Archived Campaigns & Projects
This page is an archive of materials from the campaigns, projects, and programs that we’ve closed or otherwise ended. Additional content from archived campaigns — including images, stories, updates — can be found in our newsletter archive. And our physical archive holds additional materials, including many that are print-only. For those interested in visiting our physical archive, please reach out!
Katal in Connecticut (2015-2025)
For nearly a decade, Katal organized in Connecticut to build power and cut correctional populations, shut down jails and prisons, and invest in real safety: housing, health care, education, jobs. We ended our work in the state in mid-2025. Archival materials can be found on this page; additional material can be found in our newsletter archive
Parole Reform in New York – #LessIsMoreNY (2018 – 2023)
#LessIsMoreNY Campaign Page Archives
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. The Less Is More NY coalition included over 300 organizations, law enforcement officials, faith groups, and more. In 2021, the Less is More NY 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. After the reforms passed, we spent the next few years focused on implementation. By 2022, more than 8,000 people had earned early discharge from parole. Here’s the archived landing page to the old #LessIsMoreNY website. And you can find additional materials for the #LessIsMoreNY campaign here.
Bail Reform in New York – #BailReformNY (2017 – 2021)
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. We spent the next two years working to defend the reforms from attacks by opponents.
#FreeThemNow – CT & NY (2020-2022)
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. Our online #FreeThemNow archive brings together many of the graphics, materials, and resources we created and distributed during the period of these campaigns.
Speedy Trial Now – the fight for Kalief’s Law in New York (2016-2018)
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 statewide legislative campaign, was launched in 2016 to pass Kalief’s Law, was aimed at ensuring everyone’s constitutional right to a speedy trial. In 2018, the fight for speedy trial reform was folded into larger pretrial reform efforts, including bail reform. Find some of our archived speedy trial reform campaign materials here.
LEAD National Support Bureau (2016 – 2017)
In 2016, Katal co-founded the LEAD National Support Bureau, built to provide technical assistance to local jurisdictions seeking to develop pre-arrest diversion programs. In addition to building out the Albany LEAD program, we worked with jurisdictions in the Northeast who were interested in pre-arrest diversion based in harm reduction and racial justice. Katal stepped down from the Bureau in 2017.
Albany lead PROGRAM (2015 – 2020)
Katal’s cofounder, gabriel sayegh, helped start the planning process for Albany LEAD program back in 2013, while he was still at the Drug Policy Alliance. The call for Albany LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) emerged from community-based demands for alternatives to arrest and jail for low-level offenses. When sayegh left DPA in 2015, Albany LEAD became one of Katal’s first projects. Katal served as facilitator of the Albany LEAD policy coordinating group, signed the MOU to formalize the program with local community groups and city and county officials, and coordinated launch of the of the program in April 2016. We also hosted the program manager, provided technical assistance to the program and its grassroots community partners, and supported the operational workgroup. In 2017, we produced the one-year report on Albany LEAD, highlighting Albany’s unique approach to pre-arrest diversion. From 2017 – 2019, we coordinated numerous visits by delegations of community leaders from across the country who came to Albany to learn about the program. In January 2020, after losing critical confidence in the shared commitment to transparency and collaboration in the policy coordinating group, we resigned from Albany LEAD.