Collaborating Within & Beyond Systems That Divide: Insights on Criminal Legal System Reform and Criminalized Survivors

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

The CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG) will explore how cross-sector, participatory collaboration can drive meaningful, innovative, and sustainable policy and systems change. Together, facilitators will present and reflect on lessons learned, complexities navigated, and possibilities opened through these distinct yet complementary approaches and invite discussion around a central set of questions governing policy making around gender-based issues. This roundtable will be grounded in three interconnected projects focused on justice-impacted women and criminalized survivors of gender-based violence:

1)    The Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC): In 2015, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation launched the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) – an initiative that supports a diverse network of more than 57 jurisdictions across the country in developing and implementing reforms that change how localities conceive of and use jail incarceration. While jurisdictions across the country made substantial progress in reducing their jail populations prior to and during the pandemic, rising jail populations in a post-pandemic world have disproportionately impacted women – the jail population for women has increased by 38 percent from Feb/Apr 2021 to Feb/Apr 2024 compared to only 12 percent for men in 16 implementation jurisdictions. To dive deeper into this trend, we analyzed changes in the charges bringing women to jail pre- and post-pandemic, finding that the types of new charges bringing women to jail have changed substantially since 2021. In its final year, the SJC will focus on justice reform based in the experiences of women and survivors, including developing more and better interventions to address the critical needs of women and survivors in SJC site jail systems.

2)    The Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Project: The GBV Project, launched in 2024, is a participatory research initiative led by CUNY ISLG in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV), with support from the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. The project is focused on understanding how survivors of gender-based violence— particularly those who have been impacted by the criminal legal system— navigate support services across NYC. It also aims to surface opportunities for government agencies and service providers to strengthen their approaches and better meet survivors’ needs. The project challenges traditional policy decision-making structures by employing collaborative leadership and survivor-driven knowledge — centering survivors of criminalization as co-researchers and strategists, co-leading every phase of the work with the ISLG team, and shaping policy and practice. The project is grounded in shared trust and a commitment to valuing lived experience as essential expertise.

3) The Domestic Violence Survivor Justice Act (DVSJA): In May 2019, the New York State legislature passed this groundbreaking legislation - a first-of-its-kind law that provides more just sentencing for survivors of domestic violence whose convictions are directly connected to their abuse. What makes the DVSJA especially powerful is who created it: the law was conceived of and written by incarcerated women, many of whom were criminalized for surviving violence. Their lived experiences shaped a transformative piece of legislation, demonstrating the power of directly impacted people to lead policy change.

Policy Area

• Crime, Justice, and Drugs

Secondary Policy Area

• Social Equity and Race

Moderator

• Miriam Goodman, CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance

Organizer

• Bryn Hill, CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance

Speakers

• Mia Greco, CUNY Graduate Center

• Kate Mogulescu, Brooklyn Law School

• Bryn Hill, CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance