The International Commission is building an International movement of formerly incarcerated women and girls. The incarceration of women is a global phenomenon. According to the World Female Imprisonment List, in 2017, more than 714,000 women and girls were incarcerated worldwide. Between 2000 and 2017, the total female prison population worldwide increased by 53%, while that of men rose by 19%. From Boston to Buenos Aires to Bangkok, criminalization and incarceration disproportionately impact women.

As a result, in 2020, the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls launched a program to build global solidarity with currently and formerly incarcerated women and girls, family members, and movement families from around the world in order to raise awareness about the global increase in the incarceration of women, the effect on their children and communities, and the need to reallocate funding from prisons to investing in the health and wellbeing of women and children through an abolitionist lens. Specifically, we seek:

• Elevate the voices, experiences, and ideas of women who have been in prison.

• Build a new global framework for addressing and ending overcriminalization and the incarceration of women and girls.