Today’s guest is Dorchen Leidholdt, the Legal Director of the NYC domestic violence agency, Sanctuary for Families.  In her main role, Dorchen heads the agency’s legal services for survivors of gender-based violence, including providing support for obtaining orders of protection, immigration, sex trafficking.

In addition to this important work, Dorchen also leads the “Incarcerated Gender Violence Survivors Initiative” a collaboration among legal and social service agencies, law firms, advocacy groups, former judges and incarcerated survivors committed to assisting survivors of gender-based incarceration in NYS.  Our conversation will focus on this Initiative and the systemic context of the criminal justice system, its policies and practices that exact a heavy toll on victims and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, and its intersection with gender, race, class and disability.  If you know of an incarcerated survivor of gender violence who needs representation, please contact Dorchen at dorchen@sffny.org.

During our conversation, Dorchen and I reference the following resources:

• Statistics from the ACLU on Female Incarceration
• Sarah Buel's documentary Defending Our Lives
• 14-1868.html">Matter of Rossakis v New York State Bd. of Parole and the role the case had in initiating Sanctuary for Families' work with incarcerated gender violence survivors
• Sarah Bennett clemency campaign for Linda White
• The COMPAS test and its use in assessing probation risk
• Federal Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) requires termination of parental rights when children have been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months

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