaining traction and media attention each time we appear in public with boots on the ground!

WoLF is proud to have been on the ground at these protests: Most people are not aware of the fact that nine violent male offenders, including Andrew Balcer, are housed in the Maine facility. One or more such men are sharing intimate spaces in the Framingham Correctional Facility.

WoLF will continue our active involvement in both of these fast-moving cases as we keep followers and sisters up to date! 

Remember sisters, Womanhood is not negotiable!!