The Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, or The Alliance, held a conference today to call for reform or repeal of the state’s non-disclosure agreement laws and codification of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) into state law. Sexual assault survivors who were personally impacted by both of these issues spoke to their importance.
“We are here today as advocates, survivors and community leaders, urging the legislature to support two critical issues impacting survivors in our state,” said Beth Hamilton, Executive Director of The Alliance. “We need to align Connecticut law with modern standards.”
Last December, Disability Rights Connecticut (DRC) released an investigation into York Correctional Institution, the state’s only prison for women, which determined that several “systemic failures” allowed for repeated and persistent sexual assault of incarcerated women by correctional staff. The report contained the stories of six survivors of sexual assault, one of whom, Alex Brown, spoke at today’s conference. She, and others, spoke in support of Senate Bill 89, a bill proposed this session which would codify PREA into state law.
“Sexual abuse in prison is a systemic issue that has been minimized and ignored,” said Brown. “For those of us who carry its impact, the harm can be lifelong, and then it’s compounded when the systems responsible for safety fail to act.”
DRC’s report noted that DOC’s numerous failures, such as camera blind spots, failure to properly investigate sexual assault claims, and failure to protect incarcerated women, could lead to a loss of federal funding as a result of PREA. PREA is a federal law that was passed in 2003, with the stated intent of eliminating prison rape entirely. Brown noted that in Connecticut, PREA’s provisions are, “primarily implemented through administrative policy, not enforceable state law.”
“That distinction matters,” said Brown. “Without codification, protections remain inconsistent, underresourced and vulnerable to change.”
Brown said that codifying PREA would “guarantee” protections instead of relying on “administrative discretion” as it does now. While Brown advocated for SB 89’s passage, she also said some aspects of the bill “must be strengthened.” She proposed using “person first” language, replacing ‘inmate’ with ‘person,’ proposed the end of cross-gender supervision in prisons, and lastly, that the bill should include provisions to “address unresolved or previously reported sexual abuse,” ensuring prior survivors aren’t left without proper investigation of their claims.
“Incarceration carries consequences, but sexual abuse should never be one of them,” said Brown. “What is needed now is enforceable protection; codifying PREA is not symbolic. It is necessary, and no one should have to wait decades to be believed, protected or taken seriously.”
Janel Grant is a former WWE paralegal who publicly accused CEO Vince McMahon of sexual assault and trafficking in 2024, after signing a $3 million NDA in 2022, which she has since stated she felt pressured into signing. On June 15, 2022, Grant said she received a phone call telling her that her story would be published by the Wall Street Journal, a call she said was made “on the day of a very big meeting for the new job I had.”
“I was told, if anybody asks me about this, I can’t make a comment, I can’t acknowledge it, I can’t say I’m not okay, and if anybody approaches me, I can’t acknowledge years of life to people who saw me live it,” said Grant. “And it was like somebody set fire to my home, potentially with me still inside of it.”
Grant said that the pressure put on her by the NDA drove her to attempt suicide. She said that in the last year, she has felt so threatened that she only “went outside ten times last year.”
Grant said NDA reform is necessary, and that “When an NDA is used to conceal dangerous behavior, it simply relocates the harm to the next employee, the next office, the next victim,” said Grant. “No one should be required to trade silence for accountability, and no workplace, to be able to become safer for an institution than the people inside of it.”
Grant said that NDAs have caused there to be “a lot of people living and working in fear here in Connecticut,” and she said her NDA should be used as the “number one cautionary tale of what you do not want under an NDA.” Grant explained that as a result of her NDA, she was not able to tell her own version of the story publicly, even after it had been broken in the press, and she had to keep her mouth closed when a WWE representative publicly told the Wall Street Journal in a follow-up story that the relationship between her and McMahon was consensual.
“‘It’s consensual, we say so,’” Grant said of WWE’s statement. “Leaving out one half of an experiencing party, a decision like that, is not consent.”
Since then, WWE has been embroiled in an internal investigation, an SEC investigation (as the NDA paid out to Grant, as well as other alleged sexual assault survivors of McMahon, were not properly disclosed to the WWE board), and a federal investigation into human trafficking and sexual abuse, all of which have pulled Grant into their orbit. She said she’s been subpoenaed numerous times for these various investigations, all of which began even before she filed her own civil lawsuit in 2024.
“All the consequences, all the things that have happened that have made my life so small and isolated – I didn’t start that,” said Grant. “It’s like it found me.”
Grant said she wished to share her story in the hopes that it would lead “to dignified and productive conversations that create solutions.”
Hamilton, Brown and Grant were joined in support by several state lawmakers, such as Senators Eleni Kavros DeGraw (D-Avon), Cathy Osten (D-Columbia), Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) and Mae Flexer (D-Brooklyn) and Representative Matt Blumenthal (D-Stamford). Additionally, DOC’s Ombudsman DeVaughn Ward was present, speaking briefly in support of the codification of PREA.
Flexer said she is working with Blumenthal and Kushner to draft a bill that would ban NDA’s on disclosure of any kind of workplace discrimination in Connecticut, and noted that while prior bills have been proposed on the subject and failed, she has faith that this year’s might be different. Flexer, as well as Osten, cited the recent conversation surrounding the release of the Epstein files as an example of why the state should take greater action to protect victims of sexual violence.
“Seeing the incredible crowd here today, perhaps we’re going to have a change,” said Flexer. “Perhaps hearing the stories of victims is going to change things. Perhaps recognizing how the power dynamic in this country has changed, frankly, will change things. So, if there is a moment for the state of Connecticut to stand up and change its laws and to make sure that the powerful will be held accountable and victims will not be silenced, it is now.”
Kushner said that there will be a public Labor Committee hearing on March 3 to discuss potential limitations on NDAs going forward.
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Why is Ct so far behind the curve in protecting vs gender assault, even reducing sentences for sex offenders? Prison assaults too, are marks of shame, where the charter was designed by Rev. Cotton & Rev. Danforth.