In Conversation: All This Safety is Killing Us

@ Join us for a conversation between Aminah Elster, Jennifer James, and Carlos Martinez on the intersection of prison abolition and healthcare. In 2025 Martinez co-edited All This Safety Is Killing Us: Health Justice Beyond Prisons, Police, and Borders to which Elster and James contributed the chapter “Medical Neglect as Carceral Violence.” Aminah Elster is a Black feminist abolitionist, advocate, and researcher whose work transforms systems by centering the leadership and expertise of directly impacted people. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Unapologetically HERS (UAHERS), an organization led by formerly incarcerated women advancing healing, justice, and leadership through participatory research and professional development. Under her leadership, UAHERS launched the Participatory Action Research Leadership Program (PARLP)—a fellowship equipping people incarcerated in California women’s prisons with the tools to conduct research that informs advocacy, policy, and systems change. Aminah’s abolitionist practice is also reflected in her long-standing work with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP), where she serves as the Leadership & Resentencing Coordinator and has contributed to policy advocacy, participatory research, and the organization’s inside/outside organizing of those incarcerated in CA women’s prisons. Her work with CCWP has shaped campaigns advancing resentencing, challenging gender-based state violence, and uplifting peer-led leadership inside and outside prison walls. She is also the CEO and principal of Proximate Strategies Consulting (PSC), a community-centered strategy and research firm that partners with public systems, foundations, and organizations to co-design equitable solutions and build cultures of belonging. PSC’s Fellowship portfolio increases the reach of peer-led interventions and helps systems access the expertise of people most affected by their policies—advancing this work through participatory action research, professional development, and applied research. A certified paralegal and ICF Certified Professional Coach, Aminah is a contributing author to All This Safety Is Killing Us, where her chapter, “Medical Neglect as Carceral Violence,” exposes the violent realities of healthcare behind bars. She also co-authored the policy brief Criminal Record Stigma in the College-Educated Labor Market, which examines how record-based discrimination constrains opportunity even among credentialed job seekers. Aminah received her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley. Jennifer James is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Health and Aging, the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Bioethics program at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. James is a qualitative researcher and Black Feminist scholar whose research lies at the intersection of race, gender and health, with a specific focus on experiences of cancer and chronic illness. She uses community engaged re...