Criminal Justice

Women’s Policy Institute (WPI) Fellows working on criminal justice come from  organizations  addressing the negative impacts that the criminal justice system has on the lives of women, families and communities.

Their efforts may include:

• Working to reduce the prison population, particularly the female prison population, in the short- and long-term through prevention, sentencing and parole reform, ending prison expansion and promoting alternatives to incarceration
• Addressing the causes and reduce the incidence and impact of the disproportionate incarceration of people of color
• Protecting the human and civil rights of people incarcerated in California’s prison
• Expanding and strengthening rehabilitation and reentry programs for currently and formerly-incarcerated people
• Protecting and supporting the children of incarcerated parents
• Expanding access to public programs and benefits for formerly-incarcerated people

WPI criminal justice teams have worked on improving the ability of parents to reunite with their children after imprisonment, increasing access to public benefits for formerly-incarcerated people, and ending unnecessary shackling of non-violent pregnant women.