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CCWP In the News

For Third Year, California Kills Bill to Help Incarcerated Domestic Violence Survivors

BOLTS Magazine

By: Victoria Valenzuela

September 23, 2025

Advocates in California have pushed for relief for people convicted of harming their abuser, hoping to build on states across the political spectrum that have adopted such reforms.

Just before her 25th birthday, Susan Bustamante confided in her brother about the violent abuse she had suffered from her husband. She says her brother had protected her from her abusive father in the past, so she turned to him again after her husband threatened to hurt her family if she left him. “He told me don’t worry sis, I’ll take care of it,” Bustamante said in public testimony earlier this year. “The idea that he would kill him never occurred to me.” 

After Bustamante’s brother murdered her husband, she was convicted of helping him plot the killing. During her two-day trial, she was barred from testifying about the abuse she endured for years, which wasn’t seen as relevant to her case. Anytime she tried to talk about the abuse during the trial, it was struck from the court record. She was sentenced to life without parole.

At the time she was sentenced, Bustamante’s daughters were eight and 11 years old. She said she missed their weddings, the births of their children and the death of her sister. She was granted clemency in 2017 and released from prison in 2018 after 31 years of incarceration.

In March, Bustamante found herself sitting before California lawmakers, testifying about the abuse she experienced from her husband and how she was silenced in court. She asked for them to pass state legislation to help give other survivors of domestic abuse who are still in prison for crimes related to their abuse a chance at release. She also told lawmakers how the experience of incarceration retraumatized her. 

“I’m a survivor of domestic violence, of child molestation, and a survivor of the California prison system, which as you were speaking earlier, it’s horrific,” Bustamante told lawmakers. “I’m an advocate for victims and survivors who should have the chance to at least tell their stories in court.” 

Read full article from BOLTS Magazine here!

Updates on Prisons

First Women’s Class Graduates from California’s Sole In-Person Prison Bachelor’s Program

Davis Vanguard 

By Emily Martine 

October 9, 2025

CHINO, Calif. — On Oct. 3, 2025, in a major step toward educational equity and prison reform, 23 incarcerated women at the California Institution for Women (CIW) received bachelor’s degrees through Cal State LA’s Prison Graduation Initiative (PGI), marking the first women’s cohort to graduate from the state’s only in-person prison bachelor’s degree program.

The milestone highlights the persistent challenges and disparities in access to higher education for incarcerated women as PGI accelerates efforts to dismantle systemic barriers in the criminal justice system.

“This is the biggest accomplishment of my life,” said graduate Leticia Montoya, who served as a student speaker during the ceremony, which coincided with her 48th birthday. “I didn’t graduate high school; I got a GED. I thought that’s it for me. Higher education was never in the plan; it wasn’t valued in my household.”

Read more from the Davis Vanguard here!

Updates on Prisons

Parole in Perspective: A deep dive into discretionary parole systems

Prison Policy Initiative 

October 2025

By Leah Wang   

Parole, the release mechanism which could significantly reduce the number of people behind bars, has reached a moment of reckoning. Dysfunctional in some states and banned in others, parole looks really different from state to state. But parole is a system worth having, if states can implement it fairly and broadly.

This two-part report builds out work we started with the MacArthur Justice Center, which resulted in a “North Star” document of Parole Principles. These principles establish a vision of what our parole systems should look like, knowing that every state’s system is different and each faces different political realities.

In this two-part report, Parole in Perspective, we take a deep dive into these systems, providing the most accessible and comprehensive look at how they operate, and what can be done to make them real tools for decarceration.

  • In part 1, we examine the composition of these boards and how their hearings work.
  • In part 2, we look at parole grant rates and the decision making guidelines and realities that lead to those rates.

 

Read more from Prison Policy Initiative here. 

Updates on Prisons

States of Women’s Incarceration: The Global Context 2025

Prison Policy Initiative

September 2025

by Emily Widra and Aleks Kajstura 

The United States still incarcerates 614 people for every 100,000 residents, more than almost any other country in the world. Women in particular are incarcerated in the U.S. at a rate of 112 per 100,000. This may seem relatively minor, but it’s a scale of women’s incarceration that remains higher than that of any other country except El Salvador. Furthermore, women’s incarceration stubbornly remains at near-historic highs in the U.S., while the country’s overall incarceration rate has been falling.

This report helps make sense of these numbers, providing an updated snapshot of how women in the U.S. fare in the world’s carceral landscape and comparing incarceration rates for women in each U.S. state with the equivalent rates for countries around the world.

Read the full report from Prison Policy Initiative here.

Updates on Prisons

US Incarcerates Women at Rates Higher than Nearly Every Country, Report Reveals

Davis Vanguard 

September 24, 2025

By: Angelina Tun 

EASTHAMPTON, Mass. — A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative finds that every U.S. state incarcerates women at higher rates than nearly every country in the world, underscoring the nation’s status as a global outlier. According to the findings, “the United States remains a global outlier, with women’s incarceration reaching near-historic highs.”

The report compares women’s incarceration rates across U.S. states with independent nations. It accounts for all types of confinement, including prisons, jails, youth detention centers, tribal jails, and immigration detention facilities. Collectively, the United States represents only 4% of the world’s population of women but holds one-quarter of the women incarcerated globally.

The data shows stark contrasts between states and nations. South Dakota, which has the highest women’s incarceration rate in the U.S., surpasses every country in the world. Montana and Idaho also rank higher than any other nation. Women in Kentucky face incarceration rates nearly equivalent to those in El Salvador, “a country that has been described as an authoritarian police state.” Even New Jersey, one of the lowest-ranking U.S. states, still mirrors the United Arab Emirates, where “nonmarital sex can result in a prison sentence of six months for women.”

Read full article from The Davis Vanguard here.