Kwaneta Harris

We Can't Wait: Why Incarcerated Women Need You to Join the Fight for Abolition Remarks for the Incarcerated Womxn's Clemency & Support Project (IWCSP)

"My name is Kwaneta Harris, and I’m writing this from inside a cage. Not a cell. A cage." For the Incarcerated Womxn's Clemency & Solidarity Project, Kwaneta prepared this urgent speech about why incarcerated women need YOU to join the fight for abolition: kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/we-cant-wa...

The True Harms of True Crime: Snapped by Leigh Goodmark, Kim Hricko, and Kwaneta Harris

For The Culture We Deserve, Kwaneta contributed to an article about SNAPPED and how true-crime shows sensationalize real victims. theculturewedeserve.substack.com/p/the-true-h...

The Harm We Never Name I watch the news through scratched plexiglass in the common room, where eighty women crowd around a television mounted too high on the wall.

"The survivors exist only as props in someone else's story, unnamed shadows that flit across the screen just long enough to justify the voyeurism." Kwaneta interrogates how the media neglects victims in her latest piece on Substack: kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/the-harm-w...

The True Harms of True Crime: Snapped by Leigh Goodmark, Kim Hricko, and Kwaneta Harris

As part of our continuing series of articles on how true crime harms criminalized survivors, Kim Hricko, @kwanetaharris.bsky.social and I published this piece on Snapped on The Culture We Deserve: theculturewedeserve.substack.com/p/the-true-h...

“I was raised in Detroit, baptized in Black history. Entering a Texas prison was a cultural collision. The ignorance wasn’t accidental. It was manufactured, systemic, deliberate... Writing became my resistance.“ @kwanetaharris.bsky.social

How Prisons Turn Traumatized Women Into Unpaid Crisis Workers – Scalawag Why is an incarcerated woman with her own trauma and a life sentence being forced to perform crisis intervention without training, support, or compensation?

"The chair where Lynne sits is both her watchtower and her cage... But the guards who are paid to do this work remain behind thick glass, their attention divided between gossip and cold coffee."

The alarming reality of being a "life coach" behind bars, by @kwanetaharris.bsky.social:

Incarcerated Women Featured in True Crime Media Face Flood of Sexual Harassment Incarcerated women are being made involuntary performers in a spectacle that attracts men who dehumanize them.

Kim Hricko, @kwanetaharris.bsky.social, and I recently published an article on how true crime media harms criminalized survivors. Here's another facet of that harm: true crime exposes incarcerated women to men seeking to sexually exploit them. @truthout.org truthout.org/articles/inc...

Two-Tiered System: Racial Disparities The concrete walls and steel bars may be the same for everyone, but make no mistake.

"I’ve watched it play out day after day, how privilege walks these halls alongside oppression, how mercy and cruelty are doled out based on nothing more than the color of one’s skin." Read Kwaneta's latest on Substack: kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/racial-dis...

How Prisons Turn Traumatized Women Into Unpaid Crisis Workers – Scalawag Why is an incarcerated woman with her own trauma and a life sentence being forced to perform crisis intervention without training, support, or compensation?

"Why is an incarcerated woman with her own trauma and a life sentence being forced to perform crisis intervention without training, without support, without even basic compensation?" Read Kwaneta's latest for Scalawag: scalawagmagazine.org/2026/02/how-...

Menopause in Prison Is a Public Health Crisis We’re Ignoring Speaking from a Texas prison, journalist Kwaneta Harris reveals how menopause is neglected and punished for women in jail.

Speaking from a Texas prison, journalist @kwanetaharris.bsky.social reveals how menopause is neglected and punished for those living under state control.
msmagazine.com/2026/02/10/w...

For Many Incarcerated Women, the State Is Their Abuser Let me tell you what it's like to live in state-sanctioned, gender-based violence.  In prison, we wake up when male guards tell us to. We wear what they tell us to wear. We eat what they give us, whe...

"When we accept that certain women can be abused because of their past actions, we fundamentally undermine the belief that gender-based violence is wrong."

From @kwanetaharris.bsky.social @theflytrapmedia.com:

The Impossible Made Real – Spectre Journal Kwaneta Harris interviews Uhuru Rowe about his experience since being released from prison after thirty-one years behind bars.

"[Y]our experience on the inside don’t stay behind at the prison gates. It burrows into your nervous system." Kwaneta interviewed formerly incarcerated writer Uhuru Rowe for Spectre Journal: spectrejournal.com/the-impossib...

Frozen Justice Through my semi-frozen window, I watch the outside workers slipping across ice-covered snow, spreading red dirt from plastic bags like confetti on a death march.

"We stand in line outside for medication dispensing and commissary purchases, our breath crystallizing in front of our faces while our feet go numb." Read Kwaneta's latest on Substack: kwanetaharris.substack.com/p/frozen-jus...

Ain't We Women, Too? For many incarcerated women, the state is their abuser, but the gender-based violence we experience behind bars goes ignored.

“For women in prison, one abuser is replaced with another. The U.S. calls this ‘justice.’” Read Kwaneta’s latest in @theflytrapmedia.com www.theflytrapmedia.com/aint-we-wome...

Art by Selvyn Tillett Toxic Shock Syndrome: Our Risks and Our Rights By Kwaneta Harris watch them every month, huddled in the comers of their cells, meticulously rolling state-issued pads into makeshift tampons. My friends know it's risky, but what choice do they have? Texas prisons issue a handful of pads and five tampons per month. They don't provide instructional pamphlets, because the state deems the images too sexually explicit. For women forced to work without pay, purchasing additional supplies from the commissary is nearly impossible, even now that they've finally started offering multi-packs instead of just super-sized ones. Texas isn't the only state failing to provide adequate pads and tampons to incarcerated people. While the First Step Act, signed into law in 2018, requires federal prisons to provide free menstrual (period-related) supplies, it does not apply to state prisons or local jails. With women making up roughly 10% of the U.S. prison and jail population, DOC budgets primarily focus on men (and on cisgender men in particular). DOC directors and budgetary decision-makers, moreover, are often men-men who I'd prefer to believe are simply ignorant about the needs of women, transgender men, and nonbinary people who menstruate. 4 Prison Health News

"You gotta roll it tight," Jazz explains, demonstrating her technique. "Otherwise," she continues, "it falls apart inside you." I want to tell her about the dangers, but I know the alternative is bleeding through her clothes while working, a humiliation none of us should have to endure. What my friends don't realize is that they're risking their lives. Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), a rare but potentially fatal condition, lurks in these improvised solutions. Anything placed in the vagina can create an ideal breeding ground for bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus (often called "staph"), Streptococcus pyogenes, and Clostridium sordellii. When these bacteria release toxins into the bloodstream, they can cause TSS. The risk increases when an item is left in too long because, for example, you're waiting for a guard to bring you more supplies. Young menstruating people between 15 and 25 vears old are at highest risk for menstrual TSS. making our teenage population particularly vulner-ble. The CDC reports that while menstrual TS! ases have decreased since the 1980s due t changes in tampon manufacturing, regulations, and awareness, mortality rates still hover around 5% to 8%. In prison, where medical care is often delayed or denied, these odds become even more frightening. The symptoms of TSS appear suddenly and dra-matically. They include: • High fever (102°F or higher) Sunburn-like rash • Muscle aches • Vomiting and/or diarrhea Confusion Seizures • Low blood pressure Without immediate medical attention, TSS can progress to organ failure within 24 to 48 hours. Treatment requires hospitalization, intensive antibiotics, and supportive care for affected organs. Even with proper treatment, some survivors face long-term health complications. The cruel irony? This risk is preventable by using proper menstrual supplies accoitel guidelines and by changing them frequently. Tampons that come with safety instructions and adequate pads should be a basic human right, not a luxury. Inst…

Read Kwaneta’s contribution to the latest edition of @prisonhealthnews.bsky.social titled “Toxic Shock Syndrome: Our Risks and Our Rights”.

They retaliate. I keep fighting.
David CAN beat Goliath. Documentation is your slingshot. Persistence is your stone.
I won't stop standing up. I won't stop speaking up.
#PrisonAbolitionNow #TexasPrisons
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They reported it. The policy was denied, then reversed.
My reporting on heat-related deaths? AC got installed in solitary.
My reporting on staff abuse against incarcerated women? Policy changed: now equal gender staffing in our most vulnerable units.
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They said it couldn't be done. When I told media outlets that TDCJ stripped us of all clothing in solitary, forcing us to wear only gowns like we were living the Handmaid's Tale, no one believed me.
So I gathered documentation and reached out to Texas Public Radio.
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Text: "Soon, my cell was like a walk-in freezer. I kept checking if I could see my breath. I taped cardboard across the vent using sanitary pads and propped my travel-sized blow dryer on the high setting in my toilet hole roll as a portable heater." -Kwaneta Harris, Incarcerated writer in Texas

Just read this one account from incarcerated writer @kwanetaharris.bsky.social. No one should have to suffer such cruel conditions.

prismreports.org/2024/04/01/i...

‘It never warms up’: Surviving extreme cold in Texas prisons Despite Texas’ surplus budget, the state’s most vulnerable residents are at the greatest risk of extreme weather from climate change

What is extreme cold like in prison?

"My cell was like a walk-in freezer... I taped cardboard across the vent using sanitary pads and propped my travel-sized blow dryer on the high setting in my toilet hole roll as a portable heater"

By @kwanetaharris.bsky.social:

A Letter from Dr. King In recognition of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Kwaneta imagines how Dr. King would react to the state of his legacy—and his movement

In recognition of MLK Day, EA writer @kwanetaharris.bsky.social imagines how Dr. King would react to the state of his legacy and the movement he helped lead.

The movement wasn't just about holding hands and singing "Amazing Grace." We disrupted. We shut things down. We made it impossible to proceed with the status quo."

Read the rest of the letter here: open.substack.com/pub/kwanetah...

the very movement I led.

Let me be clear about who I was. While I didn't personally carry a weapon, I was constantly surrounded by armed security. Even Rosa Parks was a gun owner. We aren't passive souls merely asking politely for our rights. Ask anyone who knew me, I had a temper.
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Glenn Beck and the Tea Party brazenly claim to be the inheritors of my mantle. Corporate America uses my image to sell trucks. Even more disturbing, Republican politicians invoke my name to oppose teaching about racism in schools, using my own words to effectively limit education about
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arrogant. The FBI considered me the most dangerous man in America. Now, in 2026, I'm reduced to a dream speech and everyone claims to have marched with me.

The cruel irony does not escape me when I see far-right figures quote my words to dismantle the very protections we bled for.
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wanted everyone to get along."

Let me remind you of some inconvenient truths: Before my assassination, only one in three Americans viewed me favorably. I was labeled a communist, a troublemaker, and a threat to the American way of life. TIME magazine criticized me as self-important and
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everything I fought for. Dr. Cornel West noted that "The sanitization of Martin Luther King Jr's legacy is one of the most successful propaganda campaigns in America history." Dr. Peniel Joseph accurately observed that "We have turned King into a Civil Rights Santa Claus, someone who simply
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A letter from Dr. King, written by Kwaneta Harris 🧵:

"My Dearest America,
Why are people allowing folks to co-opt my legacy? I write this letter with profound disappointment and righteous anger at how my words and work have been twisted to serve agendas that stand in direct opposition to
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“Designed to Break You:” Two Incarcerated Writers on the Heavy Toll of Solitary Confinement The authors of a new book on solitary answer your questions about their experiences with isolation and the movement to end the torturous practice.

"The system uses isolation as its ultimate weapon of control... they wield it against anyone who dares to maintain their dignity or fight for basic human rights"

Incarcerated writers @kwanetaharris.bsky.social & @chriswblackwell.bsky.social on the torturous reality of solitary:

When Assata's Heart Finally Stopped Don't cry for her. She died with wind on her face, with the memory of sand between her toes, with the taste of fruit she chose herself, with doors she could walk through whenever her body told her to ...

Read Kwaneta's latest, an ode to Assata Shakur and the many women who never see freedom. open.substack.com/pub/kwanetah...