& Succeed Freedom toHeal
Tamra Oman is the statewide director of the Free Campaign for Women.The campaign is the women’s division of EX-incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO), an organization designed around policy reform and creating a justice reinvestment fund.The Free Campaign works to encourage the correctional system to invest in resources and services that position incarcerated women for success once exiting prison. It also serves to help community leaders consider investing in diversion programs. Prior to her work with the campaign, Oman was hired as the first person with lived
prison experience to return to prisons as a peer specialist. She served in that role for 12 years. In 2003, after her release from prison, she and Jerome Dillard, a co-founder of EXPO, founded Voices Beyond Bars. It was one of the first organizations in the state to address restructuring justice and creating a prison support network, speakers’ bureau, and leadership and development sessions for formerly incarcerated people. “We didn’t know what to do with our frustration and our anger and unhealed trauma,” Oman said. “I don’t even think we knew it was trauma. We just knew we didn’t want to live that way anymore. And we wanted to create something so others didn’t have to experience the same struggles that we had.” Her experience living and working in the prisons led her to see that many of the resources and programs that were offered were primarily geared toward men. “There just wasn’t a lot of conversation about the impact that has on women who are often the caregivers for their children, both before and after prison.” FindingTheir Way
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