Cedar Tree, Inc. conducts writing workshops for women in prison. The goals of the workshops are to restore self-esteem, help inmates prepare for life outside the walls and reduce recidivism. To accomplish these goals participants work with writing and literature to address the underlying causes of their behavior and create lasting life transformations.

Cedar Tree, Inc. noticed that women in prison are often painfully self-effacing. These women believe that their voices are impotent and presence unimportant. Our job is to bring them out of the shadows. How do we do that? We start by recognizing their humanity and valuing their opinion. In doing so they begin to trust us, which is an amazing thing in itself.

Trust is critical to an effective workshop, all the more so with women confined in prison. Gender is an issue; men often seem to be their sworn enemy. Abuse and assault suffered at the hands of men is not simply a moment in time but prevalent throughout their lives.

The workshop series at the Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants, New Mexico, exemplifies the transformation potential of Cedar Tree Inc.’s work in women’s prisons. Read more about this remarkable program below.

Women's Correctional Facility in Grants, New Mexico
In 2007 Cedar Tree, Inc. gave a series of workshops for prisoners at the New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility in Grants. Our approach: we threw away the textbook and shaped the lesson plans around their experiences.

The women created maps of their life's journeys with themes they cared about, like correspondence with their children, sexual abuse, and sacrifice. Many of these women sacrificed everything to gain the approval of a man. They had been prisoners of one kind or another—secret abuse, drug addiction, and sexual assault—long before they arrived at the penitentiary. They were in prison because they did a favor for their boyfriends, serving as a lookout during a robbery or driving drugs up from the border. Desperate to be loved, they gave away everything for men who didn’t hesitate to exploit their affection.

Once women exposed their losses, their emotions quickly turned from sorrow to rage. Their outbursts were cathartic. Some fell to their knees and screamed, and others pounded their fists on desktops. Sacrifices that had once left these women obscured in anonymity now gave rise to voices that demanded attention. Reading and writing gave truth to their lives and helped birth the new people they were becoming.

The writing exercises helped create change in other ways, too. In an epistolary lesson we asked the women to write letters to their children. The exchanges were turbulent and upsetting, but the conciliatory impact allowed their children to express long-hidden feelings of disgust and rage. In their replies, the children revealed traumas suffered that the mothers were never aware of. Thus began the journey of healing for the women and their children.

The writing workshop series at the Grants Women's Correctional Facility is featured in an upcoming Cedar Tree, Inc. documentary entitled Rising from the Ashes. Click on this link to see excerpts from the film.