The Formerly Incarcerated People’s Performance Project, FIPPP, works with people who’ve survived jails and prison to share their experiences live on stage-with first hand accounts of mass incarceration – how we got there, what goes on inside, and what happens after, illuminating the realities of surviving the world’s largest incarcerator: the United States.
In this episode, we hear from women about their experiences in prison and with the criminal justice system. Women are the fastest growing population of incarcerated people in the United States today. The rate of growth for female imprisonment has been twice as high as that of men since 1980, growing nearly 700% in the last 45 years and coinciding with the war on drugs. Female incarceration levels peaked in 2015 to 210,000 women and girls imprisoned across the US,-it then dipped during the covid pandemic to 150,000, in 2020-5 years later, but it’s back on the rise. Today there are some 190,000 women and girls incarcerated in the US. In 1980, there were only 26,000.
Women of color are disproportionately incarcerated compared to white women. And, compared to men, women are more likely to suffer incarceration for drug and property offenses and less likely to commit violent ones.
A 2023 study by Stanford Law School found that of women imprisoned in California for homicide, nearly 25% killed their abuser. And nearly all of them experienced other forms of trauma or abuse. Many still have to spend decades in prison before they’re able to parole out.
We start with Precious, who was found guilty in 2017 of manslaughter against a partner who abused her. She was released on parole in 2020.
Pamela Keane holds a drug and alcohol abuse counselor certification, and is finishing up a college degree. She’s now living on her own, After spending the first six years post release in a sober-living house. Pamela served 5 years of a 9 year sentence in an Illinois State Prison, for fraudulent activities. She was paroled in 2017.
Tylon T Boogie Sizemore works as an intensive case manager, helping people in and out of custody re-entering society. And, she does stand up. Tylon served 2 years in prison for violating her probation by unknowingly failing to pay restitution. While serving a prison sentence, Tylon experienced inadequate health care, suffering multiple emergency surgeries,and almost dying, and lost what for many women is the core experience of womanhood. The healthcare failures she experienced in prison have led to lifelong disabilities.
Often the families of incarcerated p
eople are overlooked from discussions of crime and punishment. But for every person incarcerated, an entire family is affected. Reverberations can span generations. For Pearl Louise, that includes her husband, son, and brother. Like too many black women in America, Pearl has found herself trying to maintain a family devastated by incarceration. She has performed in the Fresno Rogue Festival, SF Stage Werx, and Tell It On Tuesday at the Marsh Theater. In March 2026, she will be performing her full-length show at the Marsh Theater, Pass the Nails and Shame the Devil.
Christina Aanestad is a journalist and media maker from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her first experience with incarceration was visiting her father in jail and prison. She was first sent to juvenile hall when she was 12, and jail when she was 18. At 19 she was sent to solitary. She was in and out of jail until she was offered rehabilitation programs that helped her turn a new leaf. She’s performed on stage at The Berkeley Marsh, The Berkeley Repertory Theater and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. She’s also the recipient of the Upsurge! Caffie M. Greene Community Building Award, “for fighting and overcoming difficulties to inform community.”