Our History

and victories

Since our founding in 2015, we’ve organized, built and won campaigns, and more. Here’s a summary of our history and victories to date.

2025

May: Victory! The federal court took over Rikers and decided to appoint an independent receiver to address the violence and dysfunction that has persisted for a decade.

2025

March: We held the third Growing Power conference at the Artists Collective in Hartford, with over 200 participants.

2025

February: In the face of growing authoritarianism from the new administration, we launch our weekly Pro-Democracy Phone Zaps, creating a place for our community members to plug in and connect with their elected representatives.

2024

December: Our #ShutRikers canvassing project reaches 150,000 doors across all five boroughs of NYC.

2024

November: We hosted the second Harvest Change conference in Bloomfield, CT.

2024

July: We partner with Harlem-based Brotherhood/Sister-Sol to train youth organizer and canvass more than 5,000 doors in Harlem for the #ShutRikers campaign.

2024

July: Our #ShutRikers canvassing project reaches more than 100,000 doors in NYC, across all five boroughs.

2024

May: We score a victory when the NY State Senate passes our bill to overhaul the State Commission of Corrections. The bill dies in the Assembly but we’ve built momentum for the year ahead.

2024

February: We held the second Growing Power conference with more than 300 participants, also in Middletown, Connecticut.

2024

January: As part of our #ShutRikers campaign, we begin work on overhauling an obscure state watchdog agency with oversight and investigative powers over all prisons and jails in New York – the State Commission on Corrections.

2023

December: The #ShutRikers project reaches 30,000 doors canvassed across all five boroughs.

2023

August: We launch our new #ShutRikers outreach project, aiming to canvass thousands of doors across the city to speak with New Yorkers about the fight to shut Rikers.

2023

May: With our partners at the Prison Policy Initiative, we publish a new report about probation and parole in Connecticut – Excessive, Unjust, and Expensive: Fixing Connecticut’s Probation and Parole Problems. The report is widely covered in the press and launches our probation reform campaign in the state.

2023

February: Through Cultivating Justice, we hold the first Growing Power conference in Middletown with over 200 participants.

2023

February: Katal ramps up efforts to keep the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CTJS) closed.

2022

December: With our partners at Unchained, we released the 2nd report on the implementation of the #LessIsMoreNY parole reform act.

2022

November: As part of our #ShutRikers campaign, we launched an effort to call on the federal court to appoint an independent receiver to take control at Rikers, to improve conditions and save lives until the facility was shut down.

2022

Fall: We co-founded and launched Cultivating Justice in CT.

2021

March: With our partners at Unchained, we released the 1st report on the implementation of the #LessIsMoreNY parole reform act.

2021

September: Katal expands our #CutShutInvest campaign into New York City with the demand to shut Rikers.

2021

September: The governor signs the Less is More Act into law and 100 people are immediately released from Rikers Island. Over time, the number of people incarcerated at Rikers for noncriminal technical violations on parole drops by 99%.

2021

June: We passed the Less is More Act—the parole reform act—which cut the number of people in New York on parole in half and helped lead to the closure of six prisons.

2021

May: Katal launches a series of community conversations in CT about our #CutShutInvest campaign.

2021

January: Katal launches our #CutShutInvest campaign.

2020

April: Katal produces #FreeThemNow materials and posters, making them available for allies across the country. We shipped them out to those who wanted to use them around the country.

2020

April: We organized a car caravan protest outside the governor’s mansion to bring attention to incarcerated people being left to die in prisons and jails in the face of Covid.

2020

March: Katal and our partners at Unchained win the release of approximately 1,000 people detained for technical parole violations.

2020

March: At the start of Covid, Katal launches the #FreeThemNow campaign to demand the release of people from jails and prisons in order to save lives.

2019

April: The Senate and Assembly pass and the governor signs comprehensive bail legislation. The bill is based on the Latrice Walker bill passed in 2018 and leads to a dramatic reduction in the number of people in New York county jails detained pre-trial.

2019

February: Katal and our partners launched the Less is More New York campaign.

2019

January: We published our Connecticut Criminal Justice field scan examining the history of criminal justice reform in Connecticut.

2018

June: Katal leads passage of a major bail reform measure sponsored by Assembly woman Latrice Walker in the state assembly. While the bill did not pass the Assembly that year, it set the stage for the bail reform to come in 2019.

2o18

January: Katal launches what would become the monthly Statewide Criminal Justice Reform Call in Connecticut.

2018

January: We launched the Less is More report written by Vincent Schiraldi of the Columbia University Justice Lab. It was the first report examining the role of noncriminal technical violations driving New York’s incarceration crisis.

2018

January: We published “Reflections and Lessons from the first two phases of the #CLOSErikers campaign, August 2015-August 2017.”

2017

December: Katal holds “Toward Justice: Reducing Harm and Improving Health and Safety” in Albany, New York. Nearly 300 people attended the event.

2017

December: Katal holds “Toward Justice: The History and Future of Criminal Justice Reform in CT.” Over 200 people attended the evening event which was held at the Artists Collective in Hartford.

2017

June: Kalief’s Law (speedy trial reform) passed through the Assembly.

2017

May: Through our BLOC program, Katal provides strategic guidance and support for the launch of the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM).

2017

April: Published one-year report on Albany LEAD. Katal served as the facilitator of the Albany lead coordinating group. This program diverted over 300 people from being arrested and jailed in Albany county.

2017

March: The #CLOSErikers campaign—that we built and co-led with JustLeadershipUSA—scored a major victory when then-Mayor Bill deBlasio announced that the official policy of New York City would be to close Rikers.

2017

January: Katal launches what would become the monthly Statewide Criminal Justice Reform Call in New York.

2017

January: We launched BLOC monthly organizer roundtables in CT.

2016

October: Katal organizes and hosts the release of a new report called “Better by Half: The New York Story of Winning Large-Scale Decarceration while Increasing Public Safety.”

2016

April: Publicly launch Close Rikers campaign with JustLeadershipUSA on the steps New York City Hall.

2016

April: Launched Albany LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) Program.

2016

March: We hosted a 5 city US tour of international delegates in advance of the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS).

2016

March: We introduced a speedy trial reform called Kalief’s Law in the wake of the death of Kalief Bowder. This pretrial reform would expedite court processing times, essential to closing rikers.

2016

March: Katal and our partners launched the Lead National Support Bureau, a national pre-arrest diversion project.

2016

February: Katal is publicly launched.

2015

Katal is founded.