In this episode, we revisit a conversation that began with Tylenol and turned into something much deeper.
Behind bars, acetaminophen often becomes the default response to serious medical concerns. Instead of diagnostic testing, specialist referrals, or trauma informed care, many incarcerated women are handed over the counter medication and sent back to their bunks.
We share our lived experiences with medical neglect inside jail and prison, and we explore how these patterns contribute to widespread medical mistrust far beyond the walls.
This episode looks at the intersection of incarceration, women’s health, politicized medical narratives, and the long term consequences of systems that fail to provide adequate care.
Because when healthcare becomes minimal, dismissive, or inaccessible, mistrust is not irrational. It’s learned.
About The Hosts:
Marci Marie is a formerly incarcerated storyteller, organizer, and media creator with a decade of lived experience inside Texas women’s prisons. She serves as Director of Communications at Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, and as the Social & Digital Media Coordinator with FICPFM, where she leads narrative strategy rooted in lived experience. Marci brings sharp analysis, personal truth, and a women centered lens to conversations about incarceration, mental health, policy, and current events.
Jennifer “Toonche” Toon is a formerly incarcerated advocate and the Executive Director and co founder of Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance. Her involvement with the criminal legal system began at age 15 under Texas determinate sentencing laws, resulting in 27 years of system involvement. Toonche brings deep policy insight, lived experience, and narrative power shaped by her work in advocacy, media, and justice reform.
Follow Marci Marie: https://linktr.ee/marcimarie114
Follow Toonche: https://www.facebook.com/jennifercharlene.toon.5
Keywords: women’s prison podcast, formerly incarcerated women, Texas prisons, incarceration and current events, lived experience commentary, prison policy, mental health and incarceration, narrative change, women impacted by incarceration, prison healthcare, jail medical neglect, women in prison, medical mistrust, correctional healthcare, acetaminophen controversy, women’s health in jail, prison reform, incarceration and health, criminal justice podcast, lived experience prison, Texas prisons, jail healthcare crisis