It's about strip searches and cell searches and a life of violations and indignities that only a woman who’s been there could ever comprehend

It's about not being able to attend a loved one’s funeral because no one could get the money up; and the women who have died alone whose family didn't get to say goodbye, or maybe they didn't have anyone to claim the body

The mothers who cried for their daughters in prison and the prison mothers who cried for her children on the street; and every child who’s already on the track to the state penitentiary, or can't understand why mommy can't come home

For every woman who lives life to the fullest in spite of everything and every woman who discovered her intellect in her cell

The women who work in the prison factory for next to nothing and send the money home to their family

The women who have lost contact with a husband, wife, friend or lover while inside; or had ones that never came to see them

For all the letters sent that have never been answered

Every woman who has ever watched the sunrise through the bars or struggled to see the moon through the floodlights

For every woman who has been too cold, too hot, too wet, too thirsty or too hungry and there was nothing to be done about it

Prison soap, and pressed wool blankets, disinfectant, body odor, sheets too short and mattresses too thin

For every woman who’s inside trying to do the right thing on the outside and for every woman who’s been doing the right thing since she got arrested

For women junkies who are choosing to die on their feet trying to keep the bridges away

For every woman who went crazy inside a cell in lockup who gave up

For every woman prisoners dreams still waiting to be fulfilled

My fair ladies, these are the bridges we must cross

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