The third volume of Freedom Collective collects poetry from thirteen women incarcerated at the California Institution for Women, produced through the Spring 2025 Creative Writing Workshop of the UC Sentencing Project (UCSP). This chapbook of poetry gathers work from fifteen writers and moves through themes of longing and confinement, love and betrayal, motherhood and family rupture, addiction and recovery, grief, faith, and the persistent pull toward freedom—both literal and internal.

The thirteen contributors — Aimee Gana, C. Ramirez (Dude), Elsa Thompson, Emily Paco, Free, Indigo, J.M.W, Jessicah, Kelly J. Sorrell, Kinzie Gene Noordman, L.A.M. Mindy, Jones Ruby Padgett (L and R), Shawnda Sapier, and Zabel Kazanjian. The UCSP Creative Writing group serves as a portal into the lives and inner worlds of incarcerated women. In it, they tap into their inner muse and self-expression that would otherwise be dormant, and as stated in the intro, “For us, it creates a diversion that takes us away from both the chaos and the sadness of prison life.” 

The workshop was facilitated by Rosie Stockton in partnership with the UC Sentencing Project, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and the UCLA Center for the Study of Women/Barbra Streisand Center.

The zine was designed by Kaya Napachoti

Research support came from Jane Dorotik, Mindy Jones, and Ayesha Waraich.