Caring Collectively for People
in Women’s Prisons
We monitor and challenge the abusive conditions inside California women’s prisons.
We fight for the release of women and trans prisoners.
We support women and trans people in their process of re-entering the community.
Urgent Need to Release Elders from California Women’s Prisons Verified in New Report
The California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) and the Policy Advocacy Clinic (PAC) at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law released a report documenting that incarcerating elders in California women’s prisons is unjustified, costly, and inhumane. Releasing elders from its women’s prisons will help California address the crisis of its rapidly aging prison population.
Read more at our Close California Women’s Prisons page.
Know Your Reproductive Rights
Reproductive Healthcare Rights Inside Prisons
Between 1909 and 1964, California sterilized approximately 20,000 people in state-run institutions. Coercive sterilizations never stopped — from 2005–2013, at least 794 people in state prisons underwent procedures that could have resulted in sterilization.
After decades of advocacy — including landmark lawsuits, media investigations, and organizing by survivors — California established the nation’s first forced sterilization compensation program. But the fight is not over.
This booklet grew directly from years of community-led research, survivor testimony, and legal advocacy. It is a tool of resistance — so that every incarcerated person has the knowledge to demand the care they deserve.
To learn more visit our Reproductive Justice and Abolition page.
This booklet is available to view online here. A Spanish version translation will be coming soon.
Available for Purchase
Know Your Reproductive Rights – Reproductive Healthcare Rights Inside Prison is available to purchase in English.
Thank you for making our 30th anniversary celebration so powerful. CCWP’s community has grown tremendously over these last three decades. Our collective power is deeply rooted in the leadership of people currently incarcerated in California women’s prisons, who continue building our movement when they come home. Please help us continue our work by making a donation today!
Enjoy some video clips from our 30th anniversary celebration:
In the past 30 years we have:
- Advocated for criminalized survivors of intimate partner violence.
- Forcefully challenged the brutality of prison staff abuse at FCI Dublin and in the state prisons.
- Helped win reparations for survivors of forced sterilization.
- Contributed to the crafting and passing of the landmark Racial Justice Act (RJA) of 2020.
- Published The Fire Inside since 1996, the only newsletter in the country dedicated to people in women’s prisons.
- Supported the release of countless numbers of women and TGI people through parole and resentencing and involved them in our organization after they were released.
- Helped to reduce the population of CA women’s prisons from over 12,000 in 2010 to 4,000 today, a 65% decrease. This is the basis for our current campaign to close both of the remaining CA women’s prisons – Closure is Possible, Freedom is Necessary!
- Advocated for Immigrant & Refugee community members leaving prison to stop the CDCr to ICE detention & deportation pipeline
DONATE TODAY TO FORTIFY OUR FUTURE!
Text DONATE2CCWP to 44321 or visit
CCWP 30th Anniversary w/ Angela Davis
Was on Saturday, Oct 11th 2025 and was a wonderful success.
“CCWP knows how to effectively combine attentiveness to the immediate situation with the best possible long term solutions. This is an important lesson to all of us who want to ensure that abolition is taken seriously, that abolition is strategically approached. Thank you for your phenomenal and consistent leadership spanning three decades.“
Angela Davis
California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) celebrates 30 years of organizing across the walls of California’s women’s prisons. Since 1995, CCWP has played a unique role in developing an abolitionist feminist vision that is centered around the voices and power of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. We have continuously visited women’s prisons and jails in California, fought for and won freedom campaigns, and welcomed those returning home into our community and leadership roles within the organization.
