Done Doing Time
Hinda Schuman | Pennsylvania, United States
Photographer: Hinda Schuman
Exhibit Title: Done Doing Time
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
“On any given day, (2022) over 200,000 women are incarcerated in a US prison or jail. This represents a 700 percent increase since 1980.“
What happens when the women are released? From 2018-2022 I photographed two formally incarcerated women in Philadelphia PA. I first met Concetta and Linda in 2009 and 2010. They had spent the intervening years in and out of prisons but in 2018 they had both returned to the neighborhoods and families they knew. They had been away for years. But now they were felons. What was life like for them now?
The criminal justice system incarcerates them and with little support returns them to the same streets and issues that plagued them previously. They are left on their own to find housing and financial support. How do they walk past the available temptations? I visited and photographed both women in their homes, on the job, and on the streets. Done Doing Time is my photographic tribute to their courage, love, and frailties.
* Amy Fettig, The Sentencing Project, from the Afterword to Done Doing Time published: Daylight Books New York 2023.
Afterword by: Amy Fettig, The Sentencing Project,
Introduction by : Magdalena Solé
Concetta Harris and Linda Todd featured in the exhibit/book
Hinda Schuman,DONE DOING TIME
In the United States we send women to prison in vast numbers. Those who have been neglected and abused; those who have untreated mental illnesses; those who self-medicate to get the voices to stop. After sentences of 1 year, 5 years or more, later the doors to the prisons open and they are free. Except now, the government watches over them via parole.
In 2018, Linda had been out of prison for two months and Concetta had been out for a year. I reconnected with them after having lost touch while they were back in prison. I had initially met them 2009 & 2010 when they were serving the final year of multi-year sentences at a halfway house. They were both living in Philadelphia PA where I also live. I wanted to know what life would be like for them now after so many years in prison. Each one stated that they wereDone Doing Time.Each one wanted to get life right this time – staying off drugs, re-uniting with family, having a home that was safe, clean, and permanent.
Their courage to walk past the dealers, to re-unite with family and their strength to keep trying when the obstacles seem stacked against them has me in awe at their determination and abilities. As Concetta and Linda work towards their individual goals, they have welcomed me into their homes, shared their lives and their extended families. Linda has worked 6 or 7 days a week at food service and home care jobs. Concetta actively helps care for her two grandchildren. Both women have faced real tragedy and upheaval, but they remain true to their own hearts.
https://www.sentencingproject.org
https://www.prisonsociety.org
https://www.phillybailfund.org
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