 Dunye became interested in exploring motherhood within imprisonment in "Stranger Inside" by the birth of her daughter and Harriet Jacobs's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl".Additionally, Dunye was interested in the topic of incarcerated women through Angela Davis's work and the Critical Resistance's Creating Change conference at University of California, Berkeley.In a 2004 issue of "Feminist Studies," Dunye discussed some of her inspiration and purpose for the film, particularly how these women make prison a home.