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Reframing Technical Violations for Women: Prevention, Response, and Gender-Responsive Practice
SESSION INFO
Monday, August 17, 2026
2:45 PM - 4:15 PM
Session Type: Workshop
Addressing technical violations among women on probation and parole has emerged as a central priority for the Justice-Involved Women and Girls Committee, reflecting growing recognition that traditional responses often fail to account for women’s pathways into and through the justice system. This workshop will present emerging data from the field, including insights from APPA members, on the prevalence, drivers, and impacts of technical violations among women under supervision. Grounded in a gender-responsive framework, the session will situate technical violations within the broader context of women’s lived experiences - highlighting how factors such as trauma, relationship dynamics, caregiving responsibilities, and economic instability shape compliance and engagement. Participants will explore how current supervision practices can inadvertently contribute to system involvement and will examine strategies for prevention and nonpunitive, effective responses. The session will include perspectives from women with lived experience, as well as agencies actively working to redesign policies and practices to reduce reliance on punitive sanctions. Designed as both a learning session and a working space, the workshop will offer opportunities for participants to engage in dialogue and generate practical, innovative approaches to reducing technical violations and improving outcomes for women.
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SESSION PRESENTERS
Alyssa Benedict
Executive Director, CORE Associates, Co-founder, CORE Associates, LLC
This session will be presented by the Justice Involved Women and Girls Committee; Alyssa is a psychologist and public health practitioner with a subspecialty in the neurophysiology and ecology of trauma and resilience. The Executive Director of CORE Associates, she has 20+ years supporting system and agency level healing, growth, and transformation by promoting evidence-based and innovative approaches with women and girls, amplifying lived experience, and promoting inclusive and intersectional frameworks. Benedict has worked across the U.S. to promote gender responsive, culturally attuned and trauma-informed care. She encourages international learning and engagement and has explored human service systems and individual and social trauma and resilience in the US, Canada, Germany, South Africa and Thailand. Alyssa has served as an architect and core faculty for various national initiatives, and has authored and co-authored impactful publications, models, and staff training curricula, including NIC’s Supervision Agency Gender-Responsive Evaluation (SAGE), and the widely implemented trauma-informed staff communication model Creating Regulation and Resilience (CR/2™). Benedict is co-founder of the Women’s Justice Institute (WJI), a “think and do tank” building transformational justice across sectors with the goal of ending women’s mass incarceration, co-author of WJI’s groundbreaking report “Redefining the Narrative,” and co-creator of the Women’s Justice Pathways Model (WJP©) and other tools designed to support dynamic, cross-sector work. CORE and the WJI’s work continues to inform efforts to improve justice and behavioral health with women and communities, and has been featured at various state, national, and international conferences.
Deanne Benos
Executive Director & Co-Founder, The Women's Justice Institute (WJI)
This session will be presented by the Justice Involved Women and Girls Committee; Deanne is Co-Founder and Director of The Women’s Justice Institute (WJI), a Chicago-based, national “think and do tank” building transformational justice across sectors with-and-for system-impacted women with the goal of ending women’s mass incarceration. She is the co-author of the WJI’s groundbreaking report on ending women’s mass incarceration, “Redefining the Narrative;” and the Executive Producer and Director of the report’s powerful public awareness campaign video that confronts the deeply gendered false narratives that uniquely confront impacted women. Deanne is a national leader on issues related to women’s mass incarceration, the Co-Chair of the American Probation & Parole Association (APPA) Justice-Involved Women & Girls Committee and has engaged in global efforts as a member of the New York Vance Center for International Justice Women’s Prison Project, as an advocate for the successful passage of the United Nation’s Bankgok Rules for Women Prisoners and as a member of the International Corrections & Prisons Association (ICPA). She has presented her work in several countries, including Colombia and Thailand. Benos is the author of several articles and publications and co-author of the U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Corrections “Barracks Behind Bars'' reports on addressing challenges related to incarceration among veterans.
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