National Domestic Violence Courts

Technical Assistance Bulletin Compiled by the Center for Court Innovation www.courtinnovation.org Summer 2012  Vol. 1, Issue 3

Identifying and Addressing Witness Intimidation by Rhonda Martinson and John Wilkinson Violent criminals routinely escape justice by intimidating witnesses to their crimes, which has resulted in justice system professionals, community leaders, and researchers declaring witness intimidation a national concern and a challenge to administering justice.1 Intimidation crimes range from crude to complex and when successful, escape the purview of the justice system, and allow criminal behavior to continue unchecked. In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice (U.S. DOJ) reports that witness intimidation is widespread and increasing.2 The pervasive nature of these crimes is devastating to victims and community confidence in the justice system's ability to keep victims safe and hold offenders accountable. AEquitas' special initiative, Improving the Justice System Response to Witness Intimidation (IWI), is a field-initiated project funded by the U.S. DOJ. Begun in September of 2010, IWI's mission is to improve the quality of justice in intimidation cases by developing, evaluating, and refining justice system practices that raise community awareness and increase victim safety and offender accountability. IWI augments AEquitas' ongoing work in the areas of domestic and sexual violence by auditing the current responses of selected communities (Knoxville, Tennessee; Duluth, Minnesota; and San Diego, California) to crimes of intimidation in domestic violence and gang cases and working with those communities to improve their responses. Continued on page 5

Stearns County, Minnesota Domestic Violence Court: How Careful Planning and Critical Assessment Led to Success by Rebecca Thomforde Hauser with Janelle Kendall Several years ago, Stearns County Attorney Janelle Kendall began noticing that felony domestic violence offenders kept getting rearrested and coming back through the system, causing both frustration regarding defendant accountablity and victim safety. She started keeping statistics, and in 2008, armed with data about offender dispositions and recidivism, she invited criminal justice stakeholders together. As a result, the Stearns County Domestic Violence Partnership was born. Comprised of representatives

from the criminal court, community-based victim services, defense bar, probation, law enforcement, county attorneys and other invested stakeholders, the Partnership began to critically look at how the system was handling domestic violence cases. The Partnership reached out to the Center for Court Innovation, came to New York State for a site visit and a strategic planning session, and went back to St. Cloud ready to begin planning a repeat felony domestic violence court. Operational for 3 full years, the proContinued on page 3

Welcome by Liberty Aldrich Welcome to our Summer 2012 Newsletter! This edition includes articles on witness intimidation and highlights from Stearns County, MN and Rockford, IL. Recently, we saw many of you at our DV Court Open House and learned about the great work you are doing. If your jurisdiction has a success story that you would like to share, please send it our way! We are collecting these pieces for future newsletters

Finally, two reminders for our readers: Courts Program Project Director calls on the third Tuesday of each month at 4:00 p.m. EST. Second, I encourage you to sign up for and participate in our DV Court Forum, which is a platform for discussion among DV Court practitioners. If you would like to, contact [email protected]. Liberty Aldrich Director, Domestic Violence Programs [email protected]

In This Issue Identifying and Addressing Witness Intimidation 1 Stearns County MN DV Court Spotlight 1

OVW Outlook

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DV TA Podcasts and Interviews

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Witness Intimidation in DV Cases 4 Illinois 17th Judicial Circuit Court

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National Domestic Violence Courts  Technical Assistance Bulletin  Summer 2012  Page 2

An Update from the Office on Violence Against Women by Krista Blakeney-Mitchell Tribal Court Addresses Sexual Assault: Native

Upcoming Trainings and Webinars:

American women are at a far greater risk of becoming victims of violence than any other group. They suffer a higher rate of rape and sexual assault than any other group of people in the United States. (Dept. of Justice, BJS 1999; CDC, NVWS 2005). Despite the alarming rates, sexual assault is still the most underreported crime. Across the country, Native communities are striving to return to traditional values and beliefs about women, men, children, families, and individual roles within the community as a way to prevent violence against Native women. In Marysville, Washington, the Tulalip Tribal Court is taking the lead in addressing this issue in its community. As part of its plan for encouraging community involvement and coordination in creating a domestic violence court, the Tulalip Tribal Court hosted a multidisciplinary training on sexual assault that brought together tribal judges, attorneys, prosecutors, law school clinic staff, law enforcement, Assistant U.S. Attorney of Western Washington, mental and crisis service agencies, as well as other tribal social services entities. This two-day training on Understanding Sexual Violence, which took place on June 13-14, 2012, was facilitated by the National Judicial Education Program in coordination with Chief Judge Pouley of the Tulalip Tribal Court. This event featured presentations by Professor Sarah Deer of William Mitchell College of Law, Tulalip Wellness Center staff and survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.

The Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody (a project of the National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges) is hosting a series of webinars designed for advocates and other system players to understand the relationship and practice implications of domestic violence on custody cases. Expert faculty will present information and use real-life examples that give participants practice ideas in the areas of pursuing child support, parental kidnapping, and advocacy post-decree. Upcoming webinars dates and topics:

• June 28 2012 @ 10:00 a.m. (PST) — Safely Pursuing Child Support • August 23, 2012 @ 10:00 a.m. (PST) — Battered Mothers and Parental Kidnapping: What Every Advocate Should Know • September 20 2012 @ 10:00 a.m.(PST) — Advocacy Post‐Decree To register for any of these webinars, please call Jenny Talancon at (775) 784-1662, or e-mail [email protected]. National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence trainings:

• June 21-23, 2012 — Continuing Judicial Skills in Domestic Violence Cases Program (Chicago, IL)

• August 12-15, 2012 — Enhancing Judicial Skills in Elder Announcements: New Media & the Courts Survey: With camera phones in the courtroom, jurors tweeting, and judges on Facebook, the new media environment has major implications for the administration of justice. In partnership with the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and the National Center for State Courts, the Conference of Court Public Information Officers is seeking the input of state judicial system court professionals across the country for its third annual survey examining new media and the courts. You can contribute to this important research by taking a moment to participate by going to: http://survey.confirmit.com/wix1/p2196861920.aspx. The survey takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. The data will be compiled with the previous two year's survey results into a report providing an ongoing framework for courts to use when deciding the appropriate use of new media. There will be no tracking or monitoring to relate responses to specific individuals. All demographic information will be collected as aggregate data only. The results will be announced at the annual meeting in St. Petersburg and will be posted at CCPIO.org. The survey will close on June 27.

Abuse Cases Workshop (Minnetonka, MN) • October 21-24, 2012 — Enhancing Judicial Skills in Domestic Violence Cases (EJS) Workshop (Reno, NV) To register for any of these courses, this conference, go to www.njidv.org. Judicial Institute on Adolescent Relationship Abuse On July 9, 2012, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, in partnership with Futures Without Violence and in coordination with the Office for Victims of Crimes (OVC), will offer a new three-day, highly interactive workshop that will help state court and tribal court judges enhance their skills and ability to respond to cases involving adolescents and relationship abuse. The program is offered to participants free of charge. Complimentary breakfast and reception are available each day of the training. All participants are responsible for their own travel and per diem costs. For more information, please contact Brianne Smith at (775) 784-1559 or [email protected]. Krista Blakeney-Mitchell, Senior Program Manager, OVW Court Training and Improvement Program [email protected]

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Stearns County, Minnesota Continued from page 1 gram is now a permanent county-board-funded criminal justice solution for repeat offenders and victims. The court has been nominated for multiple national awards; partners speak at national conferences and the court continues to use its data to look at what else needs to be done to address domestic violence. The court identifies repeat felony domestic violence offenders at the initial arrest or custody stage. Once identified as a repeat domestic violence felony offender, defendants are mandated to an immediate pretrial intensive supervision that includes drug and alcohol testing and immediate access to treatment if necessary, and strict no contact and behavior conditions as determined by the judge. At the same time, victims have access to both community based victim services and the victim assistance available through the state’s attorney. After reviewing the cases and speaking with victims to identify further needs, The Stearns County Domestic Violence Partnership recently worked with legal aid services in Stearns County to provide civil legal services for victims and their children, such as getting and maintaining child support, preventing eviction and/or finding permanent housing, keeping the offender from selling cars and cancelling cell phone contracts from his jail cell, and getting, modifying and keeping Orders for Protection. The Stearns County Domestic Violence Partnership worked with the Center to create a planning timeline, develop a data collection plan and create a system map. The numbers showed that repeat felony offenders were causing the largest amount of work for criminal justice partners and seemed of greatest risk to their victims. 2007 data showed that an average of 30-40 offenders in Stearns County were each committing up to 3 domestic violence crimes a year and that involvement in the criminal justice system’s traditional programming of unmonitored conditions of release and relatively low bail was not working. Recognizing the dangerousness of these offenders (at that time, 7 of the past 7 intentional homicides in Stearns County had been domestic violence related) and making additional and different tools available to judges made all the difference. With that research in hand, Stearns County partners opened a domestic violence court for repeat felony offenders in 2009. The Stearns County Domestic Violence Partnership continued to assess the data on recidivism. In 3 full years of operation, the population of repeat violence offenders (136 total) has committed only 5 new domestic assaults. The shift from predomestic violence court numbers of three felony assault arrests a year per defendant to five arrests total in a major change. The Stearns County Domestic Partnership credits the increased judicial and probation monitoring, combined with both batterer services and drug and alcohol treatment. “Weekly court hearings to report back to the judge on how they [defendants] are doing matter – although in drug court relapses are expected, domestic violence courts do not expect the violence to continue, and offenders are reminded of this by the full-time surveillance agent, sometimes daily,” notes Stearns County Attorney Janelle Kendall. Strict conditions of release are enforced by the designated probation agent and surveillance agent; victim assistance coordinators monitor jail phone calls for no contact violations

Spotlight: DV Court TA Podcasts and Interviews Are you looking for resources to support your DV Court planning needs? The Center’s DV TA Team produces podcasts and interviews on innovative practices and DV Courts to help you with your projects. These resources cover a range of topics from risk assessment to victim advocacy. Currently, you can listen to interviews with several innovative DV Court judges, including Hon. Elizabeth Pollard Hines from Ann Arbor, Hon. Ron Adrine from Cleveland Municipal Court, and Hon. Fernando Camacho, from the Queens County Prostitution Diversion Program. We also have interviews with important court partners like advocates Mary Clair Landry from New Orleans and Robyn Witorski-Reynolds from Erie County, NY. The Center’s upcoming additions to this series, which will be released later this summer, highlight rural DV courts, immigration issues, and innovative practices in working with offenders. These will include interviews with Gail Pendleton, Co-Director of Assista, and David Adams, Co-Director of Emerge, regarding their work and recent trends in the field. To access these resources, visit: http://www.courtinnovation.org/research/7/interview.

daily, and 88% of repeat violence victims are voluntarily working with the legal aid attorney. Stearns County partners continue to analyze the data. Their new focus is on re-entry issues; specifically, reviewing those defendants coming out of jail who immediately re-offend. Some Partnership members met with the Commissioner of Corrections in April to discuss concerns about new offenses being committed by offenders coming out of prison, perhaps in part due to the lack of services available in prison. The Commissioner and his staff were very interested in learning more about how to reduce crime and violence in this population based on the Stearns County model. They are beginning to analyze the data to see what other civil matters this particular population has, especially civil orders of protection, to see if they can better address the accountability of offenders and the safety of victims in their community. Stearns County Attorney Janelle Kendall concluded: “From the outset when we first all sat down together around a big ...we agreed that the violence had to stop – whether the offender was in jail, the victim left, or the offender changed his behavior. Through a combination of these factors, we have reduced the violence – and generational damage being done – beyond our experienced expectations. We continue to look for better ways to serve these victims and their children and support positive behavior from these offenders. We had to do something different. We’re just glad that this is working as well as the data shows.”

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Witness Intimidation in Domestic Violence Cases by Katie Crank and Kathryn Ford The term “witness intimidation” often brings to mind threats and violence by gangs imposing consequences for “snitching.” However, witness intimidation may be most common in domestic violence cases, though it is rarely recognized as such. In addition to threats and physical violence directed toward the victim and her loved ones, any conduct intended to discourage or interfere with a crime victim’s access to and full participation in criminal or civil legal systems is considered witness intimidation. Such conduct may include: stalking; harassment;property damage; ostracism; emoval of financial and/or emotional support;emotional or social pressure; and denying accessto contact police or legal personnel. Such intimidation may be intentionally inflicted by the domestic violence offender, his associates or family, and community members; intimidation may be unintentionally inflicted even by government employees. Victims of domestic violence are at especially high risk of intimidation due to the already existing power and control dynamic of the relationship and their strong personal connection and geographic proximity to the perpetrator, as well as the offender’s demonstrated willingness to use violence. Perpetrators may specifically utilize their relationship with and emotional ties to the victim to manipulate and coerce r

her into withdrawing a protective order or rescinding cooperation with the prosecution of the case. When the system fails to identify such intimidation, victims and the community can lose confidence in the justice system, resulting in a sense of lawlessness, and offenders receive the message that such intimidation is effective in shielding them from accountability. Intimidation can also deny victims access to necessary safety measures and deny their legal rights. Courts and legal providers may feel frustrated and helpless at not being able to gather the evidence they need to protect victims and the community, and discouraged by victims’ cycling in and out of the system. But there are steps that courts and justice stakeholders can take. 1. Communities can seek technical assistance from Aequitas to reevaluate their response to witness intimidation (see “Identifying and Addressing Witness Intimidation). 2. Advocates can educate victims about what comprises witness intimidation, their rights, and what they should do if it occurs, and engage with victims in risk assessment and safety planning around getting to and from court. 3.Communities can offer witness support groups specific to DV victims involved in the criminal justice system. 4. Defense counsel can also advise their clients about the laws in this regard, to help prevent intimidating behavior and the possible additional charges it might bring. 5.Lastly, courts should consider what safety and security procedures they need to employ to prevent intimidation in and around their facilities, and create a plan for how to respond to witness intimidation when it occurs.

Recent Innovations from the Illinois 17th Judicial Circuit Court’s Family Violence Coordinating Council:Covert-DVERT and Domestic Violence Impact Panel By The Honorable Rosemary Collins, 17th Judicial Circuit Court Judge The Illinois 17th Judicial Circuit Court’s Family Violence Coordinating Council (FVCC) was approached by the Rockford City Police Department (RCPD), to help develop a program to focus on repeat and high-risk domestic violence offenders. We spent about a year in planning with various groups that focus on victim safety and offender accountability. As a result of these discussions, and considering many models, we agreed to try an approach that we call “Covert- DVERT" (Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team). It's "covert" because, due to our concerns for victim safety, the placement of a high-risk offender before the DVERT team for their attention, is not communicated to the offender. The DVERT team includes local prosecutors, probation officers, victim service providers, and the domestic violence unit of the RCPD led by Sgt. Eric Bruno. The team goal is to encourage the apprehension of repeat high-risk domestic violence offenders while offering services to their victims. Covert-DVERT meets once a month to coordinate information and resources aimed at holding offenders accountable through the criminal justice

system and compliance monitoring by the Adult Probation Department. Covert DVERT has resulted in a decrease of approximately 9% in domestic violence related calls for service and has had success in bringing some of the worst recidivists to justice. The above-mentioned discussions also led to the introduction of the Domestic Violence Victim Impact Panel (DVIP), by the FVCC. Domestic violence offenders are courtordered to attend the DVIP at sentencing in criminal court or through civil court proceedings. The program is run by the domestic violence unit of the Adult Probation Department. The DVIP is held once per quarter with speakers who are either adult survivors or family members of survivors of domestic violence. Each session thus far has had approximately 20-25 attendees, and feedback from the attendees has been positive. While still in its infancy, the program has seen a preliminary reduction in recidivism and re-arrest for domestic violence related offenses. For more information, please contact The Honorable Judge Rosemary Collins at [email protected].

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Identifying and Addressing Witness Intimidation Continued from page 1 Through IWI, local practitioners uncovered practices within and between systems that compromise witness safety by allowing opportunities for intimidation without offender accountability. The audit process utilized by IWI4 examines each processing point in the management of cases through interviews, observations, focus groups, case file review, and an analysis of institutional directives, forms, and rules that govern worker responses to witness intimidation. For example, most of the forty recommendations made in the Knoxville Safety Audit involved simple, relatively cost-free solutions such as reconfiguring courthouse lines and seating areas to reduce opportunities for offenders to intimidate victims while waiting for hearings and using college or law school interns to listen to jail house telephone recordings of inmate calls to detect intimidation. Following this detailed evaluation, IWI will make proactive recommendations that improve the response to witness intimidation, hold more offenders accountable, and increase victim safety and community confidence. For additional information, or to discuss recommendations that might be applicable to your jurisdiction, please contact Rhonda Martinson at [email protected].

Notes 1. See e.g., Paul Logli, Chairman of the Board of the National District Attorneys Association, in testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, First Session, Feb. 15, 2007, pp. 51-58, accessed Dec. 22, 2011, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG110hhrg33314/html/CHRG-110hhrg33314.htm; Elijah Cummings, “Congressman Cummings and State's Attorney Jessamy Call for Federal Resources to Protect Witnesses” United States House of Representatives Press Release, July 17, 2007, accessed December 22, 2011, http://www.house.gov/list/press/md07_cummings/callforfederalresources.shtml; Kerry Murphy Healy, Victim and Witness Intimidation: New Developments and Emerging Responses, National Institute of Justice, Oct. 1995, accessed Dec. 22, 2011, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/witintim.pdf;David Kocieniewski, “Few Choices in Shielding of Witnesses,” New

York Times, Oct. 28, 2007, accessed Dec. 22, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/nyregion/28witness.html? pagewanted=all; John Anderson, “Gang-Related Witness Intimidation,” National Gang Center Bulletin, Feb. 2007, page 6, accessed Dec. 22, 2011, http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Content/Documents/GangRelated-Witness-Intimidation.pdf. 2. Kelly Dedel, Witness Intimidation, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, July 2006, accessed Dec. 22, 2011, http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/ric/Publications/e07063407.pdf. 3. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance. This project was supported by Grant No. 2010-MU-BX-K079 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the SMART Office, and the Office for Victims of Crime. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not represent the official position or policies of the United States Department of Justice. For additional information on Improving the Justice System’s Response to Witness Intimidation (IWI), please visit http://aequitasresource.org/special-initiatives.cfm. 4. The application of ethnographic work to domestic violence was initiated by the late Ellen Pence of Praxis International, who studied police and judicial processing of violence against women in her 1997 Ph.D. dissertation, Safety for Battered Women in a Textually Mediated Legal System. Dr. Pence’s work in domestic violence spanned more than two decades, during the course of which she worked closely with a variety of agencies to understand and improve their processing of domestic violence cases and positively impact victim safety. From her work and studies she created a process called an “Institutional Safety and Accountability Audit” as a way for communities to evaluate their response to domestic violence by examining how the work routines of criminal justice practitioners accounted for the safety of domestic violence victims and the accountability of domestic violence offenders. Since 1997, Praxis International and the Battered Women’s Justice Project have provided consultation and technical support to over 75 such audits across the country. Their materials and consultation also were utilized in partnership with IWI.

About the Center for Court Innovation A public/private partnership, the Center for Court Innovation helps the justice system aid victims, reduce crime, and improve public trust in justice. With support from the Office on Violence Against Women, the Center is provides a variety of services free of charge, including on-site support, site visits to domestic violence courts, peer-to-peer contacts, and planning materials. The Center also develops publications and Internet materials of special interest to a domestic violence court audience. For more information or assistance, contact Liberty Aldrich at [email protected] or 646-386-4180.

This newsletter is sponsored by Award No. 2011-TA-AX-K032 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women. The opinions, findings or conclusions in this document do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of the department of Justice. Published by the Center for Court Innovation, 520 Eighth Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, New York 10018, www.courtinnovation.org.