Life After Life in Prison
Sara Bennett
June 15-July 17, 2016
Foreword
by Judith Clark, Inmate No. 83 G 0313
I cannot visit this extraordinary exhibit because I am incarcerated in the same maximum-security prison from which the women you are “meeting” all emerged. I have seen these images of my friends and former neighbors and I am struck by their vibrancy and openness, and the way each personality is expressed through their clothes, their bedrooms, and free-world faces. I see, too, their hard work in low-paying jobs, their limited housing options, and family and health concerns.
I look at these photos and see the life we talked about and yearned for while together inside. Their steps outward fuel my own hopes and dreams.
I look at the photos and remember that these beautiful individuals were once, like me, uniformed and numbered, strip-searched and regimented, suspected, stigmatized and humiliated as maximum-security prisoners doing time. I look at their images and remember each woman’s difficult journey of remorse for the harm she caused, her worries about family and children, and her efforts toward repair and redemption. I see the thread that connects each woman’s life before the crime and prison, her years inside and now out.
I hope that you can expand your gaze, to see both what is in front of you and what remains hidden and locked away. Behold and wonder.
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JUDITH CLARK has served 34 years of a 75-year-to-life sentence for her role as a getaway driver in a 1981 robbery in Nyack, New York, that left three people dead. She is known inside and outside prison as a respected educator and caring role model. Ms. Clark is not eligible for parole until 2056. She is seeking clemency from Governor Andrew Cuomo. For more information: www.judithclark.org.
Please visit www.lifeafterlifeinprison.com for more information on the artist.
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