PROGRESS UPDATE
May 2026
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.
The Commission launched in New York City in July 2024. Former U.S. Attorney General and Commission Chair Loretta Lynch addressed the group.
Since its launch, the Commission has convened 11 times to explore women’s pathways to justice system involvement, as well as their experiences in the system. 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 outcomes for women and families.
A second set of findings and recommendations, to be released in late 2026, will focus on the “back end” of the justice system—the period following adjudication and sentencing—including conditions of confinement and how to promote success post-conviction and upon reentry.
During the convening in New York City, the Commission visited the Brownsville Community Justice Center (a project of the Center for Justice Innovation) 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.
Why Women?
While men make up a disproportionate share of people in the criminal justice system, women now account for more than one-quarter of adult arrests. The rate of women’s jail incarceration has been edging up; the men’s rate has been going down. Women commit different types of crimes for different reasons than men and face distinct 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.
Impact
Driving the National—and International—Conversation
The Commission's work has garnered national media coverage including an MSNBC Morning Joe interview with Chair Loretta Lynch and Senior Adviser Sarah Stitt and interviews in The 19th, Stateline, The New York Times, and other outlets. Additionally, the Commission has produced numerous op-eds 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.
Following the release of the Commission’s first set of findings and policy recommendations, the Commission was invited to brief the Congressional Democratic Women’s Caucus about its work. Chair Lynch powerfully underscored the importance of understanding women's pathways to crime and highlighted actionable strategies to safely reduce the number of women entering the justice system. The Commission had several follow up conversations with congressional staff on issues important to their states. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) has since reintroduced the Pregnant Women in Custody Act, which would mandate protections for pregnant women and require the federal government to collect data on pregnancies in correctional facilities.
The Commission has briefed leaders from the National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, and National Criminal Justice Association. Staff have also presented to federal, state, and local stakeholders from all three branches of government, as well as criminal justice and domestic violence practitioners and their membership associations. These relationships will be instrumental in ensuring the Commission’s recommendations are understood and put into practice.
Additionally, the Commission was invited to brief leadership from the United Kingdom, including Members of Parliament and Ministry of Justice officials and criminal justice and community practitioners, on the findings and recommendations to inform current efforts in England and Wales. The discussion centered on women’s distinct pathways into the justice system, the use of gender-specific tools to assess risk and needs, and shared priorities around evidence-based alternatives to detention, highlighting strong alignment and opportunities for international learning.
The Commission convened in Tulsa, Oklahoma in January 2025. Chair Loretta Lynch and Oklahoma First Lady and Senior Adviser Sarah Stitt addressed the group.
During the Tulsa convening, the Commission met with local policymakers and stakeholders and visited Women in Recovery, an intensive outpatient alternative for women facing long prison sentences.
Advancing State and Local Progress
Survivor Justice Laws
In its first report, the Commission recommended that courts consider a defendant’s history of abuse during sentencing and resentencing in an effort to better align accountability with individual circumstances. A growing number of states have adopted so-called “survivor justice laws,” with similar legislation pending in several others.
In January 2026, the American Legislative Exchange Council adopted a model Survivor Justice Act, presented by CCJ Chief Policy Counsel Marc Levin and Commission member Jillian Snider (Resident Senior Fellow, R Street Institute). The Commission later hosted a webinar to examine variations in state laws, implementation challenges that have emerged, and what policymakers and practitioners can learn from early experiences across states.
To increase the field’s understanding of survivor justice laws, the Commission identified several leaders and membership organizations from critical sectors for targeted education. The Commission briefed the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence in the lead up to their CLE series for attorneys on intimate partner-inflicted traumatic brain injuries and is in touch with leadership from the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, National District Attorneys Association, and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers about survivor justice laws and their impact on female defendants.
The Commission met with Atlantic County, New Jersey Prosecutor William Reynolds to discuss its recommendation that prosecutors account for women's distinct pathways, risk profiles, and caregiving responsibilities when making sentence recommendations. He wrote an op-ed on the topic, demonstrating that prosecutors can—and should—consider how trauma and victimization may drive criminal behavior, especially for women.
Looking even further upstream, a CCJ analysis found that aggravated domestic violence incidents are an estimated 30% to 50% higher than incidents reflected in law enforcement data. The Commission hosted a webinar to discuss these findings, as well as a webinar on the complex impact of domestic violence policing and promising approaches to improve safety, accountability, and justice for women.
Pretrial and Diversionary Opportunities
Commission member Courtney Bryan (CEO, Center for Justice Innovation) invited the Commission to speak to her 900+ person staff in New York City about its findings and recommendations, focused on opportunities to pilot changes to pretrial and court programs to better address the needs of women. CJI is in conversation with partners and service providers about an alternative to incarceration program for felony defendants, which would require strengthening community-based supports for women who would otherwise be sentenced to jail. They also disaggregated their data to identify which borough had the highest rates of women on pretrial supervision and common needs, and are now bolstering assessments and services, including caregiver support groups, to meet those needs in Staten Island.
Recognizing the distinct experiences of primary caregivers in the pretrial period, the Center for Effective Public Policy (CEPP) developed a policy brief focused on implementing the Commission’s recommendations for this population. Representatives from the Commission joined CEPP for a webinar with over 50 pretrial service practitioners nationwide to encourage innovation in this area.
With support from the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC), jurisdictions across the country have been able to reduce their jail populations, but those impacts have not extended to women. The Commission presented at the SJC Research Convening about the differing pathways for women into the justice system and the need for an intentional focus on this population.
The Commission convened in Chicago, Illinois in May 2025 to focus on correctional programming for women. The group visited the Women’s Justice Institute and the Cook County Jail to learn about a substance abuse program designed for women that operates in partnership with community-based service providers.
Furthering the Field's Understanding
The Commission produced a series of reports to ground its discussions, inform policy deliberations, and raise public awareness of the unique factors impacting justice involved women. To date, analyses include:
- 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
In addition, the Commission produced a research agenda to supplement its first policy report, outlining strategic gaps in policing, pretrial, and sentencing data and identifying actionable pathways for researchers, funders, and system leaders to strengthen the evidence base. The report and research agenda note that, while jurisdictions are implementing innovative approaches to working with justice-involved women, tailored early interventions remain scarce and inconsistent, and there is a lack of rigorous evaluation to guide the development and proliferation of promising practices. Critical gaps in data and evidence obscure understanding of how women move through the system, how early-stage decisions shape long-term outcomes, and which interventions are most effective. A similar distillation of key research gaps will follow the Commission’s second, forthcoming policy report on corrections and reentry.
The Commission is actively working to increase awareness of the research gaps impacting our understanding of this critical population. Commission members participated in a convening hosted by Arnold Ventures on women’s justice system involvement with the goal of fostering collaborative partnerships between criminal justice researchers and practitioners. The Commission also presented at the RestoreHER US.America D.A.T.A. is Life conference to share identified data gaps and explore opportunities for strengthening women’s outcomes at the front-end of the system.
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 stakeholders—including law enforcement, pretrial service providers, judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, governors, 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 recommendations to improve correctional programming, services, and health care; jail and prison conditions; community supervision; and reentry.
If you’re interested in scheduling a briefing on the Commission’s work, recommendations, or research, please contact Director Stephanie Akhter (sakhter@counciloncj.org).
Commission members discussed the work ahead in New York City during the launch meeting in July 2024.
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, and other general operating contributors.
