Timeline

Police Matrons Bill is signed into law, after decades of ceaseless lobbying by WPA, to address rampant abuse of incarcerated women.

Abby Hopper Gibbons volunteers as a nurse for the Union Army during the American Civil War. “Our regular supplies have been somewhat diminished the past year by the fact that the necessities of our military hospitals force the stream of charity into one channel.” – 1862 Annual Report

WPA opens the nation’s first halfway house for girls and women released from prison.

Abby Hopper Gibbons, a fervent abolitionist, establishes the female department of the Prison Association. WPA becomes the first systems-involved women’s rights organization. “I have seen with my own eyes, and have heard with my own ears, what they are subjected to; and I know of a truth there are abuses and outrages in all of…