194th Legislative Session: 2025-2026

JDI’s current policy efforts fall into five broad areas for advocacy and change: Access to Safety and Justice for Survivors , Housing and Economic Justice, Racial Equity, Sexual and Domestic Violence Education/Prevention, and Human Dignity. Legislation and policy efforts may fit into more than one of these categories. JDI’s approach to our systems change work is intentionally intersectional as we engage in many area of policy that affects the lives, choices, and safety of survivors and addresses the root causes of violence. Some policy efforts will focus on specific provisions related to sexual and/or domestic violence; many will address broader policies that are critically important to the lives of survivors and their families and to supporting healthier, safer, and more equitably resourced communities. 

Key Grounding Principles

• JDI and our member programs work on behalf of all victims and survivors of sexual and domestic violence.
• Multiple societal factors affect the lives of survivors, determine levels of access to support, and/or further marginalization and victimization. These include, but are not limited to, white supremacy, racism and anti-Blackness, colonialism, sexism and misogyny, rape culture, homo-/bi-/trans- phobia, xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment, and ableism.
• Centering the most marginalized (unserved, underserved and inadequately served) individuals and communities will improve outcomes for all of those who experience violence in their lives.  A focus on the impact of systems and legislation on these communities will inform all policy efforts.
• In upholding our commitment to racial equity and the dignity and human rights of all people, we assess the impact of public policy on communities of color, especially Black and brown communities, who are disproportionately represented in and harmed by the criminal legal system and challenge policies that contribute to mass incarceration. To this end, we do not support increasing penalties for offenses that are already criminalized in Massachusetts.
• Needs-based, adequate state funding is essential to support the life-saving (free and confidential) efforts of community-based sexual and domestic violence programs to support survivors and promote safe and violence free communities.
• Our work cannot be achieved in a vacuum; it requires collaborations, partnerships and communications with multiple stakeholders. Our policy work builds on community organizing and community building.
• Because language choice in policy and systems advocacy is central in establishing both intent and effect, we will promote the use of people-first language in our policy advocacy (e.g. survivors who are undocumented; people who have caused harm, people with disabilities)

2025-2026 Priority and Supported Legislation

Access to Safety and Justice for Survivors

A top priority for JDI is ensuring that survivors can access systems as safely as possible when trying to seek relief. JDI supports policies that enhance survivor access to courts and the legal system, while prioritizing safety and healing.

2025-2026 Priority and Supported Legislation:

*HD.3636/SD.94 An Act Relative to Controlling and Abusive Litigation

The misuse of the court system by people who cause harm to further tactics of abusive power and control is referred to as abusive litigation. These tactics can force survivors to appear repeatedly in court at their emotional and financial expense. This bill provides courts with a tool to curb abusive litigation and mitigate its harms.

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Natalie Blais & Sen. Michael Moore

HD.3355/SD.1168: An Act Relative to Domestic Violence Reports and Confidentiality

This bill establishes a task force to study and create recommendations around updating MA’s secrecy law around sexual assault and domestic violence-related police reports. The goal of the task force is to address the gaps and shortcomings of the law and balance survivor privacy and access to information.

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Andy Vargas & Sen. John Velis

Economic Justice

Economic justice is critical for all individuals in the Commonwealth, including victims and survivors who face significant economic barriers after experiencing violence. Economic inequity and abuse is often a tool to disempower and trap survivors in abusive and unsafe situations. To remove these barriers, JDI supports a broad range of policy and legislative changes to improve survivors’ access and outcomes related to employment, public benefits, housing, and health care.

2025-2026 Priority and Supported Legislation:

*HD.3719/SD. 1731: An Act Supporting Survivors Through Financial Assistance

Many survivors are economically impacted by the effects of trauma and victimization, and the restrictions that exist around funding available for community-based organizations make it challenging to support the diverse needs of survivors. This bill establishes the Flexible Assistance for Survivors Grant Program to make unrestricted support available for survivors to access through community-based programs.

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Sally Kerans & Sen. Robyn Kennedy

 HD.2894/SD.1745: An Act Providing Civil Legal Remedies for Victims of Economic Abuse

This bill addresses coerced debt, where survivors of abuse have been forced to acquire debt through threats, forgery, or identity theft. It aims to address economic abuse by shifting financial responsibility for coerced debt on to people causing harm, removing the economic burden on survivors.

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Brandy Fluker-Reid & Sen. Robyn Kennedy

Racial Equity

Without racial equity there can be no end to gender-based violence. Racial injustices in all its forms are the manifestation of white supremacy culture that uses power and control mechanisms to disenfranchise a specific group of people. Power and control are hallmark tools used to perpetrate abuse and violence in the context of sexual and domestic violence. As part of JDIs practice of centering the experiences of historically marginalized and disenfranchised people, advancing racial equity policies are central to our efforts of prevention, addressing and responding to sexual and domestic violence. Racial equity is necessary for all individuals in the Commonwealth, including victims and survivors.

 2025-2026 Priority and Supported Legislation:

*HD. 4009/SD. 803: An Act Relative to Justice for Survivors (Massachusetts Survivors Act)

The Massachusetts Survivors Act creates alternative and resentencing avenues for survivors of family violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking whose transgressions were connected to their abuse. It also allows for the expungement and sealing of a survivor’s record so they face fewer barriers to re-entry. This bill recognizes that incarcerating survivors only fuels cycles of harm and that we need to push for decarceration to allow for survivors to heal.

Lead Sponsors: Reps. Christine Barber and Brandy Fluker-Reid & Sen. Michael Rush

HD.523/SD. 671: An Act Establishing a Jail and Prison Construction Moratorium

Massachusetts continues to increase spending on incarceration even though the number of people in prisons and jails has decreased. This bill will pause the construction of any new prisons or jails in Massachusetts for 5 years, giving the Commonwealth an opportunity to shift spending priorities to invest in communities. Our local communities hold the knowledge to create sustainable solutions that address the root causes of incarceration.

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Chynah Tyler & Sen. Joanne Comerford

HD.3876/SD. 1757: An Act Relative to Language Access and Inclusion

Survivors need access to accurate, trauma-informed translation services when they seek support from social services and state agencies. This bill shines a light on the gaps that currently exist in language access in state institutions and requires state agencies to meet language access needs.   

Lead Sponsors: Reps. Adrian Madaro and Carlos González & Sen. Sal DiDomenico

Education & Prevention

A key strategy to ending sexual and domestic violence is to increase access to education and prevention resources so that sexual and domestic violence do not occur in the first place. This includes social norms change and broad-based education for youth, parents, educators, and all community members. Prevention and intervention are interconnected components of the work of community-based sexual and domestic violence organizations. Funding must be available for prevention efforts across the lifespan in order to reduce violence and to promote a vision for non-violence and equity.

 2025-2026 Priority and Supported Legislation:

HD.947/SD.1777: An Act Relative to Healthy Youth

Educating youth on how to identify and have healthy, respectful relationships free of abusive behavior is critical to preventing and ending sexual and domestic violence. This bill ensures that sexuality education, when taught, is age appropriate, and medically accurate and the requires data to be collected on how sex ed is taught.

Lead Sponsors: Sen. Sal DiDomenico & Reps. James O’Day and Vanna Howard

Human Dignity

Human rights for all people are essential to a world free of violence and oppression and to addressing societal inequities. Survivors who are members of communities of color, immigrant communities, LGBQ/T communities, Muslim communities, and/or are persons living with disabilities, and other historically oppressed identities face additional barriers to accessing support, safety, and healing. In our current political climate, immigrant survivors from all communities and cultural backgrounds face heightened risk of deportation and detainment. Immigrant victims are more terrified than ever of calling police, seeking restraining orders or seeking other help when their communities are under attack. Language and cultural barriers exacerbate these challenges.  

2025-2026 Priority and Supported Legislation:

HD.3596/SD.1107: An Act Relative to Immigration Detention and Collaboration Agreements

Immigrant survivors and their families fear accessing services and systems that increase safety and support because of the threat of deportation. This bill specifically prohibits state and local entities from entering into or renewing any collaboration or detention agreements that would delegate federal immigration enforcement powers to these entities.

Lead Sponsors: Senator Adam Gomez & Reps. Christine Barber and David Rogers