Women and gender non-conforming people experience disproportionate levels of crime, greater rates of trauma, and have unique needs often unmet by the justice system.
Gender-responsive practices are applied throughout our operating programs to enhance safety and reduce the chances of re-victimizing justice-involved women. These practices range from using better tools to assess women’s needs to offering comprehensive services to victims. At the Midtown Community Court, we are meeting the unique needs of women involved in prostitution by using a trauma-informed curriculum that seeks to establish the building blocks of a healthy relationship and more positive thought processes.
In addition, the Center offers national training and technical assistance to help jurisdictions around the country implement simple reforms to better meet the needs of justice-involved women.
Initiatives
Project SAFE
Project SAFE works to improve the services offered to criminalized black women who are survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault.
Survivors of sex trafficking are usually treated as criminals rather than victims. But some courts have begun to recognize that those arrested on prostitution charges are often victims of coercion, violence, and trauma. Our video, From Defendant to Survivor, profiles the innovative approaches being taken by courts in Los Angeles, New York City, and Columbus, Ohio.
The Inside Literary Prize is the first major U.S. book award judged by people who are incarcerated, some of the most prolific readers in the country. Yet the walls we erect around incarcerated people also disappear them from conversations about culture, politics, history—conversations to which they can make vital contributions. On New Thinking, hear a behind-the-scenes portrait of a day of judging in Minnesota's Shakopee women's prison.
Women and gender-expansive people are uniquely vulnerable to the widespread violence, dysfunction, and lack of access to essential services on Rikers Island. This report contains policy recommendations to safely and effectively reduce the number of these individuals in New York City jails to below 100 in order to achieve the planned closure of Rikers Island by 2027.
The Women's Justice Commission, chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, is a new nationwide initiative that will bring awareness to the unique issues women face in the criminal justice system. Formed by the Council on Criminal Justice, the Commission brings together a group of dedicated leaders from different sectors, including our Executive Director Courtney Bryan, to identify evidence-based solutions. In the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, read about the Commission's visit to our Brownsville Community Justice Center, where they learned about our team's efforts to prevent harm and bring support to women and families impacted by the justice system.
A new national commission bringing awareness to the unique issues women face in the criminal justice system started its journey with a visit to our Brownsville Community Justice Center.
The routine violence and inhumane conditions that have become synonymous with the jails on Rikers Island are well documented but to get a full picture of the harms we must also look at the impact on women and families.