PROGRESS UPDATE
November 2025
The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) launched the Women’s Justice Commission in July 2024 to document and raise awareness of the unique challenges facing women in the justice system and build consensus for evidence-based reforms that enhance safety, health, and justice.
Led by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch (Chair) and Oklahoma First Lady Sarah Stitt (Senior Adviser), the Commission includes 15 other leaders with a wide variety of professional and personal experience at local, state, and federal levels, from law enforcement and the courts to academia and healthcare. Incorporating the perspectives of people who live, work, and serve within the justice system—including those directly impacted by crime and violence—is central to CCJ’s mission, and multiple Women’s Justice Commission members identify as formerly incarcerated and survivors of crime. The Commission is advised by an additional group of experts who have decades of experience in women’s justice issues.
Since its launch, the Commission has convened eight times to explore issues related to women’s pathways to justice system involvement, law enforcement interactions, pretrial detention, and sentencing. During each meeting, the Commission reviewed the best available research and policy innovations, visited pioneering direct service programs, and learned from local experts.
In October 2025, the Commission released its first set of findings and recommendations—focusing on the arrest, pretrial, and sentencing phases—calling for four priority measures to stem the flow of women into the criminal justice system and improve success rates for women and families.
A second set of findings and recommendations, to be released in 2026, will focus on the “back end” of the justice system, including how to promote success post-conviction and upon reentry.
Why Women?
Women commit different types of crimes for different reasons than men and face distinctive caregiver, health, and economic challenges that affect the outcomes of their justice involvement. And yet, criminal justice policy and practice often fail to address women’s needs. Without adequately considering these unique variables, criminal justice system responses to women risk undermining public safety efforts and further exacerbating other harmful outcomes, including family destabilization.
Meetings
The Commission is informed by the tremendous work of research, advocacy, policy, and direct service organizations serving justice-involved women. Staff have engaged more than 100 practitioners, researchers, advocates, and others for input and to help shape the meetings; several have presented to the Commission, further elevating their voices.
Meeting 1 (July 2024) focused on women's unique pathways into the justice system and included a visit to the Brownsville Community Justice Center (part of the Center for Justice Innovation) in Brooklyn, New York to learn about several of the Center’s many programs designed with women's unique needs in mind and efforts to transform responses to intimate partner violence.
Convening in New York City in July 2024. WJC commissioners discussing group expectations.
Convening in New York City in July 2024. Group photo of WJC members in attendance.
Convening in New York City in July 2024. WJC site visit to the Brownsville Community Justice Center.
Convening in New York City in July 2024. (From left to right) WJC Director Akhter, Former Attorney General Lynch, and Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
Meeting 2 (August 2024) focused on law enforcement interactions with women, featuring research presentations on women’s arrest trends and policing strategies for women in behavioral health crisis and those experiencing intimate partner violence.
Meeting 3 (January 2025) focused on women’s needs, experiences, and outcomes as they move through the criminal justice system pretrial and featured presentations on prosecutor-led diversion efforts and the impact of pretrial detention and bail on women. The Commission met with local policymakers and stakeholders in Tulsa, Oklahoma and visited Women in Recovery, an intensive outpatient alternative for women facing long prison sentences.
Convening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in January 2025. (From left to right) First Lady Stitt, Former Attorney General Lynch, and WJC Director Akhter.
Convening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in January 2025. WJC site visit at Women in Recovery.
Convening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in January 2025. WJC attendees visiting the Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center.
Convening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in January 2025. WJC Chair, Former Attorney General Lynch, interviewing with 2 News Oklahoma (KJRH-TV) and Public Radio Tulsa.
Meeting 4 (March 2025) focused on sentencing and included presentations about the public safety impact of reducing women’s sentences and the imposition of fines and fees on women.
Meeting 5 (May 2025) focused on correctional programming for women through a site visit to the Women’s Justice Institute and the Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois to learn about a substance abuse program designed for women that operates in partnership with community-based service providers.
Convening in Chicago, Illinois, in May 2025. WJC site visit to the Women's Justice Institute.
Meeting 6 (July 2025) focused on reaching final consensus for the findings and recommendations of the Commission’s first report.
Meeting 7 (September 2025) in Washington, D.C. focused on health care inside women’s prisons and jails and included presentations on incarcerated women’s health outcomes and policy levers for addressing their distinct health needs.
Meeting 8 (October 2025) focused on the experiences of women parenting from prison and jail. Commissioners explored the research on the needs and outcomes of interventions for incarcerated mothers and their children, at varying developmental stages.
Research
The Commission has produced a series of reports to ground its discussions, inform policy deliberations, and raise public awareness, including:
- A preliminary assessment of the challenges facing women in the justice system
- A statistical brief establishing a common understanding of key trends in women’s justice system involvement
- A research brief examining how drug use patterns differ for people with recent justice system involvement
- A review of community-led responses to women in behavioral health, domestic violence, and housing crises
The Commission is supporting further original research to inform deliberations and advance national conversations on women’s health and justice. In November, the Commission presented on two panels at the American Society of Criminology conference about data and policy related to domestic violence and post-conviction policies and practices for women. The Commission will continue to engage with researchers across disciplines about the importance of disaggregating and analyzing data by sex to understand the differing experiences of justice-involved women.
Media Coverage and Partnerships
The Commission's work has garnered national media coverage including an MSNBC Morning Joe interview with Chair Lynch and Senior Adviser Stitt and interviews in The 19th, Stateline, and other outlets. Additionally, the Commission has produced numerous opinion articles in outlets such as USA Today, Newsweek, Tulsa World, The Courier Journal, Governing, Lexington Herald Leader, Coeur d'Alene Press, The Hill, and Bonner County Daily Bee.
The Commission has also sought creative ways to reach new audiences and successfully partnered with the socially conscious skincare brand Topicals to highlight issues facing justice-involved women.
External Events and Briefings
In October 2024 (Domestic Violence Awareness Month), the Council hosted a webinar to discuss findings from a Council analysis that found that aggravated domestic violence incidents are an estimated 30% to 50% higher than incidents reflected in law enforcement data. Commissioners and expert advisers joined members of the Council’s Crime Trends Working Group to discuss challenges in data collection and essential considerations regarding measuring and effectively resourcing strategies to address domestic violence.
In July 2025, the Council hosted a webinar focused on the complex impact of domestic violence policing and explored promising approaches to improve safety, accountability, and justice for women.
In October 2025, the Council hosted a webinar focused on the first report’s findings and recommendations, and explored what implementation would look like at the national, state, and local levels.
Council staff presented at the RestoreHER US.America D.A.T.A. is Life conference and Arnold Ventures BRIDGE event focused on women’s justice system involvement, and briefed leaders from the National Governors Association (NGA), National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA), and National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Staff have also presented to key stakeholders from all three branches of government, as well as practitioners, including criminal justice and domestic violence organizations.
These relationships will be instrumental in ensuring the Commission’s recommendations are understood and put into practice.
Looking Forward
To ensure a broad awareness of the Commission’s first set of recommendations, the Council will continue to distribute the findings to key front-end stakeholders—including law enforcement, pretrial service providers, judges, prosecutors, and legislators—via private briefings and conference presentations, media coverage and op-eds, and public web events.
The Commission has a full schedule of meetings throughout 2026, and deliberations will focus on the back end of the system, including correctional programming, services, and health care; jail and prison conditions; community supervision; and reentry.
If you’re interested in scheduling a briefing of the first set of recommendations, please contact Director Stephanie Akhter (sakhter@counciloncj.org).
Supporters
Support for the Women’s Justice Commission comes from Ford Foundation, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the Joan Ganz Cooney & Holly Peterson Fund, The J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Navigation Fund, the National Football League, The New York Women’s Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and The Tow Foundation. The Commission also receives support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Just Trust, Southern Company Foundation, general operating contributors.
