JDI events at NSAC 2018

Are you a corrections official or victim advocate looking to create a program that delivers quality rape crisis services to prisoners, or a Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding administrator seeking to ensure access to such services? This one-day interactive workshop — organized by Just Detention International (JDI) and held in Anaheim, California, on August 28, 2018 — will provide the answers and resources you need to reach this underserved population. The workshop is also an opportunity to learn from and strategize with agencies and advocates that have developed successful victim services programs.

Transgender people experience high rates of sexual violence. In addition, many trans and non-binary individuals experience bullying, employment discrimination, and other inequities, including criminal justice involvement. As in the community, trans individuals in custody are at high risk for sexual abuse. This workshop will provide a big picture view of these implications , and advocates will learn how they can increase access to culturally competent victim services for this greatly underserved community—including those in jails, prisons and immigration detention.

Transgender people are more likely to be incarcerated than their non-transgender peers, due to police misconduct, profiling (‘walking while trans’) and other factors.  The cycle of bullying, early victimization, homelessness, involvement in the street economy, detention and limited re-entry skills often result in trans people returning to detention or living fractured lives.

While in detention, more than one-third of transgender people experience sexual victimization. [Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2011-12, Supplemental Tables: Prevalence of Sexual Victimization Among Transgender Adult Inmates (2014)]   Many trans prisoners are held in solitary confinement, which increases already high rates of depression and suicidality, as well as vulnerability to sexual abuse by staff.

Few trans survivors of sexual abuse receive culturally competent counseling and crisis services. The workshop will include guidance on how advocates can get involved in increasing access to trauma-informed services for this greatly underserved community—including those in jails, prisons and immigration detention.

This unique and interactive workshop will allow participants to first hear firsthand how these two organizations brought ending sexual violence against youth to the forefront of Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s government’s agenda and the minds of the Sicangu Lakota people. Participants will have an opportunity to exchange program ideas that go beyond the basic requirements of the PREA standards and share strategies on reaching out to Native American survivors in their service areas.

White Buffalo Calf Women Society and Wanbli Wiconi Tipi (Eagle Life Center) Juvenile Detention Center’s holistic and comprehensive partnership to implement the Prison Rape Elimination Act Standards is a model for all of Indian Country and the US. Their approach to working with juveniles in detention is rare and they have much to share with others working with young people

This collaborative workshop, which will be jointly led by representatives of state coalitions from across the country, will highlight efforts to increase incarcerated survivors’ access to culturally competent services. Coalition representatives will discuss a broad range of efforts they have undertaken — including various service provision efforts and initiatives to strengthen local programs’ capacity. While highlighting successful efforts to overcome challenges, the workshop will identify resources, tools, and best practices. Attendees will have the opportunity to plan for starting or expanding services to incarcerated survivors in their service area.

Incarcerated survivors of sexual assault have little access to the services and support they need to cope and begin to heal. While a limited number of state coalitions and local programs around the country are providing services in detention settings, many programs that are interested in doing so lack the capacity or are constrained by limited resources. This workshop will detail the critical role coalitions play in ensuring that incarcerated survivors in their state receive the services they need and deserve.

This workshop will increase advocates’ comfort in working with traditionally underserved survivors, and so, increase their comfort with applying their skills to helping all incarcerated survivors. The facilitators include advocates who bring both professional and personal experience to the table and will help participants to engage in genuine, thoughtful conversations about how to center the needs of survivors who have often been left out of the equation. This interactive workshop will focus on improving services for incarcerated men of color and people with disabilities. Experienced advocates will lead participants through dynamic, facilitated, round-table discussions. The facilitators will frame the discussion broadly, then break into small groups giving participants an opportunity to ask tough questions and work through the details.

Over 200,000 people are sexually abused in detention in the U.S. every year and many of those survivors are also members of groups who are subject to oppression and systemic marginalization in the broader society. Two such groups are people with disabilities and men of color. Mainstream survivor advocacy programs already struggle to make services appropriate and genuinely accessible to all survivors, including for people with disabilities and men of color.

This workshop will provide an overview of how cross-sector partnerships can work together to create a paradigm shift for sexual assault survivors in detention. BRIDGE (Building Refuge for Immigrant Detainees through Governance and Engagement) partners will share a model by which Immigration Detention Facilities, Advocates and government representatives work jointly to address the needs of victims behind walls.

Speakers: Stacy Phillips

Research shows that the increase of women in US jails has far surpassed the growth of male prisoners, is linked to trauma, sexual violence and mental health issues. When these women are parents, their children are also sentenced and punished. Parenting for Liberation partnered with Chicana M(other)work and JDI to provide parenting education to incarcerated mothers to interrupt intergenerational trauma. Join this workshop to learn about this bold and unique series with women incarcerated in a California women’s prison, and learn how to use art, poetry, and storytelling as strategies for healing and regeneration.

Speaker: Trina Greene-Brown