Yraida Guanipa served 11 years in a federal prison in the United States as a first-time, non-violent offender who refused to plead guilty to drug conspiracy charges. She went on a hunger strike while in prison in protest over her placement in a remote prison too far for her two young sons to visit. She became a self-educated paralegal and was released to a halfway house in 2006. Yraida Guanipa developed an informational and advocacy blog – “Prison Talk Online”, continues to advocate for programs that will help to maintain the mother-child bond and now writes about her experiences as an incarcerated mother. She is available to any student and/or university that would like to do research on these subjects or to a government agency that would like to approach these topics from the perspective of someone who went through the process.
