New York Reentry Roundtable

All too often the criminal justice system’s response to Domestic Violence (DV) survivors who act to protect themselves from an abuser’s violence is to send them to prison, often for many years. Instead of giving survivors who have suffered life-shattering abuse compassion and assistance, we give them harsh punishment and prison. Instead of providing protection, the criminal justice system becomes just one more entity in the continuum of violence in survivors’ lives. One of the main problems is that the law’s mandatory sentencing provisions force judges to send survivors to prison for long periods of time even when they think an alternative-to-incarceration program or a lower sentence is more appropriate. The DV Survivors Justice Act would change this.  By untying judges’ hands and giving them discretion in these cases, the Act would help restore humanity and justice to the way we treat survivors who protect themselves. Join us for a screening of a short documentary about DV survivors in the criminal justice system, followed by a panel discussion on what advocates are doing to bring long overdue relief to survivors who have been incarcerated for years. Please see attached flyer for more information.

Please RSVP to Gabriel Torres-Rivera at [email protected]