The WRNA is one of the few assessment instruments that:

1. Does not cost anything once trained. There are no fees per assessment or for licensing.
2. Measures clients’ strengths and protective factors that reduce women’s likelihood of recidivism. This is crucial to recognize among the people we work with in order to enhance motivation and case planning strategies.
3. Measures prior trauma and victimization, as well as PTSD and complex needs.
4. Includes a trauma-informed interview process. Staff trained as end-users on the WRNA are trained on how to deliver trauma-informed interview practices and will not be certified as an end-user without proper demonstration of this skill.
5. Measures women’s criminogenic needs that are not addressed on gender-neutral assessments, such as unhealthy intimate relationships, symptoms of depression and anxiety, parental stress, etc.
6. Is endorsed by the United Nations for adhering to the human rights afforded to women in custody or on community supervision.
7. Is specifically designed from the theories and evidence-base that focus on women’s risks, needs, and strengths.

There are multiple validated risk/needs assessments available for use today. However, while the gender-neutral instruments like the LS/CMI have shown predictive validity with system-involved women there is also significant evidence that it works less effectively with women who follow gendered pathways to crime (characterized by significant prior and current trauma, symptoms of depression/anxiety, unhealthy intimate relationships, etc).Moreover, there is a general consensus in the academic risk assessment literature that male-derived instruments display a pattern of over-classifying system-involved girls’ and women’s risk, putting systems at risk of lawsuits by holding women in more severe conditions than is warranted by their behavior.  

Between 1980 and 2019, the number of incarcerated women in the U.S. increased by 700%. In 2020, the increase since 1980 reduced to 475% due to COVID-related correctional policy changes, but the number is steadily increasing again. Regardless, women continue to be the fastest growing segment of the criminal justice system. Over half of all incarcerated women are detained in local jails, and they generally comprise approximately a quarter of probationers nationally.

The suite of WRNA instruments are considered fourth-generation validated risk/needs/strengths assessments. Three core versions reflect instruments validated for adult women in post-conviction settings: (1) Institutional Intake; (2) Pre-Release; (3) Community/Probation/Post-Release. The WRNA includes the needs and strengths most pertinent to women as identified in multiple validation studies (see the validation studies on the site for the WRNA Lab for more information). The Institutional Intake version is both a custody classification tool and a needs assessment that predicts serious behavioral infractions specific to women, which male-based custody tools often miss.

The suite of WRNA instruments are in the a public-domain. Meaning, there is no ongoing cost for their use. However, there are training and certification costs associated with its implementation. Once an agency is trained and certified, there are no additional costs for using the instrument. A sublicense/user agreement must be signed by any interested agency before WRNA training can occur, which outlines conditions of use. Agencies are also strongly encouraged to consider the cost to automate the WRNA in their Management Systems, or to adopt software available through a third-party. Please reach out to

Yes. A Train the Trainer event occurs after a WRNA end-user training is conducted and is typically done 8-12 months later once there are additional internal staff to be trained. We will train up to 6 trainers to internally deliver training to your agency.

Prior implementation experience indicates that agencies consider the following prior to adopting WRNA: 1) resources to offer gender- and trauma-responsive programming to address women’s risks and needs; 2) political will and leadership support to modify administrative/agency policies regarding the use of a male-based assessment with women; 3) appreciation that gender-responsive risk factors are relevant to future offending; and 4) indicators of strong commitment to a larger gender-responsive strategic agenda throughout the correctional organization, particularly at the executive level.

WRNA is a comprehensive risk/needs/strengths assessment that was developed by women for women involved in the justice system. With a foundational ethos of equity and justice, the current version of WRNA attends to intersectionality in the following ways:

• The interview allows for open-ended questions and responses.
• The instrument reconsiders what criminogenic needs are and has validated the use of scales, including the trauma scales, that were more relevant to the societal impact of gender, race, ethnicity, and social class.
• WRNA was created to support collaborative case planning not solely classification of system-involved women.

Further, a cooperative agreement between UCJC and NIC in 2022 has provided the resources necessary for ongoing updates to training materials and the instrument itself with feedback from end-users.

For instance, at the time of this writing, a diverse group of women with experience working with justice-involved women and WRNA (some of whom are formerly justice-involved themselves) were convened to discuss ways in which WRNA instrument and training materials can be updated to improve outcomes for racially minoritized women. This Diversity Review Team, or DiveRT for short, provided valuable insights for ongoing improvements. Additional components of intersectionality will become the focus of future DiveRTs, such as sexual orientation and disability.

Additionally, your agency will need to develop internal policies and practices to attend to your population. These policies and practices should support the personal and social identities of the system-involved persons you are serving. They should empower those who are being interviewed with dignity and consciousness around their experience. Overall, when completing WRNA assessment and collaborative case planning process, support the individual’s choice of identity, empower them to identify strengths, and authentically acknowledge their lived experience with oppression and discrimination.

It is highly recommended that regular ongoing training and support is provided by leadership for WRNA end-users to support assessment skills with respect to understanding the identities and experiences of those you serve. This includes consideration of the dynamic policy changes on a national, state, county, and city level. It is not enough to practice a blanket acceptance of diversity without critical reflection and ongoing invested empathy that is rooted in your community.

References cited:

Batastini, A. B., Jones, A. C., Patel, M., & Pringer, S. M. (2022). Why correctional service providers and researchers should focus on intersectionality and recommendations to get started. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 49(6), 930-946. https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548221074369  

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039

• Ensure collaborative practices between your end-users, leadership, and data team to capture whether an override occurs and to which level and why. Leadership should take note of whether or not the interview environment felt safe, comfortable, and trauma informed. Discuss with the case worker if they have any thoughts on what may have led the client to withhold the truth. Remind the assessor to non-threateningly inform the client that many questions will be verified through official record.
• Ensure that leadership can regularly generate a report on all override detail (specific questions and risk level overrides). A research team should investigate how often overrides are occurring across assessors. The cutoffs were determined by the original NIC/UC research sites. And an internal review will highlight that cutoff scores may need to be adjusted for your population.
• A validation study should always be examined for each site, ideally after end-users are comfortable with the instrument. Allow for at least 12 months of follow-up to determine if cutoffs need to be re-calibrated with each jurisdiction.