Circle Members

Ellen works as a Senior Consultant for Women & Justice Issues Consulting, a consulting firm in Oakland, CA that focuses on issues affecting women and girls impacted by the Criminal Justice System. She founded Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC), an organization focusing on the impact of the criminal justice system on incarcerated parents, formerly incarcerated people their children, and families. She is a Senior Soros Justice Fellow (1997), a MacArthur Fellow (1998), and, as one of 1000PeaceWomen, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (2005/2008). She is co-founder of the National Network for Women in Prison, Critical Resistance, and the Criminal Justice Initiative Funding Circle. Ellen has written and spoken extensively on incarcerated parents and their children, pregnant prisoners, and the relationship between race and mass incarceration. Recently, as executive director of Insight Prison Project, she emphasized the critical importance of bringing full racial diversity to the work of restorative justice. She is a family member of formerly incarcerated people and people in recovery, a mother of two amazing young people, a former Blues Club owner, and a recent convert to yoga