Women in Criminal Justice Reform Act
Sponsored By: Representative Kamlager-Dove, Sydney [D-CA-37]
Introduced
Summary
Gender-informed criminal justice reform for women and children. This bill creates rules across arrest, pretrial diversion, sentencing, prisons, and grants so policing, courts, and corrections better address women’s health, trauma, and family needs.
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- Families and children: At arrest, minor or dependent children must have phone access and an opportunity to arrange care, and judges must weigh child welfare and custody risk in pretrial-release decisions.
- Incarcerated women and reentry: Sets gender-responsive Bureau of Prisons standards for health care, trauma treatment, nutrition, menstrual dignity, discipline alternatives, and expands the Resolve Trauma Therapy Program with specified timelines and reporting. It authorizes $5 million per year for FY2027–2031 with at least 30% reserved for staffing and employment mandates.
- Law enforcement, pretrial, and sentencing: Creates a gender-informed training grant with mandatory curricula and minimum training (8 hours per year for academy students) and authorizes $20 million per year for FY2027–2031. It also establishes a federal pretrial diversion program with gender-responsive recidivism-reduction plans, a separate grant to boost women’s representation in policing, limits some conspiracy penalties, and expands judicial discretion for below-guideline sentences in qualifying cases.
*Authorizes new federal spending including $20 million per year for training grants, $5 million per year for recruitment grants, and $5 million per year for Bureau of Prisons staffing and programs, increasing federal spending over FY2027–2031.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Gender‑informed arrest, diversion, sentencing, and release
If enacted, the bill would create a federal pretrial diversion program that lets a court move a defendant or juvenile into a voluntary, gender‑responsive recidivism reduction plan before sentence. Diversion would require a signed waiver of speedy trial and advice of counsel, with counsel appointed for indigent participants. Judges would have to consider the impact on minor children when deciding pretrial detention, and arresting officers would have to let custodial parents call to arrange care and avoid child‑welfare referrals unless care cannot be arranged or there is reasonable cause of abuse or neglect. The bill would expand authority for limited temporary community releases (medical care, juvenile matters up to 30 days, some employer contacts up to 7 days, training, or paid work while officially detained) and require probation officer training in gender‑informed supervision. It would also require courts to consider trauma and allow below‑minimum sentences in specified situations, ban use of acquitted conduct except for mitigation, and limit drug‑conspiracy quantity attribution and conspiracy penalties to fines and imprisonment up to 5 years.
Better health, care, and privacy in prisons
If enacted, the bill would require the Bureau of Prisons to provide gender-responsive medical, dental, and trauma care for people in women’s facilities. It would require OB‑GYN access, intake and annual screenings, Pap/HPV testing at least every three years (or within 48 hours if needed), targeted high‑risk follow-up tests, and contraceptive care when medically recommended. The Resolve trauma-therapy program would be available in Spanish, with access within 12 months of a sentence and prerequisites offered within 60 days of intake, and each facility must staff coordinators and specialists. The bill would ban extreme punitive food practices (including Nutraloaf), set specific fluid and supplement rules for pregnant and lactating people, protect BOP medical records from use in criminal prosecutions, and require multiple reports; it would also authorize $5 million per year for FY2027–2031 with at least 30% for salaries and staffing.
Grants to train and recruit women officers
If enacted, the Attorney General would run a state grant program to fund gender‑informed police training with $20 million authorized each year for FY2027–2031. The Attorney General must identify curricula within 180 days and training would require at least 8 hours per year for academy students and 4 hours per year for other officers, with states certifying completion within two years or losing next‑year eligibility. The bill would also create a grant program to recruit and retain women officers with $5 million authorized each year for FY2027–2031; those grants could pay for outreach, child care at academies, parental‑leave improvements, mentoring, and recruiter training and must be awarded quickly after enactment.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Kamlager-Dove, Sydney [D-CA-37]
CA • D
Cosponsors
Rep. Johnson, Henry C. "Hank," Jr. [D-GA-4]
GA • D
Sponsored 5/21/2026
Del. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large]
DC • D
Sponsored 5/21/2026
Rep. Beatty, Joyce [D-OH-3]
OH • D
Sponsored 5/21/2026
Rep. Simon, Lateefah [D-CA-12]
CA • D
Sponsored 5/21/2026
Rep. Watson Coleman, Bonnie [D-NJ-12]
NJ • D
Sponsored 5/21/2026
Rep. Lee, Summer L. [D-PA-12]
PA • D
Sponsored 5/21/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov