California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) is a grassroots abolitionist organization—with members inside and outside prison—that challenges the institutional violence imposed on women, transgender people, and communities of color by the prison industrial complex (PIC). They see the struggle for racial and gender justice as central to dismantling the PIC, and they prioritize the leadership of the people, families, and communities most impacted in building this movement.
The organization wants the abolition of a prison system whose purpose is punishment, control, and the warehousing of human beings, the majority of whom are people of color and poor. They work for a society where education rather than incarceration is the priority; where investment is in jobs, not jails; where sexual violence is not tolerated; and where human rights are a reality for all people.
CCWP was founded in May 1995 after women prisoners filed a lawsuit, Shumate v. Wilson, regarding the horrible medical care that women prisoners in California receive. Founding members of CCWP were made up of women and trans prisoners, former prisoners, and supporters.