Charisse Shumate—Fighting for Our Lives

Charisse Shumate was a life term prisoner incarcerated for 16 years at the Central California Women’s Facility for defending herself against an abusive partner. A co-founder of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, she championed the cause of battered women when no one else was rallying to their support, and later stepped forward to be the lead plaintiff and prisoner spokesperson in the class action lawsuit challenging the medical neglect and abuse of women prisoners. She died of complications from sickle cell anemia, cancer and hepatitis C in 2001.

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