Policy Agenda 2011

SECURING JUSTICE FOR SURVIVORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Domestic violence and women’s pathways to prison are inextricably linked: an estimated 82% of incarcerated women in New York were severely physically and/or sexually abused as children and 75% suffered severe physical violence by an intimate partner during adulthood.

The Women in Prison Project, in partnership with the Coalition for Women Prisoners, has launched a major campaign to enact the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA). If enacted, the DVSJA would:

  • allow courts to take DV into consideration when determining sentencing; authorize judges to sentence survivors to shorter prison terms and alternative-to-incarceration programs, and
  • permit currently incarcerated survivors to apply for resentencing.

This bill (S.5436/A.7874) is sponsored by Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson and Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry.

For more information about the DVSJA, contact Jaya Vasandani, Women in Prison Project Associate Director at 212-254-5700 x334 or jvasandani@correctionalassociation.org.

GET INVOLVED:

  • Get your organization to send a letter of support. For a template of the letter, email Jaya.
  • To view a list of the organizations already signed onto our support memo, click here.

MORE INFO:

  • From Protection to Punishment, Post-Conviction Barriers to Justice for Domestic Violence Survivor-Defendants in New York State, a report from the Women in Prison Project and the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School [read more]
  • Survivors of Abuse in Prison fact sheet [download]
  • Strength of a Woman, a documentary the Project produced about incarcerated survivors of abuse [order a copy]