About
Pamela Winn is the founder and president of RestoreHER US.America, a policy-advocacy organization led by and for justice-involved women, and a nationally recognized reform advocate whose work followed her own journey through the criminal justice system.
A Soros Justice Fellow and Forbes 50 Over 50 honoree, she joined the 2025 White Collar Conference panel on restoration through community.
Elsewhere on this story
- Pamela Winn's episode of Nightmare Success Nightmare Success episode: Pamela Winn, From Shackles to Advocacy for Women
At the White Collar Conference
Pamela Winn described what moved her from surviving to fighting, the day the language she wrote on shackling and solitary confinement passed the House as part of the First Step Act, and how dignity legislation then spread state by state. She also explained the Women's Care Act, passed in Colorado in 2023, which defers a pregnant woman's sentence until after she gives birth.
“The most impactful thing that I could think of that I could do would be to change the law to prevent the things that happened to me from happening to any other woman.”
Watch at 6:15
“No pregnant woman should be incarcerated.”
Watch at 24:44
“I call my work human rights work instead of criminal justice work.”
Watch at 25:10
Chapters
- 0:00 Drew Chapin introduces the panel
- 3:09 Pamela Winn on going from surviving to fighting
- 6:49 Gina Pendergraph on why she always picks up the phone
- 8:33 Michael Gaines on pride and asking for help
- 11:00 Building trust in a support community
- 16:58 Pamela Winn on RestoreHER and the First Step Act
- 22:06 The Women's Care Act
- 25:58 Gina Pendergraph on staying connected to people inside
- 29:55 Hopes for the next ten years
With Drew Chapin (moderator), Michael Gaines and Gina Pendergraph
Join us in fall 2027.
The fourth annual White Collar Conference is planned for fall 2027, virtual on Zoom and open to all.