Fun-Raiser April 2, 2026
Please join us for our Fun-Raiser at Novel Book Bar
We’d love to invite you to join us for a special evening of community, creativity, and celebration.
Reentry Sisters Fundraiser
Thursday, April 2 | 6:00–8:00 pm
Novel Book Bar, Portland
We’re bringing together poets, storytellers, musicians, and community members for a night that uplifts the voices and journeys of justice-impacted women. We’re honored to be joined by Maine writers, including Poet Laureate Maya Williams, along with performances from our own community.
This will be an evening filled with connection, reflection, and joy — and we hope you’ll be part of it.
If you’re able, we also invite you to donate to support the Reentry Sisters Education Initiative. Your support helps women returning from incarceration access college, build stability, and step into leadership in their families and communities.
Together, we’ve already raised $30,900 — 88% of our $35,000 goal. It’s a powerful reflection of what’s possible when our community shows up for women in this way. We’re so close, and we’d love for you to be part of getting us to the finish line.
Contact: Linda Small reentrysistersmaine@gmail.com
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Boston Globe Feature
Reentry Sisters Education Initiative
‘I feel supported the first time
in my life: Maine group provides
opportunity for formerly
incarcerated women
Read the full article here.
Press Release
Reentry Sisters Education Initiative
Reentry Sisters Receives $150,000 Grant from Sunshine Lady Foundation to Launch Education Initiative for Formerly Incarcerated Women
Portland, ME – June 1, 2025 – Reentry Sisters, a Maine-based non-profit organization dedicated to supporting women transitioning from incarceration, is proud to announce it has received a $150,000 grant from the Sunshine Lady Foundation. This transformative funding will be used to implement the Reentry Sisters Education Initiative, a program to remove barriers to education for women who have transitioned back to their communities, offering access to academic advising, career counseling, tuition support, and mentorship. The initiative reflects Reentry Sisters’ mission to empower women with the tools they need to rebuild their lives, achieve economic independence, and reduce recidivism.
"We are very grateful to the Sunshine Lady Foundation for recognizing the need to support justice-impacted women in Maine. While we currently offer bridges to services, mentoring, and community connection services, this grant will expand our work to include a dispersed educational model focused on college persistence and retention,” said founder and Executive Director, Linda Small, of Reentry Sisters. Small founded Reentry Sisters in 2022 to serve incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated women across Maine.
Education is a powerful tool for transformation, and this grant will allow us to expand our services and help more women create new pathways to success.
The Sunshine Lady Foundation was founded in 1996 by Doris Buffett to support higher education in prison and reentry programs. Buffett’s Foundation has supported Maine in the past when it funded the first college program inside the Maine State Prison.
For more information about the Reentry Sisters Education Initiative or to support their work, visit reentrysisters.org or contact [press contact information].
Contact: Linda Small reentrysistersmaine@gmail.com
Events
Beyond the Bars Conference - Maine
October 2025
University of Southern Maine (USM), Portland, Maine
This 3-day event began with a day inside the Maine State Prison showcasing the resilience and educational achievements of those currently incarcerated. We held our 4th annual Abolition Night, an evening of art and resistance by those directly impacted by our carceral system.
On day two, Reentry Sisters held the "Freedom Isn't Free" reentry workshop during the conference. We offered that being released from incarceration into homelessness, unhealed trauma, and endless surveillance doesn't equal equity or freedom. Our workshop included discussions on the current state of women and gender-expansive people's incarceration rates, reentry services, the global anti-gender movement, a reentry role play, collective problem-solving breakout sessions, and a recap of last year's data walk on probation, poverty, and sentencing.
Events
Beyond the Bars Conference -NY
March 2025
Columbia University, New York
Reentry Sisters is presenting with the Opportunity Scholars a workshop on "Pathways to Freedom: A Holistic Approach to Student Success for Justice-Impacted Scholars." We share our model for success strategies of integrating academic achievement with wellness through mental health resources and support, career readiness programs, personal development opportunities, and, most important, a strong community, ensuring that justice-impacted students have the tools to excel beyond the classroom.
March 2024
Columbia University, New York r
Reentry Sisters partnered with the Center for Effective Public Policy to discuss Integrating Gender Justice Strategies Within and Beyond the Walls Center for Justice at Columbia University's Beyond the Bars Conference in NYC! Our session explored and analyzed tensions within collective movements to advance change within and outside of carceral spaces.
Public Awareness Through Community Performance
FREEDOM & CAPTIVITY: It's Hard to Talk About
Thank you, Catherine Besteman, Katrina Hoop, Ellen Taylor, Nicole Lund, Karter Reed, Brandon Brown, and Cuba Jackson. "It's Hard to Talk About: Stories of Incarceration in Maine" is a 2025-2026 performance project and archive featuring narratives from formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. It bridges the "inside" and "outside" to challenge oversimplified public narratives about crime, punishment, and the systemic, deeply emotional, and often hidden,, realities of captivity.
Highlight Tour Video
Full Performance Video
Thank you, Catherine Besteman, Katrina Hoop, Ellen Taylor, Nicole Lund, Karter Reed, Brandon Brown, and Cuba Jackson.
Events
State of Women's Incarceration Forum
May 17, 2024
University of Southern Maine (USM), Portland, Maine
Reentry Sisters, the National Council, Women Transcending, and the Opportunity Scholars, with the generous support of the Bingham Project at USM, offer a forum by justice-impacted women to strategize; share resources; and create action plans for legislative change, the use of clemency laws and early release, reentry services for women, and ending the incarceration of women and girls.
We invite activists, advocates, and allies to join us for an immersive and interdisciplinary approach that brings together leaders from across multiple states to end mass incarceration for women and girls.
former Maine State Representative,
former Mayor of Hallowell, Maine,
and owner of C Warren Consulting
Interviews
Journey Magazine
Program Manager, MacKenzie Kelley is on the cover of Journey magazine.
Bangor Daily News Op-ed - Rehabilitation versus punishment: How American prisons contribute to recidivism by Megan Roberts mentions Reentry Sisters as a community resource helping women transition. https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/07/09/opinion/opinion-contributor/rehabilitation-versus-punishment-american-prisons-recidivism-joam40zk0w/
Recover Loud! with Mackenzie Kelley
Community Voices for Change (WMPG) radio talk show: Interview with Mackenzie Kelley and Linda Small of Reentry Sisters May 2024 https://www.wmpg.org/archive-player/?show_key=mon1300&archive_key=0
and a second episode with Linda Small and Brandon Brown in June 2023 (
Mackenzie Kelley, Maine Morning Star. "A Failure of the system': Over 700 People have died on probation in Maine since 2013" (March 4, 2024)
Colby Justice Think Tank presented their policy papers at National Alliance of Higher Education in Prison Conference in Atlanta and at the Goldfarb Center at Colby College
George Mason University Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution - Hope, Renewal, & Rights mini-conference. Guest speakers Linda Small and Reentry Sister Victoria Scott.
Jobs for the Future Blog on gender inequities in prison education written by Linda with the help of many Reentry Sisters.
Left photo: Linda Small at the 6th Annual Second Chance Pell discussing the challenges and possibilities of prison education. Ved Price, Executive Director of the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison (2nd from left) with moderator Amanda Nowak, Senior Program Associate (far right) of Vera Institute of Justice (July 2023)
Publications
Reentry Sisters
The Permanent Commission Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations report on restorative justice mentions Reentry Sisters as a resource.
Linda Small. Contributor to Supervision: On Motherhood and Surveillance, Edited by Sophie Hamacher and Jessica Hankey. MIT Press and Orbis Editions.
Linda Small (2024) The Freedom & Captivity Curriculum Project, in Higher Education and the Carceral State: Transforming Together Annie Buckley. Routledge.
Linda Small, Inside Blue, Poetry in Exchange
Chandler Dugal, Victoria Scott, Linda Small and Mark Van Sickle (January 2024) Implementing Alternative Sentencing, Community Reintegration, and Record Expungement in Maine. Colby College Think Tank.
Linda Small (March 2024) The Freedom & Captivity Curriculum Project in Higher Ed and the Carceral State: Transforming Together, Edited by Annie Buckley. Routledge.
Linda Small and Chandler Dugal (February 20, 2024) Earned Criminal Record Forgiveness Promises a Safe and Economical Second-Chance to Deserving Mainers. Bangor Daily News.
Public Awareness
2024 -2025 The American Council of Learned Societies Digital Justice Grant The ACLS Digital Justice Grants Program supports digital projects across the humanities and interpretative social sciences that critically engage with the interests and histories of people of color and other historically marginalized communities through the ethical use of digital tools and methods.
Reentry Sisters board member Catherine Besteman and executive director Linda Small are on a collaborative research team with Brandon Brown and A. Cuba Jackson.
Freedom & Captivity Archive Project: Archiving Carceral Experience
Freedom & Captivity will build a digital archive of carceral experience - the hidden stories of Maine’s incarcerated community members - and perform that archive at venues across the state. The curated archive will be housed at the Maine Memory Network, Maine Historical Society’s digital history platform, and all the material collected for the project will be archived in Colby College Library’s Digital Collections. This will be the first archival space in Maine to hold stories about incarceration, curated and sensitively contextualized by those most impacted by carcerality. By offering a platform for the voices of those previously silenced by carcerality, our project aims to shift the narrative around justice, accountability, and the need for incarceration in the wake of harm.
Public Awareness
2024 -2025 The National Endowment for the Humanities announces $37.5 Million for 240 Humanities Projects Nationwide.
eentry Sisters board member Catherine Besteman and executive director Linda Small are on a collaborative research team with Bridget Conley and Brittany Arneson at the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University.
Our project, The Praxis of Care: Carceral Disruptions and Community Resistance Project, will collect stories from currently and formerly incarcerated folx, family members, volunteers, and staff about their experiences to coauthor a book that examines the experience of incarceration and caring for justice-impacted people in Maine and Massachusetts.
Freedom & Captivity event at the Speedwell Gallery
Women from the Southern Maine Women’s Reentry Center performed at the Speedwell Gallery in Portland, Maine. The “Changing the Narrative” show was part of the Freedom & Captivity project. The ensemble danced, sang, read poetry, and shared stories.
Freedom & Captivity (F&C) curricula
The Freedom & Captivity Curriculum Project created curricula based on the materials generated through the Fall 2021 collaborative, statewide public humanities Freedom & Captivity initiative which explores how to imagine an abolitionist future in Maine. The initiative included exhibitions, podcasts, film and photography projects, performances, presentations, workshops, and didactic materials, and was created with the participation of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. The curricula, structured around key humanities themes, are for college courses, discussion groups, and community classes taught by incarcerated people. Please sign up if you, your organization, or your group would like to take a free class.
Freedom & Captivity 2024 ACLS Digital Justice Development Grantee
Congratulations to the F&C family who were just awarded a 2024 ACLS Digital Justice Grant for the Freedom & Captivity
Freedom & Captivity will build a digital archive of carceral experience - the hidden stories of Maine’s incarcerated community members - and perform that archive at venues across the state. The curated archive will be housed at the Maine Memory Network, Maine Historical Society’s digital history platform, and all the material collected for the project will be archived in Colby College Library’s Digital Collections. This will be the first archival space in Maine to hold stories about incarceration, curated and sensitively contextualized by those most impacted by carcerality. By offering a platform for the voices of those previously silenced by carcerality, our project aims to shift the narrative around justice, accountability, and the need for incarceration in the wake of harm.
Abolition Night
Held annually at the The Strand Theatre in Rockland, Maine as part of the Freedom & Captivity project, justice-impacted people perform to a sold-out audience. This event is hosted in partnership with the Opportunity Scholars, Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, the University of Maine Augusta Prison Education Partnership, and Freedom & Captivity. Check out 2022's event and 2023's event!
Know Your Rights with this Free Housing Training
The Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research just released our new online self-paced training Fair Housing 101: Know Your Rights. The new training provides an overview of fair housing law, including information on rights for families with children, reasonable accommodations and modifications for persons with disabilities, special topics like criminal record screening, and the goals of fair housing. The training is free and can be completed at one’s own pace. Feel free to share! The link to register is here: https://housingcenter.thinkific.com/courses/fair-housing-101
Free Advocacy Training with Families Against Mandatory Minimums
Training materials and information on next training sessions: https://famm.org/inside-out-advocacy-training-materials/
This month, we will focus on getting educated about your case or your loved one’s case – such an important tool in your advocacy toolbox! Learn from FAMM staff and hear firsthand experiences around gathering documents and resources, and better understand what you need to best advocate for yourselves and your loved ones.