Summer Heat Relief: IGVSI Takes Action for Survivors Behind Bars

Sanctuary for Families

At Taconic Correctional Facility, incarcerated survivors have long raised alarms about unbearable and hazardous conditions due to summer heat. This year, Sanctuary’s IGVSI responded.

In New York’s women’s prisons, summer brings oppressive heat. Incarcerated women — the majority of whom are survivors of domestic abuse or other gender-based violence — live in concrete cells with little air flow, creating unbearable and hazardous conditions. There is no air conditioning, and ice distribution has been inconsistent in the worst of the heat. At Taconic Correctional Facility, located in Westchester, New York, incarcerated women have long raised alarms about this health crisis.

This summer, Sanctuary’s Incarcerated Gender Violence Survivors Initiative (IGVSI) responded.

Working with the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), IGVSI arranged for a direct donation to the incarcerated women at Taconic of:

  • 200 high-quality fans, ensuring every incarcerated woman at Taconic has access to essential heat relief in their cell; and
  • 36 insulated coolers to support consistent and equitable ice distribution throughout the facility.

This donation was made possible by contributions from two of IGVSI’s long-time supporters: IGVSI co-founder Richard Rothman and former Sanctuary Board President Denis McInerney.

The fans and coolers were delivered on August 15, 2025, and were quickly distributed throughout the facility. The impact was immediate.

One IGVSI client shared this note of thanks:

“PLEASE let everyone know… [the donation] was a true miracle… We had just read an article on our Newsstand that explained that ‘In the U.S., heat kills more people than all other weather events combined’… and that ‘it is easy to underestimate how dangerous prolonged exposure to heat can be.’ Literally, people were starting to freak out by the heat, and then from heaven came these fans — AWESOME!!! And they are gorgeous. They really, really cool our cells.”

This response reaffirms a core belief at IGVSI: immediate relief transforms lives. Thoughtful, tangible actions not only improve daily conditions but also show survivors they are valued and supported.

At IGVSI, we will continue advocating for structural changes at New York’s women’s prisons: better climate control, legal reforms, and more humane and safe conditions.

How IGVSI Fights for Freedom

Emergency relief like this summer’s fan donation is just one piece of IGVSI‘s comprehensive approach. Our primary focus remains securing the release of criminalized survivors.

We help survivors tell their stories, document the impacts of trauma, and develop comprehensive reentry plans that set them up for success.

We also advocate for laws and policies that recognize the realities of domestic violence within the criminal legal system.

Our commitment doesn’t end at the prison gates. Whether it’s preparing a parole packet, filing a DVSJA motion, or delivering a fan in the middle of a heatwave, our work is grounded in one principle: every survivor deserves a chance to heal and rebuild.

What You Can Do

Share this post to spread the word: more people knowing means more potential support.

  • Consider donating so we can continue both responsive actions, like the fan donation and systemic legal work. Make a gift here.
  • Follow us, stay updated, and stay in community with survivors.

Every act of support — big or small — matters.

IGVSI is a project of Sanctuary for Families.

Learn more or get involved at sanctuaryforfamilies.org and www.igvsi.org

Domestic Violence Is Not ‘a Little Fight’

Sanctuary for Families

President Trump recently dismissed domestic violence as “a little fight with the wife,” suggesting that offenses “that take place in the home” should not be counted as crimes. This attempt to minimize domestic violence is dangerous and uninformed.

On Monday, President Trump stood at the Museum of the Bible in Washington and dismissed domestic violence as “a little fight with the wife,” suggesting that offenses “that take place in the home” should not be counted as crimes.

Rather than walking back this dangerous statement, the White House doubled down the next day. During a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed: “He wasn’t referring to crime. That’s exactly the point he was making. The president is saying, in fact, is that these crimes will be made up and reported as a crime to undermine the great work that the federal task force is doing to reduce crime in Washington, D.C.”

These attempts to minimize domestic violence are dangerous and uninformed.

For far too long, domestic violence was treated as a private matter, kept behind closed doors, ignored by law enforcement, and excused by society. That silence left survivors — mostly women and children — without protection, justice, or support.

At Sanctuary for Families, we recognize domestic violence for what it is: both a crime and a public health crisis. Every year in the United States, more than 12 million people are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner. This reality demands societal attention and a public response.

The stakes could not be clearer. Studies suggest that in the United States, more than half of female homicides are perpetrated by a current or former intimate partner. This type of violence — also known as femicide — is the most extreme consequence of a society that still struggles to take domestic abuse seriously.

Every day at Sanctuary, we work alongside survivors to ensure they are believed, protected, and supported as they rebuild their lives following abuse.

When someone in a position of great power speaks about abuse in such dismissive terms, it emboldens abusers, denies the very real suffering of survivors, and chips away at hard-won progress toward building a system that responds to survivors’ needs.

We believe that those in positions of leadership have a responsibility to speak truthfully and with care.

Domestic violence is not “a little fight.” It is a matter of life and death.

Words matter.

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Media inquiries: press@sffny.org

Sanctuary Advocates on Behalf of Trafficking Survivors at the UN

Sanctuary for Families

In June, Sanctuary’s Director of the Anti-Trafficking Initiative, Jessica-Wind Abolafia, spoke at a UN multi-stakeholder hearing on the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons. Drawing from over a decade of representing trafficking survivors, Jessica called on member states to confront the misogyny and racism embedded in the commercial sex trade — and to address the demand that fuels it.

This summer, Sanctuary’s Director of the Anti-Trafficking Initiative, Jessica-Wind Abolafia, spoke at a UN multi-stakeholder hearing on the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons. Drawing from over a decade of representing trafficking survivors, Jessica called on member states to confront the misogyny and racism embedded in the commercial sex trade — and to address the demand that fuels it.

Watch a recording of Jessica’s speech and read her full remarks below.

 

Thank you, Madamme Chair and UNODC. Good Morning, Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, and Colleagues.

My name is Jessica Abolafia. I am honored to speak before you on behalf of Sanctuary for Families, New York’s largest provider of services to survivors of gender based violence. As Director of Sanctuary’s Anti-Trafficking Initiative, I oversee attorneys, case managers and clinicians who exclusively serve trafficking survivors. For over a decade, I have personally had the privilege of providing direct legal representation to thousands of trafficking survivors and their families.

Outside these walls, on the ground, day after day, I hear my clients’ stories; of survival and extraordinary resilience. My clients do not want pity nor saving. They want to heal, they want to be heard. Not just of being sold, but of being purchased. When my clients disclose it is not just about surviving pimps and traffickers, but the extensive victimization of the men who purchase them for sex. Violent, dehumanizing, and indifferent to consent. The list of harms inflicted by sex buyers on our clients are long – rape, torture, burns, broken bones, strangulation, Femicide. The resulting physical and emotional impacts, such as traumatic brain injury, chronic reproductive maladies, and trauma are profound and often life-long.

Article 9.5 of the Palermo Protocol directs member states to “discourage the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation of persons, especially women and children, that leads to trafficking.”

Sex buyers are the market force that fuel the multibillion dollar business of buying and selling women and girls, who are mostly of color.

When a survivor relays being sold over and over again 10, 20, 30, 50 times in a day, why is it that we so comfortably ask who is selling but not who is buying? We speak about push factors and victim vulnerability but dampen or rid our remarks of the person with the money, the power the privilege: the buyer.

This is not moralism, it is misogyny.

It is racism. Black, Brown and Indigenous women are disproportionately represented in the commercial sex trade.

Article 5 of CEDAW calls on state parties to achieve the elimination of prejudices based on perceived inferiority of women or stereotyped roles of men and women.

This means directly addressing the very cultural pillars – the pervasive subjugation – on which the buying and selling of women and girls is at very least permitted, in some cases, even sanctioned.

I respectfully urge member states to address the demand for commercial sex, for without the buyers, there would not be stories of sex trafficking to tell.

Thank you.

Silencing Survivors: DARVO, Misogyny, and the Myth of the Perfect Victim

Julie Tervala

When news broke that Blake Lively filed a formal sexual harassment complaint against Justin Baldoni, the online backlash was swift and predictable. These online hate campaigns reveal just how deeply entrenched societal biases against survivors still are.

Yet again, a woman who spoke out about harassment and abuse has been vilified by the internet.

When news broke that Blake Lively filed a formal sexual harassment complaint against Justin Baldoni, the online backlash was swift and predictable. The public’s response mirrors what we saw after Amber Heard spoke publicly about Johnny Depp’s abuse and Megan Thee Stallion was shot by Tory Lanez. Each time, instead of empathy or support, survivors were met with doubt, mockery, and cruelty.

These online hate campaigns reveal just how deeply entrenched societal biases against survivors still are.

The Myth of the Perfect Victim

The “perfect victim” is a dangerous, unrealistic standard that society imposes on survivors of abuse. According to this myth, victims must be likable, virtuous, and irreproachable. The perfect victim is weak and vulnerable. They must be involved in a ‘respectable’ activity at the time of victimization. Their aggressor must be someone they didn’t know, and who society deems guilty. The perfect victim is always white, cisgender, and feminine.

Survivors who deviate from these narrow expectations are treated with suspicion, contempt, or outright hostility. And because nearly no one fits the mold, it becomes all but impossible to be seen as a “legitimate” victim.

While Blake Lively holds the status of a wealthy, feminine, white woman, her claims were still dismissed by the public immediately. Lively’s character was scrutinized, being labeled “annoying” and “disingenuous.” Baldoni’s legal complaint focused on portraying her as “difficult” on set and his team released texts showing a friendly rapport during the early stages of filming — as if any of that disproves her harassment claims.

This is exactly the point: survivors are often disqualified from being believed not because of facts, but because of who they are perceived to be.

DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender

Perpetrators of abuse often use a manipulation tactic called DARVO — Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. Coined by psychologist Jennifer Freyd, DARVO describes what happens when an abuser denies wrongdoing, attacks the survivor’s credibility, and then portrays themselves as the true victim.

In celebrity cases, DARVO plays out on a massive scale. It becomes a public relations strategy. The abuser’s team weaponizes media narratives to disorient and silence the survivor, framing her as vindictive, unstable, or attention-seeking.

Amber Heard’s trial is one of the clearest examples. Despite credible evidence that she experienced domestic violence, the public overwhelmingly rallied around Johnny Depp, convinced he was the real victim. While the legal outcome was mixed, many interpreted it as a full vindication of Depp — and used it to justify relentless attacks on Heard. But the damage didn’t stop at the courtroom. The online backlash was brutal, far-reaching, and deeply discouraging. It sent a clear message to survivors everywhere: if you speak out, you’ll be mocked, maligned, and punished.

Blake Lively has been subjected to a similar pattern. Baldoni’s lawsuit centered on counter-allegations that had little to do with her sexual harassment claims. He framed himself as the victim, alleging that Lively and her husband used their fame to control production and harm his reputation. Almost immediately, a wave of negative coverage followed, portraying Lively as a serial “bully” who targeted costars and controlled the narrative. Whether this was an organic response or a coordinated campaign is unclear, but the timing and tone strongly suggest an attempt to flip the script.

The same happened to Megan Thee Stallion, who was mocked and discredited even after her abuser was convicted. In one of the most glaring examples, Drake rapped: “This b**** lie ’bout getting shots, but she still a stallion.” It’s a stark reminder that Black women’s trauma is too often trivialized, their credibility discounted.

Read more about why Black women are more likely to be victims of sexual assault here and why they are less likely to be believed here.

Why This Matters

DARVO and the myth of the perfect victim prime us to disbelieve survivors. They frame disclosures of abuse as opportunistic, hysterical, or manipulative. They redirect our attention away from the harm done—and onto the supposed flaws of the person who dared to speak out.

These public smear campaigns don’t just harm individual survivors. They send a message to anyone thinking of coming forward: don’t bother. If someone with Blake Lively’s platform and credibility is met with scorn, what hope does an everyday survivor have?

And when friends and family share memes or engage in cruel commentary, the damage deepens. Survivors internalize the backlash. They learn to stay silent.

Moving Forward

In the years since Amber Heard and Megan Thee Stallion’s cases, there has been some public reflection and regret. Hopefully, now that Baldoni’s retaliatory lawsuit has been dismissed in court, there will be similar reconsideration of how we treat survivors in the court of public opinion.

In the meantime, here’s how you can help challenge DARVO and the perfect victim myth:

  • Resist the urge to dogpile. Don’t comment on or share content that targets survivors—even celebrities.
  • Question the source. Who is sharing this story? Is it coming from someone with a vested interest in discrediting the survivor?
  • Believe survivors. This doesn’t mean abandoning due process. It means listening, taking disclosures seriously, and acknowledging the systems that have failed survivors for decades.

We live in a society that has long dismissed, shamed, and silenced victims. “Believe survivors” isn’t about choosing sides — it’s about choosing justice.

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Julie Tervala is a Staff Attorney on Sanctuary’s Campus Advocates Project. Learn more her team’s work here. 

Edited Creative Commons “Blake Lively Cannes 2016 2 (cropped)” by Georges Biard and “AmberHeardTIFFSept10” by gdcgraphics (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0). Edited Creative Commons “Megan Thee Stallion Adweek pose” (licensed under CC BY 4.0).