Chandra Adams

Before leaving the outside world for 8 months, Chandra Adams, a talented and driven mother of three daughters, presented her eight-year-old with an abstract outline of her prison sentence. She explained that she would be going to “a place to make up for a mistake,” since “sometimes adults make bad choices, and those choices have consequences, just like your actions do.” To which her daughter astutely responded “Mommy, are you going to jail?”

Upon entering prison for the first time, Chandra expected to find herself amongst cruel and dangerous women. However, she found out that the confrontational attitudes of many incarcerated women belied their trauma. “There’s a lot of brokenness in prison,” she states matter of factly. Indeed, the vast majority of female prisoners have experienced elevated rates of trauma, mostly in the form of physical and sexual abuse.

Soon after returning home, Chandra enrolled in the Georgetown Pivot Program, where she earned a certificate in business and entrepreneurship. She is also launching Lemonade Development, an ambitious organization that provides single mothers with cohousing, employment support, childcare, and personal development coaching. As Chandra’s career flourishes, she continues to display strength, resilience, and compassion, inspiring not only her daughters, but also anyone fortunate enough to know her.