Toolkit: Meeting the Needs of Women in California's County Justice Systems
Barbara E. Bloom
Because fewer women are convicted of crimes and incarcerated compared to men, they can be overlooked for what may be ideal approaches to reduce crime and recidivism. Meeting the Needs of Women in California's County Justice Systems describes how counties can benefit from developing criminal justice solutions focused on women. It is designed to provide sheriff’s departments, probation departments, practitioners and other leaders with a blueprint for addressing women under local supervision.
The goals of this toolkit are to:
- Ensure that local justice systems are more gender-responsive and that women and their specific needs are not overlooked as decision-makers implement new policies and practices in a changing criminal justice landscape;
- Enable county justice systems to take full advantage of significant new state and federal funding streams available to implement rehabilitative alternatives to jail incarceration;
- Help safely reduce counties’ reliance on incarceration through implementing less restrictive alternatives and developing strategies to better manage female jail populations; and
- Provide information on research-based, community-based programs.
The toolkit is authored by Dr. Barbara Bloom, a professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies at Sonoma State University, as well as co-director of the Center for Gender & Justice. To download the toolkit, click here.