About SJP
The Survivors Justice Project (SJP) is a collective of activists, lawyers, social workers, students, and researchers—many of whom are survivors of domestic violence and long-term incarceration—who are working for the decarceration of domestic violence survivors. We do this through ensuring robust implementation and expansion of the New York State Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA) and other vital sentencing reforms across the country.
“It is crucial that this project is rooted in the perspectives of those most impacted. When given a chance, those impacted have the understanding that can lead to solutions, movements, education, law.”
— Kathy Boudin
Our Commitment
We are a COLLECTIVE of advocates, lawyers, social workers, activists, researchers, and teachers. Most of us have been incarcerated, many of us have experienced domestic violence, and all of us are committed to deeply participatory work by and with impacted women.
Our shared commitments include a deep LOVE and appreciation for the gifts that each of us brings. We ground our work—legal, research, resource building, organizing, advocacy—in the knowledge held by the women most impacted by domestic violence and the carceral state, and we bring a strong INTERSECTIONAL lens attentive to how racism, classism, and sexism intersect in the criminal legal system.
We believe in SOLIDARITY across networks and work at multiple levels: documenting the impact of state law, working across distinct regions in the state, training judges and defense attorneys, collaborating with survivors in prison and advocacy groups on the outside, and building individual cases. We bring wisdom, struggle, pain, experience, and joy to our collective work. We have evolved a PRAXIS of litigation, organizing, education, policy, research, and social work to ensure the accessibility of this powerful law.
SJP has eight specific goals:
Identify and support survivors going through the DVSJA process; Expand assistance, build capacity, and develop resources for attorneys working with survivors on DVSJA applications and resentencing cases
Educate the public and policy makers about the DVSJA and issues surrounding the criminalization of survivors
Open up conversations with stakeholders about trauma, domestic violence, and DVSJA eligibility
Build community among criminalized survivors and uplift their voices
Collect data related to DVSJA resentencing, track implementation and analyze lessons learned
Inform and promote policy to advance the promise of DVSJA for ALL survivors
Share DVSJA-related information with advocates across the state and country, particularly those interested in DVSJA replication efforts
Support advocacy efforts to advance decarceration and restorative alternatives
History of SJP
After the DVSJA was passed in 2019, it was clear that a vast network of lawyers, advocates, social workers, researchers, and organizers would need to mobilize to assure that survivors would be able to access the law’s relief. That is how the Survivors Justice Project was born.
Meet the Team
The SJP team is a multidisciplinary team of lawyers, advocates, social workers, researchers, organizers, and survivors. The team spearheads the implementation of the DVSJA by supporting survivors and legal teams, and educating those who hold power in the criminal legal system.
Trainings
Our trainings help survivors, advocates, service providers, and lawyers understand, apply, and utilize the DVSJA.
Resources