Dear community,
We write to share the news that on July 1, we will be stepping down as Women & Justice Project (WJP) Co-Directors and our phenomenal colleague Jess Jackson will become the new director of WJP!
Jess has been part of WJP since 2019 and, for more than two years, has brilliantly managed our programs in New York’s women’s prisons. These programs, facilitated by women leaders with incarceration experience and artists, support women and gender expansive people inside to engage art as a vehicle for personal transformation and social change.
We’re thrilled that Jess will take the helm and that the multi-talented Michelle Lawson has stepped into a senior role as WJP’s Operations Manager. We have no doubt that Jess and Michelle, together with WJP’s extraordinary partner team, will lead the organization with bold vision, creativity and heart.
For us, this moment is filled with deep gratitude. We’ve had the gift of working together for 22 years, a partnership that will continue even as our next paths diverge slightly: Jaya will step away from movement work for a time to rest and reset; Tamar will transition into a part-time role at WJP supporting Jess and Michelle as they guide the organization into its next phase.
It has been the honor of a lifetime to learn from and partner with powerful women on both sides of the walls and to fight for justice alongside so many exceptional advocates and colleagues. Over two decades, this remarkable community – led by women directly impacted by incarceration – has made tremendous progress in tackling some of New York’s most dehumanizing policies and chipping away at the unjust power dynamics and devastating culture of punishment fueling incarceration.
Most of all, we treasure the enormously meaningful relationships we have built with so many of you. It has been an absolute privilege to work together and to nurture spaces where people from all walks of life can feel welcomed and supported, center directly impacted women, and lend their talents to make the world a more just and loving place.
Thank you for the partnership, trust, generosity and love you’ve shown us over these past two decades. We hope our paths will continue to cross in the months and years ahead.
With all our love,
Jaya & Tamar
Jaya Vasandani & Tamar Kraft-Stolar
WJP Co-Founders
June 23, 2026
Highlights of the collective work we’re honored to have been part of over the years…
- 2015 – 2026: Forming and building the Women & Justice Project to advance the leadership and build the power of women and gender expansive people who are currently and formerly incarcerated to transform the criminal legal system and society.
- 2015 – 2026: Developing projects and resources and organizing gatherings and events to uplift the experiences and expertise of directly impacted women and gender expansive people.
- 2021 – 2025: Creating the award-winning documentary Beyond Survival which tells the story of the DV Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA) and the leadership of survivors in making change, and building efforts to implement and expand the Act.
- 2021 – 2025: Advancing the right to support during birth in prison, aiding in the development of broader reproductive justice policies, and convening an interdisciplinary group whose work to support incarcerated pregnant people included a compelling report on doula care.
- 2023: Launching unique expressive arts programs, facilitated by women with incarceration experience and artists, for people incarcerated at NY’s Bedford Correctional Facility and Taconic Correctional Facility.
- 2015 – 2020: Facilitating the leadership of women who experienced incarceration in a project to transform the former Bayview prison.
- 2004 – 2015: Building the Correctional Association of New York’s Women in Prison Project, growing leadership initiatives for women in reentry, developing women-specific prison monitoring efforts and reports including the most comprehensive study of reproductive health care in prison to date, and evolving the Coalition for Women Prisoners into NY’s foremost advocacy group focused on women directly impacted by incarceration. Here’s an archive of the Coalition’s work through its sunset in 2021.
- 2004 – 2015: Carrying out successful Coalition for Women Prisoners policy campaigns and projects including:
- 2009 – 2019: DV Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA), a groundbreaking law which overhauls sentencing for survivors in NY. To date, the DVSJA has helped free over 80 people and catalyzed efforts to enact similar laws across the country.
- 2015 and 2009: Anti-Shackling laws that ban the barbaric practice of shackling pregnant people in NY’s prisons and jails.
- 2010: Adoption & Safe Families Act (ASFA) Expanded Discretion law to protect bonds between families separated by prison and the parental rights of incarcerated moms and dads with children in foster care. The law also inspired other states to enact similar statutes.
- 2010: Department of Health Oversight law that, for the first time in the state’s history, required external oversight of HIV and hep C care in NY’s correctional facilities.
- 2009: Expanded funding for family prison visiting programs and advocacy resulting in the launch of the first overnight family trailer program at Albion Correctional Facility, NY’s largest women’s prison.
- 2008 and 2007: Medicaid suspension laws improving access to health care for people upon release from prison and jail in NY.
- 2008 – 2013: An array of resources for directly impacted women, including booklets focused on reentry and
housing and health and parenting library collections in each NY women’s prison.