The chapter discusses lesson-drawing in penal justice; cross-national lessons for gender-specific projects; cross-national issues for gender-specific projects; exemplary lessons in gender-specific penality; and fundamental lessons about the logic and legitimacy of penal incarceration and its alternatives. Interviews were conducted with the managers of a range of custodial and non-custodial gender-specific projects in the United States, the United Kingdom, Scotland, Australia, and Israel. The findings suggest that in order to manage effective program survival without loss of identity, integrity, and effectiveness, gender-specific criminal justice projects for women should maintain seven characteristics. These are as follows: evolutionary and flexible organization; democratic ownership of innovation; holism in relation to interagency working, women's requirements, and the spatial proximity of multiagency provision; insistence on a realistic approach to drug rehabilitation; resistance to the erosion of gender specificity; a vision based on explicit principles of how humans should be treated; and excellent public relations. Separate sections of the chapter discuss the use of ex-offenders or ex-drug users as staff members (favored by all of the non-custodial projects) and program accountability. Exemplary lessons are drawn from profiles of the New South Wales Drugs Court (Australia) for both male and female offenders and the Parramatta Transitional Prison in New South Wales, which provides an impressive model for rehabilitating women serving long sentences. 4 notes