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JT has announced a “No Bars Reform” mission to help formerly incarcerated women successfully integrate back into society after prison.
According to the official website, the organization will provide such resources as housing, employment, help with substance abuse, and therapy.
The 30-year-old spent nearly two years in a Florida prison herself before being released to a halfway house in 2020.
“(Since her release), JT has vowed to use her voice and platform to help other incarcerated women rehabilitate into society by assisting with resources such as therapy, job placement, social services, and housing,” the website states.
The mission was launched in tandem with JT’s newest single — her first since 2019 — titled “No Bars.”
“Free my real b****s, Corrlink and J-Pay (Free my b****s) / You gon’ be home, f*** what the judge say / I’m lowkey, b****s f*** with my anxiety / I’m prayed up, and I’m waitin’ on my rivalry,” some of the lyrics read.
Between 1980 and 2021, the amount of incarcerated women spiked by more than 525 percent, the website claims, citing The Sentencing Project.
The female incarcerated population stands over six times higher now than in 1980.
In 1980, there was a total of 26,326 women in jail or prison. Meanwhile, in 2021, that number jumped to 168,449, according to the project.
2020 was the lone outlier, due to correctional facilities downsizing over the COVID-19 pandemic. However, that trend immediately reversed a year later, increasing 10 percent in 2021.
Over half (exactly 58 percent) of imprisoned women in state prisons have a child under the age of 18, the project reports.
And while there are still many more men in prison than women, the growth rate for female imprisonment is double that of men since 1980.
There are approximately 976,000 women under the supervision of the criminal justice system, meaning incarcerated, living in a halfway house, on parole, or on probation, per the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
