The Power to Step Forward From the Prison Yard to the Podium

Pauline Rogers, founder of the RECH Foundation, speaking at the National Day of Empathy.

By Pauline Rogers

For decades, I’ve been known as a steady, boots-on-the-ground advocate for formerly incarcerated people in Mississippi. My comfort zone was local jails, prisons, and reentry housing—places where I could touch lives up close. But over the past year, I realized that to truly create sustainable change, I had to shift not only systems but also myself.

I began saying yes to arenas that once felt unfamiliar—national policy roundtables, university panels, even Zoom conferences where I wasn’t the oldest but often the only voice with lived experience leading the conversation. It was uncomfortable at first. I was used to doing the work, not explaining it in soundbites or theory. But I embraced it because I knew our stories needed to be heard where decisions are made.

Pauline Rogers (right) speaking in 2023 with Congressional representatives.

This personal shift has deepened my leadership. I’m mentoring younger advocates, learning to share the spotlight, and naming truths that used to stay quiet. I’ve started writing more, believing that my perspective—formed in the fire of Mississippi injustice—matters in boardrooms and briefing papers too.

The pandemic, racial uprisings, and political unrest reminded me: being silent or small serves no one. So I’m showing up in places that don’t expect someone like me—Black, Southern, female, formerly system-impacted—and I’m speaking with power, not apology.

Change isn’t just something I work for. It’s something I live by first changing me.

I didn’t choose this work—it chose me. I turned my own pain into purpose and have never looked back. I want people to know that change doesn’t always start in high places. Sometimes it starts with a woman like me, in a small Southern town, with a big heart, a holy conviction, and a made-up mind. I may not have all the degrees, but I carry a doctorate in doing. And I believe that when we lead with truth, love, and lived experience, we can heal systems and souls alike.

Pauline Rogers (left) in the office of Governor Phil Bryant.

Pauline Rogers is a longtime advocate for criminal justice reform and the founder of the RECH Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting formerly incarcerated individuals as they reintegrate into society.

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