Roundtable: Implementing Gender-Sensitive Approaches In Women's Prisons and the Community: Opportunities and Challenges

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract/Description

Women’s incarceration has grown at twice the pace of men’s incarceration. The profile of justice-involved women is somewhat consistent throughout the world. It reflects a population marginalized by race, class, and gender.

Most justice system programs were based on the experiences of men. Consequently, for many years, the programming needs of justice-involved women were largely ignored. More recently, there has been a consensus that the lived experiences of women in the criminal legal system are fundamentally different from those of men.

Twenty years ago, The National Institute of Corrections released a groundbreaking report: Gender-Responsive Strategies: Research, Practice, and Guiding Principles for Women Offenders (Bloom, Owen, & Covington, 2003). Six guiding principles were developed as a blueprint for specific intervention programs for women.

Implementing gender-responsive strategies among correctional agencies requires careful consideration of the organizational culture and environment. Agencies seek to adopt various components of gender-responsive practices (e.g., assessment/classification, programming, etc.) without considering an overall implementation plan.

The proposed Roundtable will discuss “gender-sensitive” approaches in prisons and the community developed in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. The discussants will address successes and challenges that researchers and correctional practitioners have identified in the implementation of interventions designed for women.

Sub Unit

• Area XIV. Roundtables

Chair

• Barbara E. Bloom, Sonoma State University

Discussants

• Amelie Couvrette, Universite du Quebec en Outaouais

• Chloe Leclerc, Université de Montréal

• Emily Salisbury, University of Utah

• Simon Pemberton, University of Birmingham