Correctional Association

Committees of the Coalition for Women Prisoners

The Coalition for Women Prisoners is a statewide alliance of more than 1,000 individuals from over 100 organizations dedicated to making the criminal justice system more responsive to the needs and rights of women and their families .

The Coalition is c oordinated by the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York. Members include formerly incarcerated women and men, social service providers, academics, attorneys, city and state agency staff, non-profit organizations, faith and community leaders, and concerned individuals.

The Coalition has four Committees: Conditions of Confinement, Incarcerated Mothers, Re-entry, and Violence Against Women. These Committees meet every month, as does the full Coalition. Coalition and Committee membership is open to all interested individuals.

Conditions of Confinement Committee – focuses on improving health care inside women’s correctional facilities in New York State. Currently, the Committee is:

advocating for two pieces of legislation: one that would extend Department of Health oversight to all New York State Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) health facilities and another that would give the Department of Health responsibility for reviewing treatment protocols for HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C in New York State prisons.
working with the DOCS Library Department to create an expanded health section at the libraries of all women’s prisons in New York State. The group gathered a wide range of women’s health books, pamphlets, and other publications for this project and recently distributed these materials facility wide.

Incarcerated Mothers Committee – advocates for policies that protect parental rights and allow mothers in prison and their children to maintain bonds during incarceration . Currently, the Committee is:

creating an informational chart about visiting services in women’s facilities in New York State and advocating for an increase in funding for programs that provide visiting and family reunification services for incarcerated women and their children. As part of this effort, the Committee is advocating for the creation of a Family Reunion Program (overnight trailer visits) at Albion Correctional Facility; better visiting procedures and facilities in prison; and better coordination between corrections, child welfare and the courts.
advocating for a bill that would lessen the harsh effects of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) on incarcerated parents , which almost always requires a foster care agency to file a petition to terminate parental rights if a child has been in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months. The bill would create an exception for incarcerated parents in New York’s ASFA law; require foster care permanency plans to reflect the special needs and circumstances of criminal justice-involved families; require foster care agencies to provide incarcerated parents with service referral information; and, expand the ways in which incarcerated parents can participate in important case planning meetings about their children from prison.

Re-entry Committee – works on eliminating barriers to reentry facing women returning from prison to their families and communities. Currently, the Committee is:

monitoring the implementation of a bill that the Committee helped to pass last year which requires New York State to suspend Medicaid for people entering prisons and jails with prior Medicaid enrollment, instead of terminating it.
building on the recently-passed suspension legislation and advocating for a policy that would require the state to file Medicaid applications for all people before they are released from prison, regardless of whether they were enrolled before their incarceration. Inmates currently cannot file Medicaid applications on their own behalf and must wait 45 to 90 days before receiving Medicaid after they leave prison .
creating a Sister to Sister guide for women returning home from prison. This guide presents the voices and experiences of formerly incarcerated women and provides advice and support from a peer-based perspective for women moving through the difficult process of re-entry. The Committee conducted focus groups to gather stories, input and advice from formerly incarcerated women and is currently in the final stages of editing the guide.

Violence Against Women Committee – works to improve the way the criminal justice system responds to and treats domestic violence survivors who commit crimes as a result of the abuse they suffered. Currently, the Committee is:

advocating for a bill that would expand merit time eligibility for survivors of abuse in prison, thereby allowing them to serve shorter sentences and more quickly begin the process of healing from abuse and reconnecting with their families and communities. Currently, people incarcerated for violent offenses are not eligible for merit time.
Creating two training films: one for training defense attorneys who represent battered women defendants, and another that can bolster the Committee’s legislative advocacy work and help educate the public. These training films will include interviews with formerly incarcerated survivors, the reading of writings by currently incarcerated survivors serving long sentences, and a presentation of facts and analysis surrounding the criminal justice system’s failure to appropriately respond to domestic violence survivors who have committed crimes as a result of the abuse they have suffered.
advocating for an expansion of alternative to incarceration programs for women survivors; increased abuse and trauma counseling programs in prison; and, the creation of specialized defense services for battered women defendants. The Committee is also working with attorneys on improving current legal representation for survivors who defend themselves.

For more information about the Coalition and its Committees, please contact Women in Prison Project Associate Serena Alfieri at 212-254-5700 x311 or salfieri@correctionalassociation.org.