You Don’t Know My Name

Prison birth is grim—a mother is shackled to a hospital bed, surrounded by armed guards, and her child is taken from her after delivery. You Don’t Know My Name confronts the often overlooked injustice of forced family separation and the generational trauma wrought by the prison system.

Director Tommy Franklin is a formerly incarcerated filmmaker who longs for a mother he never knew. He was taken from her in prison as an infant and placed in the foster system. As a newborn, he was adopted by a white Minnesotan family. He begins therapy to better understand his internal world and how it relates to going his entire life without a connection to the Black woman who created him.

Tommy joins an underground community of prison doulas on a mission to disrupt the carceral system and bring justice to incarcerated mothers and their children. Tommy spends time with pregnant women and those who gave birth in the system, including Alicia Roach, who was separated from her infant and dreams of becoming a prison doula at the same prison she was incarcerated in 15 years prior. Together, this network shares insights and finds solace while processing the conditions of prison and the complexities of life after release. Tommy searches tirelessly for information on his biological mother, and his journey inspires the community around him. They seek radical and necessary changes in conditions for pregnant incarcerated people, from prenatal through postpartum care, with the goal of ending prison birth in America.