Nearly 20 years after a community activist was first convicted for crimes she says she didn’t commit, her supporters continue to rally around her and push for the systemic changes she argues were why she was targeted by the legal system to begin with.
Rev. Joy Powell, an inmate, pastor and activist against police brutality, violence and oppression in her community, works behind bars to continue her advocacy. Powell says she was warned by the Rochester Police Department that she was a target because of her speaking out against corruption through her organization, Equality and Justice for All.
Powell was convicted of burglary and assault in 2006 and again five years later for a cold case murder from 1992, offenses Powell maintains she did not commit, and is serving 25 years-to-life at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.
The Rochester Police Department did not return a request for comment on Powell’s convictions.
“She’s in the position she’s in and I won’t let her story die,” Joy Powell’s nephew Jay Coffee said. “I don’t think the community is going to let her story die. Young people coming up. It’s a new age of technology and information, and the truth will prevail over any system of power.”
Powell continues to be an advocate behind bars.
“Joy’s doing it in Bedford Hills, right?” community activist S.E. Shapley said. “Like, [she] is actively advocating for the trans population in there [and] has fought to get privacy curtains put in, when they took the privacy curtains away. [She] has written to multiple legislators and created campaigns for all of that. If we could imagine that work outside, what would our community look like with Joy Powell in it? It was just Joy’s presence. I think Joy was at just so many different events and showing up consistently and actively. [She] was showing up to every event. That was like a candlelight vigil showing up every time there was a member of the community that was lost, either to gun violence or police violence. [She] was just actively there, showing up, being a member of the community who would be there, so that people know. People can come to Joy and Joy will be there for you.”
Supporters say Powell is inspiring those in the facility and even outside of it.
“She wanted systematic change, and policing and just the community itself,” Coffee said. “And that’s what she did it. You know, her work speaks for itself. There’s many publications about the things that she’s done, but it really was the loss of her child, to violence, gun violence. Like, many mothers in the community today and families that have suffered through gun violence.”
“We did a letter-writing event,” community activist Sabine Bradley said. “To uplift, remember and continue the work of fallen freedom fighters. People who have been, in one way or another, sacrificed.”
“To see justice and equality not only for Joy, but many incarcerated individuals, many people that are still serving time, missing birthdays, holidays, missing graduations from their children, not at the dinner table because of injustice,” Coffee said.
In her time incarcerated, Powell continues to advocate for herself through writing letters to government officials and nonprofits and encourages other women at Bedford Correctional Facility to do the same.
“We are supposed to forget about it,” Shapley said. “Those people are in prisons. That’s why visitation is hard. That’s why those things are in existence. That’s why they’re put so far out. Having community members actually talk about Joy and like to be in Joy’s life and everybody who is incarcerated is so absolutely crucial.”https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/rochester/news/2025/11/24/political-prisoner-brings-democracy-behind-bars