Bill would protect incarcerated survivors of domestic abuse

Published: April 15, 2026

By: Avery White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A substitute bill that would create protections for incarcerated survivors of domestic violence advanced in a Senate Judiciary committee meeting Tuesday but faced opposition from advocates arguing the new version would not be as effective as the bill originally proposed.

Senate Bill 91, authored by Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, would create protections and sentencing options for defendants who are survivors of domestic abuse. The bill was amended into a substitute bill during the committee meeting, altering the bill from the exact one that was killed in last year’s legislative session, Mizell said.

“We arrived at two action items that we felt would be passable and would frankly open the door to acknowledgment that these victims deserve reconsideration for sentencing while they were being victimized,” Mizell said. “With that in mind, up front, there is a lot of people unhappy about this.”