WICC2025-PID109-Dr Barbara Owen and Dawn Davison

Responding to Gendered Harms in the US: The Bangkok Rules in Application

Authors

Dr Barbara Owen

Independent Researcher, Owen Research and Evaluation, United States

Barbara Owen is an international expert in the areas of women and imprisonment; improving operational practice in women’s prisons via research; and women’s prison culture. She has extensive experience in conducting mixed methods research, including participant observation, ethnographies, large-scale surveys, policy studies, and program evaluation. Internationally, her work involves implementing human rights protections in women’s prisons with the Thailand Institute of Justice, where she serves as a Senior Advisor.
A Professor Emerita of Criminology at California State University, Fresno, she received her Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Berkeley in 1984. Prior to returning to academia, Dr. Owen was a Senior Researcher with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Dawn Davison

former Warden, California Institution for Women, United States

Dawn Davison, MS is the former Warden of the California Institution for Women (CIW). She had a 30-year career with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the last seven years as the Warden of CIW. As Warden, she instituted many gender-responsive, rehabilitative programs and practice. Here, here focus was staff and volunteer groups, emphasizing college education, life and workplace skills, the maintenance of family and community relationships, successful reintegration into society, and breaking the intergenerational cycle of incarceration. Ms. Davison has also provided consulting and technical assistance to other state and federal facilities. Most recently, she has served on the Special Master team investigating sexual misconduct and other operational failures in a US federal court case. Since her retirement in 2009, Ms. Davison remains involved with incarcerated and other marginalized populations through her work as Chair of the Board of Directors of Just Detention International, a global health and human rights non-profit organization that works to stop sexual abuse in correctional and detention facilities. Additionally, she is a Governor-appointed member of the California Prison Industry Authority Board of Directors. Ms. Davison received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Loyola Marymount University and a Master of Science degree in Counseling Psychology from California State University, Fullerton.

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