WEBVTT

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[MUSIC]

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What are my memories of prison?

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My memories of prison are
just of loss.

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That\'s it. Dark, empty,
four walls of nothing.

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Go ahead.

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Stop being nosy.
Go on outside.

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A lot of people don\'t really
know what shackling is,

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this is shackling.

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The person in my drawing
doesn\'t have a face because it

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would be too many faces
to put there.

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Because this is not just
something that happened to me

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it\'s something that happens to
lots of women.

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[MUSIC]

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Empathy.

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- What are
you hoping to change?

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I\'m hoping to stop shackling of
incarcerated women that are

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pregnant in Georgia.

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We have these stereotypes of
what an incarcerated person

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looks like, but I\'m here to
tell you that an incarcerated

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person looks like the
person that\'s next to you.

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Empathy is knowing that
incarcerated people in America

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are people just like you.

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They feel just like you.

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They love just like you.

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They breathe just like you do.

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When I got arrested

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and I had my
first physical

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during intake, that\'s when I
found out that I was pregnant.

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Although they knew I
was pregnant, they would still put

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a chain around my belly and
they would put shackles on my

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ankles as well.

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And one of the days heading out
to court, stepping into

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the van, you know,
I misstepped and I fell.

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[CHAINS CLINKING]

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After the fall, I started
sending medical requests,

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stating that I was
having problems. And for a

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couple of weeks
they went unanswered.

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And then finally, they gave me
the courtesy of being honest

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with me and letting me know
that the facility was basically

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built for men, they didn\'t
anticipate having women and

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they could do nothing for me.

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My call today is
with the Georgia Birth

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Advocacy Coalition. My part of
the conversation is gonna be

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what it always is because when
these conversations

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come about, they
always forget the incarcerated

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pregnant women.

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And so that is the voice that I
always bring into the room.

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I still get to cheat.

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I don\'t have to wear clothes.

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I just put on a scarf.

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Like yes, I\'m dressed.

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Pamela Winn now advocates for
the rights and well-being of

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pregnant mothers and
formerly incarcerated people.

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She is a wonderful person to
talk to about how we talk about

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all of the rights that pregnant
people have here in Georgia.

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But the truth is that pregnant
prisoners have almost no rights

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and they are --

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if you\'re in jail you have a...

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[PHONE CALL BREAKING UP]

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Oh no.

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I can\'t have that, now.
I\'ll pass this over to Pamela.

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Someone is apologizing me -- to me
for my loss.

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I thank you so much
for your concern.

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I\'m trying to do this without
getting emotional, but it\'s hard.

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[MUSIC]

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[PRISON AMBIENCE]

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Every night we would get locked in
our cells at 10 o\'clock

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at night. The only light that
shone in just shot across

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your head.

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You know, up high.

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So you really
couldn\'t see anything.

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It was very dark in the room.

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On this particular day, I had
not had anything to drink all day

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because the water in the
drinking fountain was

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coming out brown.

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I was awakened out of my sleep
by the contractions.

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You know, moaning out in
pain and I would wake

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the lady that was in the room
with me. And I remember her

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screaming in the crack of
the door to the other ladies.

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There\'s something
wrong with Pam.

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There\'s something wrong
with her baby.

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[MUSIC]

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[FISTS POUNDING]

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I can hear all

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the women beating on
the doors, screaming to the top

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of their lungs.

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We\'re trying to get somebody\'s
attention to come in and

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check on us.

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I lay there

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it seems like forever.

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And finally, the door opens.

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When the door opens,

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there\'s blood everywhere.

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So now not only am I
afraid for my baby,

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I’m afraid for myself.

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The correctional staff were
debating about what to

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do with me.

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They didn\'t have a plan,
they didn\'t know what to do.

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And I\'m like, please, please,
please just call 9-1-1 and get

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me to the doctor.

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[AMBULANCE SIREN]

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When I got to the hospital,
I was met by the marshals who

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immediately cuffed me
to the bed.

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And so I spent the rest of my
miscarriage shackled to the bed.

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Not only shackled to the bed,
but there were two male

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officers in the room with me
that were both between my legs

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that refused to give
me any privacy.

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I remember the nurse saying

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to me, Miss Winn you passed
your baby, it\'s not here.

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Then she asks the officers,
where\'s the linen that Miss Winn bled on?

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We need that,
the baby is there.

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And they said to her “Oh,
we threw it in the trash.”

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And at that moment,
my heart just sank.

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And out of all the things that
I had experienced and I had

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been through, for me, I think
that have to be the lowest point

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for me in my life
to hear a part of me,

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my baby, you know, was just
thrown in the trash like

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it was nothing.

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I was 25 on
this picture. Very young me.

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My mother was in and out of
jail during my childhood,

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and by the time I got to middle
school, high school, she had

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developed a drug dependency and
I was pretty much responsible

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for caring for my
brother and myself.

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I have two sons.
Because of my own upbringing,

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it was always kind of important
to me to do things

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differently for them.

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I was always there
and involved.

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They were 14 and
16 when I left.

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After the miscarriage, they took
me back to the facility and I

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was placed in solitary
confinement, that they term,

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quote-unquote
medical observation.

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[MUSIC]

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Going from the
trauma and pain and

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the mental anguish of losing my
baby to now being

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placed in solitary.

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My thoughts were these people
are trying to destroy me.

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I had to hold on to who I was,
and my sons, they were like my

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main source of motivation.

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And that\'s what I had to keep
constantly reminding myself.

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That I got to make
it through this because they\'re

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depending on me.

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[MUSIC /
CHAINS BREAKING]

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[MUSIC]

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[BIRDS CHIRPING]

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Feel like I\'m
dreaming right now.

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Since 2012, I have lived
with friends, I have

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I have lived in hotels.

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It\'s been a long journey to get
back to owning my own home.

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So down here is considered like
an in-law suite, which is gonna be

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actually perfect for when
I house the ladies that return

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home from prison because that\'s
the ultimate plan

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for this place.

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So this is the beginning.

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And this is what I
have been waiting to do

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to walk barefoot in my own home.

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When I first came home,
I wanted everything

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to just disappear.

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There\'s a lot of shame,
a lot of guilt, a lot

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of embarrassment, all wrapped
up into failure.

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I wanted to forget about that and
just put my life back together

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and move forward.

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However, I couldn\'t

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I tried.

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But,

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something would always trigger
me to think about my baby and

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just to think that there were
gonna be other women coming

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behind me that were gonna
have to go through the same

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things that I went through.
Things that just weren\'t right.

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So I knew something had
to be done.

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[TYPING]

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I started a petition with
Change.org to stop shackling of

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women in federal prison.

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Good morning, everybody, I thank
you for coming out.

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We have an active bill here
It\'s HB 345 and it would stop shackling.

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And when I started this work,
I had no experience or anything

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dealing with politics, period.

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[MUSIC]

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Who has lobbied before?

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So the way it works
in Georgia, the easiest way to

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get in touch with your
representatives is what\'s

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called \"on the ropes.\"

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And it\'s just absolute chaos.

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[BELL RINGING,
CROWD AMBIENCE]

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The representative
is not available.

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OK, thank you.

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So she\'s not in there.

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When they come out, be ready.

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Speak from the heart and just
make sure that they hear you.

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We know as individual people
that personal stories are

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what change lives.

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Chairwoman Cooper.

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I see her. I\'m gonna try to catch her.

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We knew we were going to have
to get Republican support.

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And my strategy for doing that
was I introduced myself to

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Chairwoman Sharon Cooper.

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I told her my story and she
told me not only would

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she support, she would
host the bill.

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- Pam Winn spent five years
in prison, never imagining

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she\'d be lobbying members of
Congress in the years

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after her release.

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I felt like the least that I
could do is to fight and try

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and do something.

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I welcome everyone
to our briefing on

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women in prison seeking
justice behind bars.

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And today I speak on behalf of
the invisible women. And I call

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them the invisible women
because no one wants to talk

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about the harm that is
done to us.

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- Pamela Winn became the
face of the anti-shackle

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movement in Georgia.

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[CLAPPING]

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Miss Pam, you took your pain
and it turned into passion.

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Everything in the prison is set
up for the men. The --

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the prison was created for
the men.

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I could keep going on and on
about what we face as women on

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the inside that people just
don\'t even think about.

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I can\'t thank you enough for
your heroism. Turning your

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wounds into justice action.

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It\'s happening. I can\'t believe it.
Awesome,

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The update is HB 345 has made
it to Rules Committee today

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to be voted on.

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I had no plan to ever
tell my own personal story and

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definitely not repeat my story
over and over again.

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We\'re back.

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We are. At the White House.

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Now I tell it everywhere
and unapologetically.

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Even though it hurts,

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but what I tell myself is that
it\'s necessary because what I

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know from my own personal
experience is the price

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that we pay,

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it highly exceeds
the sentence, and it far

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exceeds the crime.
And that has to stop.

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[MUSIC]

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[ORNAMENT JINGLING]

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[MUSIC]

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The only thing, the only thing
that I don\'t have over there...

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Wide awake today.
And just woke up from a long nap.

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Say I might be
big trouble, but I\'m gonna

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be good trouble. Sweet trouble.