Over the past 30 years, the women's prison population in the United States has exploded, with much of the growth occurring among Black women. The Prison Policy Initiative estimates that 1.9 million women are released from prisons and jails each year—that means about 1 in 8 people released from prisons and more than 1 in 6 people released from jails are women. However, the availability of gender-responsive reentry services does not meet the need, especially for Black women, wh

Black women and girls are overwhelmingly affected by gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Black survivors are all too often criminalized for their survival strategies and for their response to trauma and abuse. This abuse-to-prison pipeline, referring to the pathways that lead from gender-based violence to criminalization, further harms Black women and girl survivors of abuse. One in five Black women  have experien

Our analysis of national school discipline data reveals that Black girls were the only group of girls to be overrepresented in every type of school disciplinary action, which means that school pushout has an outsized impact on them and increases their chances of coming into contact with law enforcement.

Black women are currently overrepresented in carceral systems and yet underrepresented in conversations about what effective reentry...

"Aging out” means youth reach the legal age of adulthood and transition out of the care of foster care. When children are placed in...

This month, the National Black Women’s Justice Institute published “The Hidden Heart of Reentry: Lessons from Essie Justice Group’s Black Mama’s Bail Out Campaign and the Expertise of Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones”—an evaluation of the Black Mama Bailout campaign. The report explores how the annual campaign reunites Black mothers with their children and families while highlighting the often invisible labor and leadership of women impacted by incarceration.

When Black women are released from incarceration, they have many needs that must be met to not just survive, but to achieve stability,...

In celebration of Women’s History Month, the National Black Women’s Justice Institute is spotlighting the leadership and contributions of...