Webinar Archive:  Reentry Series

Webinar date:  September 12, 2013

 

Description

Women are among the fastest growing criminal justice population.  Currently, there are over one million adult women involved in the criminal justice system.  The reasons for their involvement are as varied as their pathways into and contact with the system.  A consistent thread throughout the lives of justice-involved women is trauma resulting from domestic, sexual or other types of violence.  Throughout their lives, justice-involved women may encounter various criminal justice practitioners and service providers charged with assisting them prior to, during, or after incarceration.  It is critical to understand that women have life circumstances that are unique to their gender that require specific interventions.  Obtaining a better understanding of what contributes to their incarceration is at the core of helping them transition back to their communities, reducing recidivism, and achieving improved outcomes.

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This webinar — the first in a two-part series — includes a discussion of

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• Gender-specific issues that present reentry challenges for justice-involved women (e.g., trauma-informed care, safety planning, children and custody issues, mental health and co-occurring disorders, continuity of treatment in and outside of correctional facilities, safe housing, employment, immigration, housing, etc.;

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• The importance of collaboration in the reentry process; and

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• Available resources such as the National Resource Center on Justice-Involved Women and the Women's Prison Association.

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About the Presenters

​Becki Ney, a Principal and founding member of the Center for Effective Public Policy (CEPP), has directed numerous national training and technical assistance (TTA) projects that have focused on issues of evidence-based practices, domestic violence, justice-involved women and families, and sex offender management.  She is currently the Project Director of the National Resource Center on Justice Involved Women (NRCJIW), which provides resources, disseminates research findings, and coordinates TTA to jurisdictions throughout the country.  Ms. Ney's experience includes directing the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) sponsored Improving the Community Responses for Women Offenders project.  Most recently she pilot tested the NIC Gender-Informed Practices Assessment for facilities and provided TTA on gender responsiveness at the state and local levels.  In collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), she has served as Director of the Mother Child Community Corrections Project and Prisoner Reentry Initiative Training and Technical Assistance (PRI TTA) Program for which she spearheaded the development of several "coaching packets" on key topics to assist jurisdictions in understanding the practical application of evidence-based principles and offender reentry best practices.  She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and an M.S. in Criminology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

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Georgia Lerner is the Executive Director of the Women's Prison Association (WPA).  The WPA, the oldest advocacy group for women in the United States, provides direct services to about 2,500 women at all stages of involvement in the criminal justice system through residential and non-residential programs located in New York City, and in the New York City jail and New York State prisons.  In addition to working with justice-involved women and their families, WPA works to reduce reliance on incarceration, and partners with affected women and public and private agencies in efforts to promote improvements to the systems with which justice-involved women and their families must interact.  In this capacity, Ms. Lerner has participated in numerous symposia and roundtables on alternatives to incarceration, family supports and reentry and is considered an authority on the needs of formerly-incarcerated women.  As a long-standing leader in the development of evidence-based and gender-informed research, tools, and resources for the criminal justice field, Ms. Lerner and the WPA serves as a collaborative partner to the NRCJIW and the pursuit of rigorous policy, advocacy, and research agenda to bring new perspectives to public debates on women and criminal justice.  She has an M.A. in Human Sexuality/Health Education and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.

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Unfortunately, due to technical problems there is no recording of Part 1.

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Copies of the PowerPoint and handout from the webinar (part 1) are available by clicking here.​​