From All-American girl to her incarceration in a federal prison camp, Jennifer Myers speaks about her journey to becoming a prison advocate, the power of re-entry work, and the importance of restorative justice. Concerned with the thousands of children whose mothers are locked up— and a 700% increase of women incarcerated in the U.S. during the last 15 years, Jennifer offers the idea that empowering women inside prison—before they are released, can reduce recidivism and ultimately, reunite mothers with their children. Jennifer is an author, speaker, and federal prison coach whose fervent desire is to bring an end to our country’s mass incarceration problem, and to find alternatives to imprisonment. Her passion to be an advocate for women in prison and youth with incarcerated parents led Jennifer to co-found R.I.S.E. to Empower, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering girls and women to make positive choices. Their work with at-risk, teen girls led to their program being accepted into San Diego U.S. Federal Probation’s reentry initiative, where they facilitate high-risk women recently released from Federal Prison. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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