Karen A. Reixach Prison Reform Papers

Karen Adkinson Reixach was born in 1944, the daughter of Burton Wilbur Adkinson and Margaret Klock Adkinson of Washington, D.C. She attended Grinnell College and earned a masters degree in English from the University of Chicago. In 1968 she married Rene Henry Reixach, Jr. She joined the Society of Friends in 1973, received by request at Scarsdale Monthly Meeting. Later that year she and her husband moved to Rochester, N.Y., and she transferred her membership to Rochester Monthly Meeting.

A Quaker meeting for worship was established at Auburn Prison in 1974, and in 1975, it became a preparative meeting under Scipio-Farmington Regional Meeting. As a representative of Rochester Monthly Meeting, Karen Reixach served on the Auburn Prison Friends Meeting Oversight Committee until December 1975. In February 1977 meeting for worship began at Attica Prison. She served as clerk of the Attica Oversight Committee until 1984. She also served on the New York Yearly Meeting Prison Committee from 1977 to 1987, Rochester Prison Committee until 1986, the Friends Committee on National Legislation in 1984, and NYYM Witness Coordinating Committee in 1984 (and again in 2000 and 2003) as well as being active in Alternatives to Violence Program.

While working with Auburn and Attica Prison meetings, she attended the University of Rochester and received a M.S. in public policy. She also worked as the Project Coordinator for Safe Start Rochester, Children's Institute, a Monroe County organization designed to help children exposed to violence.