#freethemny

Cuomo Denies Clemency to Criminalized Survivors of Gender Violence

For the eighth straight year, Governor Cuomo has refused to use his clemency power to combat the rampant criminalization of efforts to survive sexual and domestic violence. Survived and Punished NY denounces the governor’s decision to double down on his inaction, effectively abandoning incarcerated survivors of gender violence.

Over the past year, Survived and Punished NY has corresponded and visited with dozens of criminalized survivors—people caged because their efforts to survive sexual and domestic violence were criminalized—as part of our #FreeThemNY campaign. We have compiled 15 criminalized survivors’ stories, with new stories coming in. These fighters agreed to take their stories public as part of a collective demand for recognition of their dignity and their right to survive.

Governor Cuomo could free these people today; indeed, he has indicated that his office would take a very close look at clemency applications for domestic violence survivors. Under the New York Constitution, Cuomo has the sole discretion and virtually unlimited power to grant clemency—either in the form of a pardon (erasing a criminal record), or a commutation of a sentence (reducing the length of a sentence so as to release someone earlier). After granting the first and only commutation of his eight-year tenure to a criminalized survivor, Valerie Seeley, in 2016, Cuomo’s Counsel said the governor “absolutely” planned to keep using clemency for criminalized survivors, and explained that his office had created a domestic violence “subgroup” because “we know that [survivors] have historically been incarcerated for domestic violence.” In the meantime, Cuomo continues to cast himself as a champion for survivors, for women in general, and for criminal justice.

Yet when it comes to criminalized survivors, Cuomo continues to be MIA. On New Year’s Eve, Cuomo granted a total of 29 clemencies—22 pardons and 7 commutations. This is wonderful for these individuals, their families, and their communities.. Yet none of the 29 clemencies benefited incarcerated survivors of domestic violence. Of the 29, only four women were pardoned, and not one woman received a commutation. This flies in the face of the fact that Black, Latina and Native women, as well as transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) people, are the fastest growing populations in prison, all disproportionately affected by gender violence and mass incarceration. For survivors, women, and TGNC people, Cuomo’s cold shoulder to clemency contradicts his cultivated public image as a “champion” for gender and sexual violence.

In fact, Cuomo has no grounds on which to call himself a “champion” of anything related to criminal justice reform. Daily, there are close to 200,000 New Yorkers under correctional control, including 50,000 in prison and 27,000 in local jails (most because they cannot afford bail). Even compared to Republican governors, Cuomo is failing survivors, specifically women and TGNC people. This month, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam granted clemency to Cyntoia Brown—who, at 16, was doing survival sex work and killed a client  in self-defense—after years of pressure from organizers and her family. Also this month, Ohio Governor John Kasich granted clemency to Thomia Hunter, who killed her abusive ex-partner in self-defense. Kasich and Haslam—both Republicans with regressive criminal justice records—have recently outperformed Cuomo.  In addition, it is worth noting that between 2011 and when he left office last month, Governor Jerry Brown pardoned 1,332 individuals. Despite having promised in 2015 to broaden the availability of clemency, Cuomo’s actions are paltry in comparison to his peers. Cuomo has still only commuted 19 sentences in eight years.

For Cuomo, clemency appears to be a way to brand himself in opposition to Trump and cast himself as a so-called progressive. Pardoning immigrants facing deportation appears to be the predominant theme in Cuomo’s clemency grants, which Cuomo positions as a rebuke to Trump’s “war on our immigrant communities.” Survived and Punished celebrates that some are spared deportation as a collateral benefit of Cuomo’s public relations campaign, but Cuomo’s thirst for national headlines (and possibly national office) has not translated into concrete benefits for criminalized survivors. Perhaps, if principle alone isn’t enough, Governor Cuomo should do more than pay lip service to the #MeToo movement and diversify his headline-seeking by taking action against gender violence as well.

Criminalizing survivors "disappear[s] them into the system," ensuring they no longer exist in the mind of the public. Cuomo reinforces this disappearance and disposability by abandoning survivors to the criminal punishment system, often condemning them to relive the gender violence in prison. His actions indicate that he views survivors as categorically undeserving of clemency.

We are watching Governor Cuomo. We demand that he keep his promise on clemency and use this power to free criminalized survivors—not next New Year's eve—but now, and continuously throughout the year.

From Peepshow Podcast: Episode 38 is our first episode of 2019! 

This week we feature an interview with Red, a New York City-based Marxist/feminist community organizer sex working art historian. Red’s organizing efforts sit at the intersection of art, politics, and labor. In addition to a discussion of the prison industrial complex as it relates to sex work politics, we talked to Red about the work they have done curating the art exhibit Whores Will Rise.

For the news segment, we invited back Kate D’Adamo to talk about the clemency granted to Cyntoia Brown’s, how we got here, and organizing around similar cases.

We're over the moon about this latest Letter Writing resource from Survived and Punished!

So much love and appreciation to everyone who came out and joined us for our letter writing event last night, co-hosted by our dear comrades Survived & Punished New York and Red Light Reader.

The evening was filled with food, and stories and meeting new comrades and catching up with old friends. Together we wrote 77 letters to criminalized survivors of violence and incarcerated sex working people.

Many thanks to Bluestockings Bookstore, Café, & Activist Center for hosting and providing space, and for always affirming sex working organizers and events.

Proud to have joined Survived & Punished NY for a light board action on Tuesday, September 11th, 2018 at Foley Square to demand the immediate release and sentence commutation of our incarcerated comrades. 

We want to give a special shout out to Mariame Kaba of Survived and Punished, Project NIA, Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Girls & Young Women.

Her latest walking tour, "Slavery & Resistance in NYC," explored historically relevent sites across lower Manhattan. It was graciously offered in solidarity with #InternationalWhoresDay direct actions.

From the walking tour's description: "This walking tour will discuss how Blacks contributed to building New York and how they struggled for their freedom. We will visit the African Slave Market on Wall Street, stops on the Underground Railroad, the African Burial Ground and other sites important to the histories of slavery and resistance in NYC. It covers the years from the early 17th century though the mid-19th century (1626-1865)."