Behind the Lens: Out of Prison, Into a Home of Her Own

“It’s not the similarity to the prison cell that I’m trying to highlight, but the contrast,” photographer Sara Bennett told the social journalism publication Medium. “They all have items on display that would have been contraband in prison. … Now these bedrooms are their own.”

Bennett, who worked for 30 years as a criminal defense attorney in New York, was talking about “The Bedroom Project,” a collection of photographs of women released after serving 15 to 35 years at a maximum security prison. Bennett photographed the women in their bedrooms as a way of humanizing them, as well as protesting long prison sentences and arbitrary parole denials.

Tracy, who is shown above, served 24 years in prison. Today, she has her own apartment in Jamaica, N.Y.