On Saturday, November 2, 2024, Women & Justice Project & Survivors Justice Project hosted nearly 450 people at SVA Theatre for Surviving Injustice, an event to mark the fifth anniversary of New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA) and uplift the leadership of survivors who are currently and formerly incarcerated. Guests watched the premiere of Beyond Survival, our new documentary created in partnership with Kashif. Beyond Survival features survivors freed under the DVSJA, survivors denied resentencing, campaign leaders, legislators, judges, and others working to implement the law.
We are deeply grateful to all who donated, supported, and attended this very special evening. If you weren’t able to join us, you can sign up here for updates on future Beyond Survival screenings.
Keep reading to see photos, a virtual event program, and ways to get involved!
Professional photography by Keith Major
Surviving Injustice Event Program
6:30pm – Doors open
7:00pm – Welcome
7:05pm – Premiere of Beyond Survival
8:05pm – Honoring DVSJA community
8:30pm – Closing
More about tonight’s hosts
Women & Justice Project (WJP) works in deep partnership to advance the leadership and build the power of women and gender expansive people who are currently and formerly incarcerated to transform the criminal legal system and create a just and loving world.
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. SJP fights for the decarceration of DV survivors by ensuring robust implementation and expansion of the DVSJA.
Kashif Incubator designs original pathways into filmmaking through a practice in equity-access, which dismantles historic barriers placed on storytellers and fosters new approaches driven by inclusivity and co-creation. We are artists and activists focused on incubating, developing, financing, and producing stories with BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, gender nonconforming, disabled and veteran filmmakers.
More about tonight’s film
Beyond Survival tells the story of the decade-long fight to pass New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, the ongoing effort to implement and expand the Act, and the powerful leadership of currently and formerly incarcerated survivors in creating systemic change.
Over the past two years, we are proud to have partnered with a talented team of filmmakers, survivors, legislators, judges, attorneys, and other advocates to create this film.
We hope Beyond Survival contributes to making sure the DVSJA lives up to its promise – both to free survivors and to help spur broader change in the criminal legal system and society.
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More about the DVSJA
The U.S. incarcerates more people and more women than any other country in the world. Over the past 50 years, the women’s prison population has skyrocketed 1,500%. Women of color and women from low-income communities are dramatically overrepresented, a direct result of the criminal legal system’s racism and inequity.
Domestic violence is a primary driver of women’s incarceration. Nowhere is this link more stark than in situations involving survivors charged with crimes related to the abuse they suffered. Instead of offering compassion and support, the criminal legal system punishes survivors, routinely moving forward with arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment.
New York’s DVSJA is a tool to challenge this punishment. After a 10-year campaign organized by the Coalition for Women Prisoners and led by currently and formerly incarcerated women, the DVSJA was enacted into law in 2019.
The DVSJA gives judges discretion to sentence survivors convicted of crimes related to abuse to significantly shorter prison terms or, in some cases, to community-based alternatives. It also allows incarcerated survivors convicted before the Act was passed to apply for resentencing to come home earlier.
As a result of determined advocacy by survivors and legal teams, the DVSJA has been used to secure the release of 68 survivors, saving 175 years of incarceration to date. The Act has also been used to reduce initial sentences, although we do not have exact data because courts are not tracking this information.
While this progress is hopeful, more needs to be done. Some survivors have been denied relief under the DVSJA, some are excluded from the Act’s provisions, and many have yet to apply.
In addition, while the DVSJA is groundbreaking, it is only one step in the larger effort to transform our criminal legal system and end gender-based violence.
As of September 2024
survivors have been resentenced after filing DVJSA applications
This has saved over
years of incarceration
including
potential life sentences
Had the survivors been originally sentenced under the DVSJA, over
years of needless prison time would have been avoided.
Survivors Justice Project is the only group tracking DVSJA data.
Thank you
We are deeply grateful for the incredible DVSJA community – the survivors who led the campaign and continue to lead with expertise and determination, the policymakers who fought against the odds, the legal teams who battle in the courts, the hundreds of individuals and organizations that advocated, and the hundreds more who continue to stand up and speak out.
This night is for you.
