top of page
Lift Our Voices
The “Lift Our Voices” blog features analysis and opinion from NBWJI’s experts on the latest issues and news.


How Punitive School Discipline Pushes Black Girls Out of Classrooms and Into the Criminal Legal System
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.
Kera Riddick
Sep 114 min read


Criminalization Risks & Incarceration Rates of Black Girls Aging Out of Foster Care
"Aging out” means youth reach the legal age of adulthood and transition out of the care of foster care. When children are placed in...
NBWJI
Jul 153 min read


The Hidden Heart of Reentry: How the Expertise of Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones and Formerly Incarcerated Women Is Reshaping Reentry
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.
Kera Riddick
May 82 min read


Essential Reentry Needs for Formerly Incarcerated and Trauma-Impacted Black Women
When Black women are released from incarceration, they have many needs that must be met to not just survive, but to achieve stability,...
Kera Riddick
Mar 263 min read
bottom of page