Gender Responsive Policy and Practices (GRPPA) Virtual Training on Model and Site Implementation

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The GRPPA model was designed for agencies to internally review and observe policy, practice and programming to gauge current and/or future capacity to deliver research based gender-responsive services for justice involved women. A common request from correctional agencies, institutions, and community corrections locations is “where do we start to improve our practices working with women in our care”? The GRPPA is a downloadable multi-step guide to assist agencies to do just that. The guide can be found at: https://nicic.gov/gender-responsive-policy-practice-assessment and will include instructions on developing internal work groups and tasks, identifying types of research and data to be collected, the GRPPA manual, facilitation instructions, scoring guide, post assessment activities, and the prioritizing and development of an action plan. Additional resources include fact sheets and data sources regarding justice involved women. The awardee will work with selected community corrections (probation, parole, community based supervision) agency teams in the application of the GRPPA model to assess current policies and programs and plan for development of or enhancement of practices in the supervision of women in the community. The rate of women entering the correctional systems has been exceeding that of men since approximately 1980. Women comprise about 25% of the probation population and about 13% of the parole population. Policy and practice within corrections, whether it is in institutional or community settings, are designed for the predominant population, male, and many of those practices have less applicability for females and in fact may be detrimental. Agencies are mindful of those differences as they observe the number of females failing on community supervision, not necessarily for new offenses, rather for technical violations, unfortunately at higher rates than their male counterparts. The good news is that there is significant research regarding the risk and needs presented by women, yet community supervision practices generally don’t recognize those differences. Issues experienced by women on supervision often include economic, transportation and housing challenges, lack of/or underemployment, childcare needs, experiences of intrapersonal violence, medical and mental health complications. Community supervision requires individuals to meet numerous court or parole board ordered conditions which generally include financial obligations, treatment mandates, securing employment, drug and alcohol testing, meeting with supervising agents, etc. Often overlooked is that the parent, most often a woman who is the primary caretaker, must also ensure that the needs of children and other family members are met – which can provide significant challenges to her available time and resources - issues often not taken into consideration by the supervising agent. While housing is a challenge overall for men and women with justice involvement, it becomes increasingly problematic to find affordable, safe housing for women with children. Women who are in unsafe living conditions, with restricted access to transportation and other important resources, have increased levels of responsibility and scrutiny; not only for themselves, but for their children. Responsibilities that may not be experienced by men on community supervision.

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