Jean Trounstine Archives

Jean Trounstine is an author, activist, and educator who has written extensively about the criminal legal system in America. She worked at Framingham Women’s Prison for a decade, where she directed eight plays for prisoners—resulting in her highly praised book, Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women’s Prison. Her groundbreaking work is considered the first Shakespeare program launched in the U.S. Trounstine has spoken throughout the world about women in prison, and co-founded the women’s branch of Changing Lives Through Literature (CLTL), an innovative alternative sentencing program. In 2018, she was invited to Italy and awar…