Rhea Mallett interview, part 1, 2022-09-07

This is an oral history interview with Rhea Mallett conducted by Obden Mondésir on September 7th 2022. Rhea is the former director of the New York Correctional Association’s Women in Prison Project. In this role, she oversaw the creation of the Coalition for Women Prisoners. Obden Mondésir conducted the interview on September 7th, 2022. Rhea begins the interview by recounting how a TV program about incarceration in America sparked her interest in pursuing criminal justice reform work. Rhea then tells of her experiences at Amherst College, where she majored in Latin and met Professors that facilitated her interest in the criminal justice system. The next phase of the interview covers Rhea’s experiences in law school at Columbia. She discusses her experiences mentoring incarcerated women and working as an intern at the NAACP legal defense fund. She then discusses her first job at a law firm and her transition into criminal defense law at the Legal Aid Society of New York. Next, Rhea shares how her volunteer work on the NY State Bar Association's Corrections Committee led her into applying for and getting her “dream job” as director of The Women in Prison Project. She discusses what it was like working for the WIPP in the context of the 1990s war on drugs and the explosion of prison populations, especially among women. Finally, she speaks about the process of beginning to form the Coalition for Women Prisoners, recounting the first meeting and some of their early advocacy initiatives.