New Yorker of the Week:
Ivy Woolf Turk leaves no woman behind
For anyone familiar with the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black,” the story of Ivy Woolf Turk might sound vaguely familiar.
The Netflix series focused on an upper middle class white woman who finds herself plunged into the unsavory world of a women’s prison following her arrest on drug trafficking charges.
For Woolf Turk, who found herself sentenced to five years in Danbury Federal Prison following her arrest for charges related to a $27 million Ponzi scheme and mortgage fraud in 2009, she says that the reality of women in prison is far worse than the streaming series could ever reveal.
“I had lost my home, my reputation, friends … everything just blew-up in my life,” says Woolf Turk, who previously worked as a New York City real estate developer.
Among the dark details of her time in prison included spending days in a 7×7 cell, enduring time in solitary confinement, as well as being subjected to strip searches and similar harsh treatments.
“My experience was shocking. It was something that no dog should have to go through. Prisons are not made for women,” she says, adding that possibly the worst thing to happen was losing her place in her family and severely straining relationships with her kids.
“I take responsibility for what I did … I knew something illegal was happening, but I didn’t know the extent of what was going on.”
While in prison though, one of the many things she learned was there was no rehabilitation or counseling to help women deal with traumas.
But, undeterred despite her own circumstances, Woolf Turk wanted to help other women.
Among her various jobs in prison, she worked construction and eventually became an English teacher, teaching other inmates.
She soon began to formulate how she would later help women coming back out after prison.
“I applied for grants from the dept. of education to teach yoga, meditation, journaling and other courses to help women,” she says, adding she wanted to “pay it forward.”
To read the full article in The Villager, click here.