4I AM A SOMEBODY is a book of stories - stories to open our hearts and minds to what statistics cannot reveal - experiences that traumatized the youthful years of justice-involved (incarcerated) women. When adults doled out harm, instead of love, to the girl children in their care, the youth sought refuge in unhealthy relationships. Those relationships led them into prostitution, drugs and crimes.
These stories, and the accompanying data illustrate that incarcerating women, without healing their underlying traumas, is short-sighted, ineffective, and unjust. Restorative/transformative (healing) processes must replace retributive (harmful) processes in U.S. society.