ending mass incarceration

Since Witness was founded in 2016, we have launched a series of initiatives designed to change the narrative about incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people from invisibility and victimization to empowerment through documentation, leadership training, organizing, and advocacy. 

All our initiatives are intended to make life safer for people who are incarcerated and to help people build successful lives once they are released. We focus on improving conditions of confinement through our work to end sexual violence in confinement. We have designed and are implementing a new approach to reentry. We respond to events which require immediate action, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. 

It is our conviction at Witness that mass incarceration will only be reduced and changed when the nation understands the extent of the injustice and horror of the entire criminal legal system. We believe that once a person sees the human faces of incarcerated people and hears their story, they will be more likely to support alternatives to incarceration.

about the founder and Executive Director

Evie Litwok

Evie Litwok (she/her) is a witness to mass incarceration. As the Founder and Executive Director of Witness to Mass Incarceration (Witness), her experiences with the judicial and correctional systems serve as the inspiration behind Witness’ mission, which operates to place formerly incarcerated women and LGBTQ+ people at the forefront of the movement to end mass incarceration, restore safety, dignity and respect in correctional facilities and reduce barriers to successful reentry.

Traveling to prison on the real Con Air, Litwok was incarcerated in two Federal Women’s prisons. Her unapologetic voice as not only an open lesbian, but also an advocate made her a target for irreparable consequences. While in prison she wrote an article that brought unwanted attention to the death of a fellow incarcerated woman due to lack of medical care. As a result, she was shackled and put into solitary confinement. 

Litwok walked out of prison homeless and penniless, but her advocacy continued. She is a member of formerly incarcerated-led organizations who focus on ending mass incarceration, including The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls; Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People’s Movement (FICPFM); and the National LGBT/HIV Criminal Justice Working Group, and the NYC Justice-Involved Coalition.

Litwok quickly became and is a respected speaker on the subject of mass incarceration. She introduces herself as a “Formerly Incarcerated Jewish Lesbian.” Her story has touched audiences at universities, colleges, community and LGBTQ+ centers, synagogues and other places of worship, and at the White House for their panel on LGBTQ Criminalization. 

In 2019, Litwok was designated by the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York to be included as one of the Collective, a group of ten Jewish women social entrepreneurs. In 2015, she was chosen to be part of the inaugural cohort of JustLeadershipUSA. 

Litwok has written numerous articles concerning mass incarceration, including a focus on solitary confinement, being an older person in prison, sexual harassment in prison, and surviving confinement, in addition to issues of aging and being queer in prison. These articles have been published in TheNation.com, The Forward.com and talkpoverty.org.

Litwok has an MA in Psychology from Temple University.

Our Funders

We are very thankful to our funders who help us sustain this important work! If you are interested in supporting Witness, please contact us.

National Council of Incarcerated and Formerly incarcerated Women and Girls

Dream Deferred

H.O.L.L.A

Silent Cry

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Together, we are hope.

Since the beginning, Witness to Mass Incarceration and our community of support has expanded in size, in reach, and in results, helping individuals and communities heal, expanding potential and offering possibilities which once may have seemed impossible. We bring hope to the hopeless, offering compassionate practical solutions combined with the healing power of trust, easing pain and suffering. 

At the same time, our growing community of donors and volunteers enrich their lives by knowing that they have played a vital part. It is this expansive circle that makes the difference. And together, we can do more, be more, give more. 

Going forward you can play a greater part. Volunteer, donate, join us.