Our Story
Barbara Rhode, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist is the founder and CEO of The Red Tent Women’s Initiative, a nonprofit organization for women inmates started in 2012 in the Pinellas County Jail. Red Tent is a trauma informed program that enables women in the criminal justice system better understand the impact trauma has had on their lives and provides them with the tools to heal. Red Tent has served approximately 1,000 women and is in the process of creating a virtual class that could be incorporated in any jail or prison throughout the U.S which is the goal of the organization.
Our Landscape
By The Numbers
The effect of mass incarceration on women and girls.
750%
increase in women's incarceration between 1980 and 2019. The number of incarcerated women increased by more that 700% rising from a total of 26,378 in 1980 to 222,455 in 2019.80%
of women who will go to jail this year are mothers - including 55,000 women who are pregnant when they are admitted.1.2ML
women are currently under supervision in the criminal justice system.86%
of women in jail have been victims of sexual violence or trauma.63%
of women in state and federal prisons have been convicted of non-violent crimes. That figure jumps to 82% for women in local jails.1.9ML
women released from prisons have been convicted of non-violent crimes.281%
increase in sexual victimization reports for people in prison between 2011 and 2015. And while women represented 10% of the jail population between 2009 and 2011, they represented 67% of the victims of sexual violence.69%
of women in prison and 72% of women in jail meet the diagnostic criteria for drug dependence and abuse.Margaret Mead
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”