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We can’t just be compassionate, we have to recognize who the experts are and let them lead, let them create the programs, let them create the policies, and support them and join with them in doing it.

Sharon White-Harrigan

Executive Director, Women’s Community Justice Association

Our Mission

WJP works in deep partnership to advance the leadership and build the power of women who are currently and formerly incarcerated to transform the criminal legal system and create a just and loving world.

What We Do

We organize to advance the leadership and build the power of women who are currently and formerly incarcerated.

We provide strategic consulting and transformative support for our partners who are leading efforts to transform the criminal legal system.

We engage in advocacy and public education to support concrete criminal legal reforms that are in service of larger transformation.

We develop educational materials that expose the devastating impact of mass incarceration on women.

How We Do It

WJP’s guiding principle is that women who are currently and formerly incarcerated are experts and have the right to be and should be leaders in transforming the criminal legal system and society.

We ground our partnerships in love and trust, and we intentionally and continually readjust our work to be guided by and responsive to our partners’ evolving vision.

We believe that how we organize is as important as what we organize for, and that we should honor the process as much as any specific objective that process is trying to achieve.

We hold relationships, healing, transformation, and community as central to our work, not as secondary or coincidental outcomes of that work.

We center the leadership of cis and trans women on the frontlines of marginalized communities, we use a racial and gender justice lens, and we anchor our work in a feminism that is unabashed and intersectional, honoring the Black feminists who developed and continue to advance this concept.

Jess jackson

Executive Director

Jess Jackson is a dynamic and creative professional with expertise in operations, program planning, organizing, and arts-based advocacy, committed to driving meaningful social change by cultivating highly functional organizations and innovative programming. To all aspects of her career, Jess brings a lifelong passion for the arts and a deep commitment to social justice. In summer 2026, Jess became Executive Director of WJP, leading the organization’s strategy, development, programs and partnerships. For 7 years prior, Jess served as WJP Director of Operations & Arts Advocacy, spearheading operations efforts and leading arts-based and culture change initiatives including creative arts programming at two New York women’s prisons. Prior to joining WJP, Jess worked in sales, business management, and arts administration with organizations including Marriott, Google, and the School of Visual Arts. She is known for developing highly impactful initiatives and programs for organizations looking to carry out their work in ways that are more effective, capacious, and values aligned. With a versatile skillset spanning operations, strategy, program planning, organizing, creative project management, and events, Jess brings an interdisciplinary flair to her work, and a dedication to advancing the brilliant work and vision of WJP’s staff and partners. Jess holds a BA from the University of Michigan, lives in Brooklyn with her family, and in her spare time enjoys volunteering with Narrows Botanical Gardens, traveling, reading, writing, and leaning into her creative pursuits.