Commitments

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.  

“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

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. 

 

“As soon as I was released I joined SJP and it empowered me. When I say I’m a survivor now, with this group, I feel more powerful. I feel strong in that identity. And I feel the group has given me that. In other spaces I always feel a level of pity and I want to say to people, ‘I don’t need your pity; I want your anger.’ But I don’t feel that pity here.”

— Patrice Smith

 

SJP has seven specific goals:

  1. Identify incarcerated survivors potentially eligible for sentencing relief under the DVSJA

  2. 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

  3. Educate judges about the DVSJA and issues surrounding the criminalization of survivors

  4. Open up conversations with prosecutors around trauma, domestic violence, and DVSJA cases

  5. Enhance community supports for criminalized survivors

  6. Collect data related to the DVSJA, track implementation and analyze lessons learned

  7. Share DVSJA-related information with advocates across the state and country, particularly those interested in DVSJA replication efforts