Every year, thousands of girls and gender-expansive youth are arrested, detained, and placed on probation across the state of California. Recently, efforts to keep girls and gender-expansive youth of color in the community and out of custody have gained momentum, and California is poised to lead the country, showing that ending girls’ incarceration is possible. In March, Vera and YWFC released a first of its kind report on girls' incarceration in California, detailing the scope of girls' incarceration in California and offering a roadmap for county and statewide changes to end girls' incarceration in California. The report offers policymakers, funders, advocates, and communities the data and evidence they need to understand the breadth of girls’ incarceration in California and take steps to fully eliminate it. The analysis shows that it is possible for every county in California to end girls’ incarceration with bold and decisive action. Together, Vera and YWFC are working to realize the vision of fully eliminating the incarceration of girls and gender-expansive youth across the state.
Join this webinar to learnmore about successful efforts to end girls' incarceration currently under way in counties across California as well as Vera and YWFC’s campaign to bring this work statewide by seeding models for county and local-level reform, investing in research, data, and community-led solutions to guide reform efforts, and advancing the policy change necessary to end girls' incarceration in California.
Speakers
Lindsay Rosenthal
Vera Institute of Justice
Lindsay Rosenthal is the initiative director of Ending Girls’ Incarceration. She leads Vera’s efforts to end the incarceration of girls and gender expansive youth nationwide, by reforming punitive law enforcement practices and creating pathways to sustainable, in-community well-being, safety, and justice.
Previously, Lindsay was a policy and advocacy fellow at the Ms. Foundation for Women. There, she co-authored, The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls' Story, a report exposing girls’ of color widespread incarceration in America as directly resulting from their status as victims of violence. Lindsay began her career working in direct service with girls in Florida’s child welfare and juvenile legal system.
Lindsay served as a technical assistance provider for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s National Girls Initiative and on New York City’s Young Women’s Initiative’s steering committee.
Jessica Nowlan
President, Reimagine Freedom
Jessica Nowlan is a social entrepreneur and movement leader with a focus on building the resources and structures required to realize liberation.
During her seven-year tenure as Executive Director of Young Women’s Freedom Center, Jessica supported the organization's growth from 5 to 45 staff members and 1 to 5 locations and increased the annual budget by over 1700%. Jessica also drafted and launched a Freedom Charter with a base of over 400 formerly incarcerated women, young women, and trans people of all genders.
Jessica was the 2019 - 2021 Leading Edge Fellow. She is experienced in supporting organizations in strategizing to better serve women and girls at the intersections of violence, poverty, racial justice, incarceration/ re-entry, and workforce development.
As the president of Reimagine Freedom, Jessica is tasked with holding and nurturing the vision of economic freedom and mobilizing the resources necessary to fuel the work and ensure sustainability.
Jamie Schenker
SCG Member
Program Director, The California Wellness Foundation
Jamie N. Schenker is program director at The California Wellness Foundation. She brings over 15 years’ experience in grantmaking, evaluation and organizational learning. She is passionate about supporting social change and racial justice efforts to ensure all people are safe and healthy.