Jaya Vasandani

Jaya Vasandani is Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Women & Justice Project (WJP), which works in deep partnership to advance the leadership and build the power of currently and formerly incarcerated cis and trans women to transform the criminal legal system and create a just and loving world. From 2004-2015, Jaya worked at the Correctional Association of New York’s Women in Prison Project where she helped manage the Project, including leading coalition-building and organizing efforts, policy campaigns, and prison monitoring visits. Jaya has helped lead several successful policy campaigns, including for New York State laws that ban the shackling of incarcerated pregnant women and establish alternative sentencing guidelines for criminalized DV survivors. Jaya also previously worked at the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Center for Women Policy Studies. She holds a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a BSFS from Georgetown University.