Survivors of violence seek to promote safety, healing with new legislative priorities

BATON ROUGE, LA - Everyone deserves safety regardless of identity, location or access to resources. In Louisiana, however, as in many other states, survivors of violence face severe barriers to safety both during and in the aftermath of harm. This legislative session, state lawmakers have multiple opportunities to dissolve these barriers.

In instances when their safety is threatened, it is common for survivors of violence to defend themselves. Too often, however, this self-defense is misinterpreted in the eyes of the law, and the survivor becomes criminalized and incarcerated. In cases where survivors are successfully able to get out of harm’s way, they, too, face different obstacles to healing. For example, the Crime Victims Compensation Fund in theory is available for all survivors, but in reality there are severe restrictions on who can access it. For example, in order to receive these reparative funds, survivors must report what happened within 72 hours and they must fill out the application for funds on a relatively short timeline. These requirements are more strict than those of the Federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA).

“Survivors often find themselves between a rock and a hard place,” says Katie Hunter-Lowrey, Crime Survivor Organizer with the Promise of Justice Initiative (PJI). “They need safety, healing, and support, but instead they get wedged between barriers that are ineffective at best and further traumatizing at worst.”

This session, Louisiana Survivors for Reform, a coalition spearheaded by PJI, will be working with legislators to increase survivors’ access to safety in Louisiana. SB 251, championed by Senator Regina Ashford Barrow, will allow for experts to provide evidence that survivors of abuse were acting in self-defense. HB 648, championed by Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, will remove the aforementioned barriers to the Crime Victims Compensation Fund, as well as increase award amounts and add relocation services as a reimbursable cost. If passed, these bills will have positive impacts on the health, safety and livelihoods of survivors across the state.

“We’re so grateful to our legislative champions for standing with survivors,” says Hunter-Lowrey. “These policies are the next step in a pathway to holistic and transformative healing for everyone who has experienced harm.”

Members of the public can follow the progress of these bills here and contact their representatives here.

Key staff related to these efforts are available for additional questions or comments upon request.

Contact Information: 

Katie Hunter-Lowrey (she/her, they/them)

Crime Survivor Organizer, The Promise of Justice Initiative

khunterlowrey@defendla.org, 504-535-4912

About Louisiana Survivors for Reform
Louisiana Survivors for Reform (LSR) is a coalition of survivors of interpersonal and systemic violence, homicide victims’ families, and organizations creating change in the criminal justice system. We are a group with a multitude of identities, and backgrounds united in the conviction that any approach to reform needs to include the voices of those directly impacted by the current system. We believe the voice of every survivor should be heard and that the primary focus of reform should be supporting all impacted individuals and communities, investment in crime prevention strategies, and restorative justice that is trauma-informed. Learn more about our survivors support group meetings and our organizing at https://bit.ly/LSReform.