12/25/2025
This time of year cuts especially deep.
In just one day, this is the mail we received from incarcerated women. The National Council receives letters six days a week, each envelope carrying grief, longing, hope and resilience. This is yesterday’s mail from our West Coast P.O. box, from women all over the country.
These are letters from women and mothers describing abuse and neglect at the hands of the Bureau of Prisons, by staff, administrators, and a system that too often turns away.
Letters from mothers asking us to send messages of love to their children they cannot hug, see, or hold because distance has stolen even that. Letters filled with heartbreak, and also with gratitude for a sisterhood that refuses to abandon them.
Today, as you gather with the people you love, please hold space for the women who cannot. For the mothers spending another holiday separated from their children. For the families fractured by incarceration.
We stand with them. We fight for them. And we will never give up.
