LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 3, 2026) — Megan Trafford, MS, lecturer in criminal justice in the University of Kentucky College of Social Work (CoSW), has been selected to receive the Southern Criminal Justice Association (SCJA) Student and Untenured Faculty Travel Award in recognition of her research examining the experiences of incarcerated women participating in the Horizon Prison Initiative.
The competitive award will support Trafford’s participation in the 2026 SCJA Annual Conference, held Sept. 14-18 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This year’s conference brings together criminal justice scholars, practitioners and students to share research and examine emerging issues across the field.
Trafford’s recognition comes as the College expands its own presence within the criminal justice community. Across nine conference sessions and events, CoSW faculty and scholars will present research, chair panels and participate in interdisciplinary discussions exploring issues ranging from artificial intelligence and online harms to incarceration and reentry, substance use, juvenile justice, community-engaged research and cultural narratives surrounding crime and masculinity.
Trafford is collaborating with Sarah Lazzari, Ph.D., of the Oregon Department of Corrections, on a study titled “‘It makes me feel more comfortable going back to society’: Insights from participants of the Horizon Prison Initiative.”
Their work examines the Horizon Prison Initiative (HPI), a nonprofit correctional program that has served incarcerated individuals for more than 20 years through education, training and mentorship. Grounded in a strengths-based approach, the program emphasizes personal agency, skill development, social connection and community engagement as participants prepare for life following incarceration.
The research comes at a time when women represent a rapidly changing segment of the incarcerated population in the United States. Between 1980 and 2021, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 500%, according to research compiled by The Sentencing Project.
Women also often enter and experience the criminal justice system differently than men. Research has consistently identified high rates of childhood trauma, victimization, substance use and family instability among justice-involved women. At the same time, much of the correctional and reentry programming historically used in the United States has been developed around the experiences of incarcerated men.
Those differences make research focused specifically on women and on how they experience programs intended to support rehabilitation and reintegration particularly important.
“These women are more than just statistics – they are people with their own rich histories, relationships, and experiences that shape how they enter and move through the criminal legal system,” said Trafford. “If we want to understand incarceration as a social problem, and effectively address rehabilitation, reentry, and recidivism, we cannot continue to treat the experiences of women as secondary to those of men.”
Trafford and Lazzari’s study is among the first to evaluate HPI’s impact and focuses on 132 residents of a women’s prison in Ohio.
Participants completed surveys that included the Measure of Criminogenic Thinking Styles, an assessment designed to examine thinking patterns associated with criminal behavior. According to the researchers, the measure had not previously been applied to a population of incarcerated women.
Participants also took part in focus groups exploring their experiences within Horizon, allowing the research team to examine not only measurable outcomes, but how women themselves understood the program and its role in their lives.
Preliminary qualitative findings identified themes of personal fulfillment, encouragement, social support, and hope for the future. Participants also described challenges involving power dynamics within HPI’s program households, providing a more complex picture of both the benefits and limitations participants experienced.
The paper’s title — “‘It makes me feel more comfortable going back to society’” — draws directly from a participant’s description of that experience and reflects the study’s emphasis on elevating the perspectives of incarcerated women.
Trafford and Lazzari are continuing their final qualitative analysis and development of the manuscript. Their work contributes to a growing body of research examining strengths-based correctional programming and how interventions can better support rehabilitation, community connection, and successful reintegration following incarceration.
The SCJA travel award recognizes Trafford’s contributions to that work while providing an opportunity to share the research with criminal justice scholars and practitioners from across the country.
Trafford joined the UK College of Social Work in 2025 and teaches within the College’s criminal justice programs. Her research interests include human rights, victimization, gendered and sexual violence, technology-facilitated harms, and forensic psychology. She is also completing her Ph.D. in criminal justice at the University of New Haven.