Meet the Chairman

Kendra Drysdale

Hi my name is Kendra Drysdale and I am the founder of Daretobfree.org

I was released from FCI Dublin Federal Bureau of Prisons the same week it was closed after a federal Judge declared it a 'disfunctional mess' and it became nationally known as the 'rape club'.

I have since been working with the California Coalition for Women’s Prisons and the Dublin Solidarity Coalition to advocate for the sexual assault victims and all inmates that have been transferred all around the country since the closure. I have spoken to multiple different press organizations including KTVU about the horrific and traumatic experiences I went through while incarcerated in 3 different federal institutions. I also spoke about the severe and extremely egregious retaliation that I experienced for reporting it to the Department of Justice and then testifying against Dublin staff.

I also shared my testimony with congressional staff members on multiple occasions and we are doing what we can to force oversight and making some progress. We are awaiting an announcement of a judiciary hearing soon.

My goal is to create a space where we can unite to help provide the peer support and resources needed to recover, to help one another reunite with friends and family members they may have lost due to addiction, mental illness, or incarceration, and also to collaborate in our advocacy to bring about change so we can reach a wider audience and bring more awareness.

I am extremely passionate about forcing the justice system and the Bureau of prisons to make drastic changes within their system, for both men and women, including but not limited to stopping the ongoing sexual, physical, and emotional assaults that occur daily. This is only one of a laundry list of other changes that I will not stop fighting for.

• Creating a system where there is no possibility of retaliation for reporting staff misconduct of any kind.

• Provide trauma informed programming and rehabilitation that is led by licensed practitioners and drug counselors, and that actually works.

• Create a peer specialist training program so that one inmate can help another to find the pathway to get and stay clean and sober.

• Breakdown and rebuild current mental health and medical care foundations because they are drastically failing the entire federal prison population

• Help all victims of sexual assault, staff misconduct and retaliation file and grant compassionate release.

• Create a system of better up to date job skills and career training, to include the necessary technological training so that when ready for release they know who they are, what they want to do, and have a clear pathway and foundational skills to get there.

• Better re-entry programming and planning which helps to establish all necessary resources to ensure a successful transition.

• Demand that they abide by the First Step Act and 2nd Chance Laws.

• Oversight into ALL of these things and a system which proves measures of success and failure.

• Oversight into financial management and distribution of funds within each prison

• Ensure accountability of all staff to include executive staff and union management

  I hope you will consider joining us in our fight!