Pamela Winn
| Pamela Winn | |
| Nationality | American |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Criminal justice reform advocate, former registered nurse |
| Known for | Founder and president of RestoreHER US.America |
| Education | Spelman College; Emory University; Georgia State University; Harvard Kennedy School |
| Website | restoreher.us |
Pamela Winn is an American criminal justice reform advocate from Atlanta, Georgia, who is the founder and president of RestoreHER US.America, a policy-advocacy and reentry organization led by and for justice-involved women.[1][2][3] A Soros Justice Fellow and Forbes 50 Over 50 honoree, she is described as "The Face of Dignity For Incarcerated Women."[1][3]
A former registered nurse who spent more than a decade specializing in women's health, Winn served a 78-month federal sentence for a white-collar offense that began while she was pregnant.[1] While incarcerated she was shackled, suffered a fall that caused a miscarriage, and was then placed in solitary confinement — experiences that shaped her subsequent advocacy for incarcerated women.[1]
Career
Nursing
Winn worked for more than ten years as a registered nurse specializing in women's health.[1] Her nursing license was revoked during her incarceration.[1]
RestoreHER US.America
Winn founded RestoreHER US.America, a Georgia-based policy-advocacy reentry organization founded, led by, and for justice-involved women of color, whose mission focuses on ending mass criminalization, incarceration, and prison birth in the South, nationally, and globally.[1][2][4] The organization's methodology references the United Nations Bangkok Rules and Tokyo Rules on the treatment of women prisoners.[4] Winn also created the Dignity LeadHERship Alliance.[1]
Legislative advocacy
Under Winn's leadership, RestoreHER's policy work has included the unanimous passage of Georgia's HB 345 (the DIGNITY For Incarcerated Women Act) and SB 105 (probation reform), the Women's CARE Act in Colorado, dignity legislation in 25 states, and women's language in H.R. 5682, the bill that became the First Step Act.[1] She consulted on the Pregnant Women In Custody Act introduced by Representative Karen Bass, and co-developed a Bill of Rights for Incarcerated Pregnant People through a national advisory board on shackling.[1] Winn delivered testimony to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and the United Nations, and was invited to the White House's first Prison Reform Summit.[2][1] A Change.org petition she initiated gathered approximately 200,000 signatures and was endorsed by Senator Cory Booker.[1]
Other affiliations
Winn is a co-founder and board president of the Georgia Coalition of Higher Education in Prison and a co-founder and former board president of the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network.[1] She serves as a peer reviewer for the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, a commissioner on the Women's Justice Commission, and an elected lifelong member of the Council on Criminal Justice.[1] She was the 2023–24 scholar-in-residence in the Andrew Young Center Global Leaders Program at Morehouse College.[1]
Honors and recognition
Winn was named to the Forbes 50 Over 50 Impact list in 2021 and is a Soros Justice Fellow.[1][3] She received the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023, the AJFO Power of One Award in 2021, and the Joseph and Evelyn Lowery Institute Change Agent Award in 2022.[1] The short film WINN, about her story, won the 2023 PBS Short Film Festival, the Atlanta Film Festival REEL SOUTH Short Award, and the Justice On Trial Film Festival Best Short award.[1] Her fellowships include JustLeadershipUSA Leading with Conviction (2017) and the Columbia University Women's Transcending Collective Leadership Institute (2021).[1]
Related biographies
- Tanya Pierce — Founder of Life Unbolted
- Jeff Grant — Attorney, Minister & Support Group Founder
- Amy K. Nelson — Lawyer
- Louis L. Reed — Criminal Justice Reform Advocate
- Adam Bentley Clausen — Criminal Justice Reform Advocate
- Dickie Scruggs — Trial Lawyer & Second-Chance Advocate
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 "LeadHERship". RestoreHER US.America. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "About Us". RestoreHER US.America. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Pamela Winn". White Collar Conference. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "RestoreHER US.America". RestoreHER US.America. Retrieved 2026-09-29.