2026 session priorities
The following priorities highlight focus areas for CCADV to strengthen both statutory and administrative policy and practice that help domestic violence survivors to achieve safety and stability. The policy priorities seek to address the large number of complex factors that impact the ability of both the survivor and the family as a whole to live a life free from violence.
Trauma-informed sentencing for gender-based violence survivors
CCADV and our sister coalitions, CT Alliance to End Sexual Violence and CT Children’s Alliance, along with Love146, a leader in anti-child trafficking and exploitation efforts, have partnered to support the Survivors Justice Act (SJA).
The SJA significantly reduces harm to gender-based violence survivors in Connecticut by giving the justice system the power to reduce a survivor’s punishment if domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking or trafficking were related to the commission of their offense. It also allows currently incarcerated survivors to apply for sentence modification under certain circumstances and with defined documentary evidence.
Studies consistently show a strong correlation between gender-based violence and a higher risk of incarceration. For survivors, the most common pathways into criminalization include housing insecurity, drug use, and coercion into an offense by an abuser. For instance, in New York, a survivor who received relief under the SJA had an abusive boyfriend who threatened to harm her children if she did not serve as a driver in his robberies. The SJA mitigates the double punishment many survivors face: the abuse itself and the criminalization of common survival strategies, as well as ensures Connecticut law keeps pace with our evolving understanding of gender-based violence.
Currently the SJA is law in New York, Oklahoma, Georgia and Illinois, with proposed legislation being considered in Massachusetts, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Oregon.
SJA Factsheet
Addressing housing stability and confidentiality
Domestic violence remains the leading cause of homelessness among women and children. Access to safe, stable, affordable housing is a key piece of a domestic violence survivor’s ability to stay safe and prevent them and their children from remaining in an abusive home and experiencing further violence. Victims are often limited in the locations and types of housing they can access because of their unique safety and confidentiality needs, and because 99% of them are subjected to financial abuse, resulting in poor credit scores and lack of access to family money or assets when attempting to leave and establish a new living arrangement.
This session we’ll work to elevate the understanding that policymakers have of the impact of financial abuse on survivors seeking new living arrangements. Mirrored after a law in Virginia, we’ll seek to ensure that a survivor’s poor credit score is not a barrier to securing a residential lease. We’ll also work to expand the confidentiality protections afforded to domestic and sexual violence survivors under our state’s Address Confidentiality Program by ensuring that land records for survivors are not publicly available, similar to existing law in Maryland.
Full 2026 Policy Priorities
