Archived Campaigns & Projects
Since our founding in 2015, Katal has worked on many projects and campaigns, both large and small. Invariably, most come to an end or our relationship to it changes (usually because conditions shift). When that happens, even when we’ve moved to other activities, the materials remain.
This page is a kind of project / campaign archive, gathered and shared here for the historical record. For many of our projects and campaigns, there are additional materials that exist only in physical form – for those interested in visiting our physical archive, please contact us with the button below.
#LessIsMoreNY – Parole Reform in New York (2018 – 2022)
With our partners at Unchained and A Little Piece of Light, Katal founded and built the #LessIsMoreNY parole reform campaign to change how New York addressed non-criminal, technical violations of parole. In 2021, the coalition passed historic legislation to reform the parole system, and then monitored its implementation in the years since. Among the biggest parole reform measures ever passed, Less Is More has improved public safety while cutting the parole population by more than 50%, reducing the prison population, and contributing to the closure of at least six state prisons.
Speedy Trial Now – the fight for Kalief’s Law in New York (2016-2017)
Kalief Browder, a young man from the Bronx, was accused of stealing a backpack, arrested, and sent to Rikers, where he spent three harrowing years. Kalief maintained his innocence, the charges were eventually dropped and he was released. But his family continued the fight for justice and Kalief’s story came to exemplify the horrors of Rikers and a broken system. Katal’s first legislative campaign, to pass Kalief’s Law, was aimed at ensuring everyone’s constitutional right to a speedy trial.
Bail Reform in New York – #BailReformNY (2017 – 2019)
For decades in New York, tens of thousands of people were caged pretrial every day in local jails – incarcerated only because they didn’t have the means to pay bail. This drove up jail populations everywhere, including at Rikers Island. In 2017, Katal launched #BailReformNY, a campaign to overhaul and reform New York’s bail practices. In 2019, Katal and our partners won major bail reforms, leading to dramatic reductions in the state’s pretrial population in local jails.
FreeThemNowCT (2020-2021) & #FreeThemNowNY (2020)
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we knew that jails and prisons would be super-spreader sites. Katal launched our #FreeThemNow campaigns in Connecticut and New York, demanding that 1) incarcerated people be released, and 2) basic preventative tools like masks and soap be provided to incarcerated people.
LEAD National Support Bureau (2016 – 2017)
In 2016, Katal was a co-founder of the LEAD National Support Bureau, built to provide technical assistance to local jurisdictions seeking to develop pre-arrest diversion programs. Katal stepped down from the Bureau in 2017.
Albany LEAD project (2016 – 2019).
In 2016, Katal helped to launch a pre-arrest diversion project in Albany, NY. The project, Albany LEAD, emerged from community-based demands for alternatives to arrest and jails for lowl-level offenses. Katal served as project facilitator until we resigned in 2019.