Maryland PATH Act
Providing Alternatives Through Healing for Justice-Involved Individuals
What’s the problem?
Individuals with histories of domestic violence and abuse are overrepresented among our prison population. These criminalized survivors are often unable to introduce mitigation evidence during plea negotiations, trial, or at sentencing. Systemic failures often re-traumatize victims and reinforce cycles of abuse.
Incarcerated individuals share stories of being subjected to ongoing, carefully orchestrated stages of power and control that include isolation, economic abuse, threats, coercion and intimidation as well as emotional abuse. These measures of coercive control are usually embedded within broader measures of psychological abuse. A great majority of these individuals suffer from mental health challenges and are routinely diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. There are many false narratives regarding criminalized survivors that influence how we treat people with histories of domestic violence at sentencing. These misconceptions include questioning whether the abuse occurred based on the survivors staying in the relationship, not telling authorities or not having physical scars.
All too often survivors of domestic violence are arrested, prosecuted, and punished for coerced criminal acts or for acting in self-defense. Intimate partner violence impacts many individuals behind bars but the incarceration rate for women has grown explosively over the last few years and many women and LGBQT+ people in prison report a history of abuse.
A Solution
The PATH Act is a groundbreaking piece of legislation designed to transform Maryland’s criminal justice response to survivors of domestic violence – particularly those whose offense is directly linked to abuse, coercion and trauma. The proposed legislation establishes that domestic violence may be considered a mitigating factor at sentencing or upon motion of modification for certain offenses, and that the court may depart from mandatory minimums or sentencing guidelines in imposing a just and appropriate sentence.
What has been done in other jurisdictions
Sentencing reform for criminalized survivors is growing in several jurisdictions, by passing legislation designed to allow survivors of domestic violence to receive shorter sentences for offenses entwined with their victimization.
New York State’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA) was passed in 2019. In a report dated April 2023 it was reported that 35 women, 4 men and 1 non-binary person had received retroactive sentencing relief. The DVSJA has inspired a wave of legislative advocacy in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Oregon.
On May 28, 2025 the Oregon legislature passed HB 2975A, which aims to improve court experiences for survivors of abuse and assault by requiring judges to learn how to recognize abuse dynamics. They recognize that survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence deserve a court experience of protection, not further harm.
The Oklahoma Survivors Act, signed into law in 2024, was developed in response to the recognition that many survivors of domestic violence have been unjustly prosecuted for actions taken in self-defense or as a result of victimization. The Act aims to reform the justice system by allowing judges to consider evidence of abuse during sentencing, thereby providing a more compassionate and fair approach to cases involving domestic violence. This legislation creates a sentencing procedure at the front of a prosecution which allows a judge to consider evidence of abuse. If the abuse is substantiated, then the survivor is entered into a lesser sentencing range than they were originally eligible for. The law also allows this same process for people who have already been sentenced to prison to be resentenced.
In Louisiana the Justice Survivors Act is part of a greater effort to reform the criminal justice system and support survivors.
