East Lyme — Those who will spend Mother's Day inside the only state prison for women may have heard the chants of 40-odd supporters who rallied Tuesday beside a fence that separates the prison from town-owned athletic fields.

"1, 2, 3, 4. Open up the prison door! 5, 6, 7, 8. We don't want a prison state!"

The Mother's Day Bail-Out Coalition, a group of organizations and individuals that is part of Connecticut Bail Fund, had raised bail money for 29 women since the beginning of April. They gathered Tuesday outside the gates of the Janet S. York Correctional Institution, they said, to show love and support for the women who remained inside, many of whom are separated from their children and are "caged" because they are poor, addicted to drugs or victims of sexual violence. The demonstrators held a moment of silence for women who had committed suicide in prison in the throes of depression or drug withdrawal, and spoke of inadequate medical care and sexual harassment by male correction officers.

At least two of the women had been on the other side of the fence as recently as last Friday, when coalition members posted their bail and drove them home. Kimberly Rivera, 23, of New Haven, charged with assault on public safety officials during a domestic violence incident, said she was held for eight days because she couldn't raise $5,000 bail. She had never before endured a strip search and all the other indignities of incarceration.

"I was like, 'I can't believe I'm going through this, but if I have to, I'm going to be a strong woman,'" she said. Moments later, tears poured onto her freckled face and she said she was all alone and didn't know what to do. The other recently released woman, 48-year-old Nicole Kennedy, took Rivera in her arms.

Kennedy, who rejoiced, "Thank God I'm free," and vowed to help other women get out of York, said she goes to a methadone clinic, works with support groups and had been doing well leading into her recent arrested. She said she thought she had resolved all of her criminal cases after serving 60 days last year for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and driving while her license was suspended, but was served with a violation of probation warrant dating back to 2015 when she tried to break up a fight outside a New Haven package store on May 5.

The judge who signed the warrant had set her bail at $50,000, she said, but it was lowered to $10,000 when she went to court on May 6. She still couldn't make bail and was held at York for five days until members of the Connecticut Bail Fund picked her up.

Terrie Allick of New Haven, a transgender woman of color in pink pants, pink sneakers and a black T-shirt, turned a megaphone toward the concrete facade of the prison and shouted, "Hi ladies! We are here to fight for you, and we'll never forget you."

Allick said she did her 10-year prison bid with "the big boys" back in the 1990s, taking home slash marks on her face because she "wouldn't give up her goodies" to the male prisoners. She said she also left prison with invisible scars from abuses she suffered there.

Jackie Lucibello, 35, said she had served three years at York for larceny and other crimes driven by her opioid addiction and that she was never offered treatment. She said she was pregnant and in full-blown addiction when a judge ordered her locked up for fear she would die.

"We believe incarceration is to solve these issues, but it's been proven time and time again it does nothing to rehabilitate you," Lucibello said.

She gave birth to her son at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, wearing restraints and guarded by a male correction officer who looked at his phone while she delivered her baby, she said. The baby went home with her mother after two days, and she missed the first three years of his life.

Department of Correction officials dispute the activists' claims that York is known for widespread medical neglect and sexual violence and that the prison holds women with immigration issues longer than is allowed under the law in order to turn them over to federal officials.

"This is a gross misrepresentation of the truth and quite frankly an insult to the dedicated men and women working day in and day out at the York Correctional Institution," DOC spokeswoman Karen Martucci said in a statement. "Facility staff are committed to meeting the needs of the female population, while maintaining a safe and secure environment. Recent legislative efforts, which would codify existing practices, speaks to this commitment."

The DOC is assuming medical treatment of prisoners following a series of incidents with the previous provider from the University of Connecticut. During the recent legislative session, and after a York prisoner gave birth in her cell, lawmakers passed a bill that, in part, prohibits women from being shackled during labor unless they are deemed a safety risk and positions correction officers, preferably female, in the delivery room in a way that ensures the mothers' privacy.

Tiheba Bain of Bridgeport, a former prisoner and member of Women Against Mass Incarceration, shouted details of the new law and the new life she is leading over the fence Tuesday.

"I was in York three or four times many years ago," she said through the megaphone. "I want you to know you can get out and do the same thing."

She led the group in chants of "Free her!" and "Up, up with liberation! Down, down with incarceration!"

As of Tuesday, York housed 917 women, comprising 341 who were being held on bail while their charges are pending and 576 who are sentenced, according to the Department of Correction.

A new law that took effect Oct. 1, 2017, prohibits bail for those accused of most nonviolent misdemeanor offenses, though judges still have the discretion to impose bail. Some say further reforms are needed.

"I don't think that bill had as much of an impact as we thought," said Alex Tsarkov, executive director of the Connecticut Sentencing Commission. The number of incarcerated people who are charged but not sentenced largely has stayed the same, he said, even though the sentenced population has continued to drop and crime has gone down.

Though the activists outside York on Tuesday scoffed at claims that women are sometimes locked up for their own safety, attorney Kevin C. Barrs, a public defender in New London Superior Court, said earlier in a phone interview that he understands why judges sometimes set bonds for addicted women and for those who are arrested in drug cases in which their boyfriend is the main suspect.

"They're hardly ever the kingpin or mastermind," Barrs said. "But they're usually coming in addicted. It's a question of putting a bond on them so they can sober up and we can get them into treatment. That's been the push for the last couple of years and it's in keeping with (Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's) Second Chance Society program."

Many of Tuesday's demonstrators said they wouldn't be happy until every child's mother is released from York and that it is especially difficult to be locked up on Mother's Day. The Department of Correction said it would be holding a Mommy and Me program at the prison on Saturday, with "an enhanced family-focused, two-hour visitation" for mothers and their children and special activities led by volunteers from the Judy Dworin Performance Project, including family photographs and frame decorating, making cards for Mother's Day, making a family drawing and singing songs.

k.florin@theday.com