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This month marks the three-year anniversary of New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, which was passed after a decade of visionary organizing by currently and formerly incarcerated survivors and our allies. The legislation is the first sentencing reform of its kind in the country. It allows judges to sentence survivors of abuse to prison terms shorter than required by mandatory minimums and, in some cases, to community-based alternatives to incarceration.

Human Rights Watch is an international non-profit organization dedicated to investigating and monitoring violations of basic human rights throughout the world, including in the United States. Human Rights Watch conducts investigations of human rights abuses in around 100 countries. Our US Program focuses on, among other issues, international human rights law compliance within the criminal legal system.

Criminal justice reform advocates are pushing for reforms that would redefine sentencing laws in New York, including eliminating mandatory minimums and allowing rehabilitating prisoners to ask for reduced sentences. But a rise in violent crime could hinder their momentum.

After more than two decades behind bars, a D.C. man is home after becoming the first to be released under the District of Columbia’s expanded sentencing...

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