How a Gender-Responsive Approach to Corrections Promotes the Well-Being and Rehabilitation of Women in Custody

WICC2025 Presentation by Prof. Michele Deitch and Alycia Welch (WICC2025-PID055)

Authors

Prof. Michele Deitch

Director, Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, USA

Michele Deitch is a Distinguished Senior Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, where she holds a joint appointment at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and at the UT School of Law and directs the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, a national policy resource center focused on the safe and humane treatment of people in custody. Professor Deitch is widely recognized as one of the leading experts in the U.S. on the issue of correctional oversight and has published extensively on this topic. She also advises U.S. policymakers and agencies on prison and jail safety issues and on the development of independent correctional oversight bodies. In 2019, the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement awarded her the Flame Award for her contributions to the field of prison oversight. Professor Deitch co-authored several reports on women in custody, including The Pandemic Gender Gap Behind Bars, a report about the way COVID is affecting women and how correctional agencies should adjust their approach to better meet women’s needs. As Chair of the Sheriff’s Advisory Committee on the Travis County (Texas) Women’s Jail, she co-authored Roadmap for Reform, a report detailing the vision for a gender-responsive correctional facility. She also served as the original drafter of the ABA’s Standards on the Treatment of Prisoners. Prior to entering academia, she served as a court-appointed monitor of prison conditions in Texas. Professor Deitch holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.Sc. from Oxford University, and a B.A. from Amherst College.

Alycia Welch

Associate Director , Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, Univ. of Texas at Austin, United States

Alycia Welch is the Associate Director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab (PJIL) at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where her scholarship focuses on the safe and humane treatment of people in custody and where she regularly advises policymakers and agencies on prison and jail conditions. She also co-instructs graduate-level policy research courses on prison reform. Previously, Alycia directed a transitional housing program for women exiting prison or jail, developed an alternative to incarceration program for young adults, oversaw a multi-state initiative providing training and technical assistance on behavioral health and criminal justice issues, and as an analyst in the Texas legislature, helped establish changes to the criminal legal and behavioral health systems. The recipient of several national policy research awards, Alycia has authored numerous reports on these issues. She is the lead author on The Pandemic Gender Gap Behind Bars, a report about the way COVID affected women in custody and how correctional agencies should adjust their approach to better meet women’s needs. She also served on the Sheriff’s Advisory Committee on the Travis County (Texas) Women’s Jail and co-authored Roadmap for Reform, a report detailing the vision for a gender-responsive correctional facility for the county, which has been used to guide similar changes across the U.S. Alycia holds a M.P.Aff. and an M.S.S.W. from the University of Texas at Austin as well as two B.A.s from the University of Michigan.

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