Published October 2020, updated April 2021

In 2017, the National Institute of Justice funded the Urban Institute—and its partners the Center for Effective Public Policy, the Correctional Leaders Association, and the National Center for Victims of Crime—to conduct a national scan of practice to examine the extent to which correctional facilities
provide services and programming that address incarcerated women’s prior and current trauma and victimization experiences. Drawing from semistructured interviews with leaders in 41 state departments of corrections (DOCs); leadership at 15 women’s prisons (standout sites) that seemed to implement innovative and/or comprehensive approaches to address trauma; and staff, community
partners, and incarcerated women at three case study correctional facilities, as well as from surveys of 57 state domestic violence (DV) and sexual assault (SA) coalitions, this report describes findings regarding the unique needs of incarcerated women, the ways correctional agencies identify and address trauma and victimization, the provision of victim services in prison settings, and partnerships that promote healing (the appendix includes graphics showing sites and agencies that participated in the study). This summary also examines challenges to addressing trauma and victimization and provides recommendations for practitioners working to make correctional facilities trauma-responsive (these
recommendations are also listed in table 1). (From the Executive summary). Record #7680