MEET THE CAST & CREW
KATHY BOUDIN
Cast Member and Director
Dr. Kathy Boudin was the Co-Director and Co-Founder at Columbia University's Center for Justice, where she developed a restorative practice program inside prisons for long-termers, and was an Adjunct Lecturer at the Columbia University School of Social Work. Following her release from prison in 2003, her projects included: founding the Coming Home Program at Mt. Sinai-St. Luke’s and working on a policy initiative to release aging people from prison (RAPP). She is editor and co-author of the book, Breaking the Walls of Silence: AIDS and Women in a NY State Maximum Security Prison. Kathy Boudin tragically passed away on May 1, 2022 during the making of this film.
CHERYL WILKINS
Cast Member and Director
Cheryl Wilkins is the Co-Director and Co-Founder at Columbia University’s Center for Justice. She is the director of Women Transcending, a board member with the Women’s Community Justice Association, a co-convener of the Justice 4 Women’s Task-Force, a senior advisor with the Women & Justice Project, and co-founder and executive team member with Women Building Up. She is the recipient of the Brian Fischer Award, Davis Putter scholarship, the Sister Mary Nerney Visionary Award, the Citizens against Recidivism Award, and the Free Her award.
AISHA X ELLIOTT
Cast Member and Director
Aisha holds a BA in Sociology from Marymount Manhattan College, and a MA in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University. She is passionate about dismantling the harmful systems that inflict injustices and violence against all. As such, she is a Researcher in Columbia University’s Justice Lab, a Co-researcher with the Women Transcending Oral History Research Project at the Center for Justice at Columbia University. Aisha is a co-founder and Board President of Women Building Up, Inc., which is a collective of racial and gender justice leaders brought together to advance the work of women and young girls, especially those impacted by incarceration. She believes that supporting women should be in the lexicon of bankable endeavors and we should take every opportunity to be that support. Aisha is a Marc Sanders Fellow and through Pedagogy of Dignity Workshops, she speaks with people interested in volunteering to teach college courses or facilitate other programs in prison.
JUDY CLARK
Cast Member
Judith Clark is the Executive Director of the Survivors Justice Project, which provides support, transportation, communication services and parent education for incarcerated women and their families. Hour Children also provides housing, counseling and reentry services for women and gender non-conforming people and their children transitioning out of incarceration. During her 38 years in prison, Judy worked with her sisters inside to create community-based programs to address the challenges they faced and their desires to grow, to take responsibility for the harm they caused, and repair their relationships with their families and communities. Working in the Bedford Hills Children’s Center, Judy helped develop programs for mothers to sustain bonds with their children and mentored new mothers living in the prison nursery.
IRIS BOWEN
Cast Member
Iris Bowen (She, her) was a licensed Social Worker at the Mt Sinai/Harlem Jack Martin Fund Center where she played a vital role in supporting individuals affected by HIV, as well as provided reentry services for formerly incarcerated people returning home from prison. With a Masters degree in Social Work from Lehman College, CUNY, Iris used her position and her experience, prioritizing social justice and advocating for those most disenfranchised and marginalized by our society. Ms. Bowen served as member of the Advisory Board for Women Building Up. Ms. Bowen passed May 16, 2026 and she is loved and missed by all of us.
DEBORAH FITZGERALD
Cast Member
Deb’s passion to help others pursue their education while incarcerated is the direct result of the compassion shown to her by mentors and friends who once reminded her that she was valuable and capable of great things. This transformative energy has since dominated Deb’s life and beliefs, and led her to give her heart to pursuing her own education while incarcerated, as well as to the students of the Marymount programs at Bedford and Taconic. Deb recently earned a Master’s in Public Administration and Criminal Justice and is reminded of those who persevered before her. Today Deb gives her heart to her work, allowing her to continue the legacy of those who began this great work by helping currently incarcerated individuals obtain their degrees and see their dreams come true.
MIGDALIA MARTINEZ
Cast Member
NAKIA WATSON
Cast Member
JAKE RATNER
Director, D.P., Editor
Jake Ratner is an award-winning filmmaker and video producer who works in an accountable relationship with directly-impacted communities to produce story-driven narratives. His short film Resilience at the Roots (2018) was awarded Best Cinematography - Documentary at the Global Impact Film Festival as well as the Audience Choice Award at the Eugene Environmental Film Festival. Jake has an MA in teaching and is an NYC public school teacher.
MICHELLE DANIEL JONES
Producer
Michelle Daniel Jones has a PhD in American Studies at New York University. She has been published widely and is the author/editor of an award-winning new book, Who Would Believe a Prisoner? Indiana Women’s Carceral Institutions, 1848–1920 (New Press 2023). She is a co-reseacher with the Women Transcending Oral History Research Project at the Center for Justice at Columbia University. In addition to her scholarship, Michelle is an essayist, playwright, editor, visual artist, and cultural strategist excavating the collateral consequences of criminal convictions for people and families directly impacted by mass incarceration. She is an activist and advocate. She serves as the Executive Director of Constructing Our Future.
LOGAN MCBRIDE
Producer
Logan McBride, PhD, is a historian of prison and the carceral state. She is a Distinguished Lecturer at Macaulay Honors College, CUNY and a co-researcher on the Women Transcending Oral History Research Project at the Center for Justice at Columbia University.
