Creating Better Models for the Design of Women-centered Secure Treatment Facilites (PID162)

12pm – 12.30pm EST, 19 February 2025 ‐ 30 mins

Parallel Workshops

In the past several decades, the number of justice-involved women and gender non-conforming people has grown exponentially all over the world. Their biographies and pathways to crime differ significantly from those of cisgender men, bringing with them very distinctive needs, complex histories of trauma, and unique circumstances once incarcerated. Yet, a large proportion of women continue to be held in custodial facilities originally designed for and by men. 
The mission, purpose and program requirements for women facilities are very different considering the unique needs of this population and the greater ability to positively influence their lives and futures. Contemporary purpose-built, and women-centered facilities should employ trauma-informed, therapeutic, and evidence-based design principles for housing, visiting, vocational and life skills, medical, behavioral health, and other core services and programs.  The buildings, their configuration and layouts should promote community-building and living. Residents should be broken down into small cohorts and accommodated in small-scale, home-like settings. Female facilities are more successful when buildings are grouped to conform small living communities, where women live and work together to plan meals, cook, develop budgets, and deal with practical problems as they would have to face in the outside world. Finally, this session will discuss evidence-based research and provide examples of designed and built campuses that employ the principles of trauma-informed, normalized and therapeutic accommodation.