City decldes to stop prosecuting DV cases due to cost.

Morag

This is just batshít crazy.


http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/10/06/338461/topeka-kansas-city-council-considers-decriminalizing-domestic-violence-to-save-money/

Topeka, Kansas City Council Considers Decriminalizing Domestic Violence To Save Money

By Marie Diamond on Oct 6, 2011 at 5:45 pm

Faced with their worst budget crises since the Great Depression, states and cities have resorted to increasingly desperate measures to cut costs. State and local governments have laid off teachers, slashed Medicaid funding, and even started unpaving roads and turning off streetlights.

But perhaps the most shocking idea to save money is being debated right now by the City Council of Topeka, Kansas. The city could repeal an ordinance banning domestic violence because some say the cost of prosecuting those cases is just too high:

Last night, in between approving city expenditures and other routine agenda items, the Topeka, Kansas City Council debated one rather controversial one: decriminalizing domestic violence.

Here’s what happened: Last month, the Shawnee County District Attorney’s office, facing a 10% budget cut, announced that the county would no longer be prosecuting misdemeanors, including domestic violence cases, at the county level. Finding those cases suddenly dumped on the city and lacking resources of their own, the Topeka City Council is now considering repealing the part of the city code that bans domestic battery. [...]

Since the county stopped prosecuting the crimes on September 8th, it has turned back 30 domestic violence cases. Sixteen people have been arrested for misdemeanor domestic battery and then released from the county jail after charges weren’t filed. “Letting abusive partners out of jail with no consequences puts victims in incredibly dangerous positions,” said Becky Dickinson of the YWCA. “The abuser will often become more violent in an attempt to regain control.”

The YMCA also said that some survivors were afraid for their safety if the dispute wasn’t resolved soon. Town leaders and the district attorney all agree that domestic abuse cases should be prosecuted — but no one would step up to foot the bill. The city council is expected to make its decision on decriminalizing domestic violence next week, but the back-and-forth over funding has already put battered women and their families at increased risk of harm.

Domestic violence is still at epidemic levels in the United States, and too few cases are prosecuted as it is. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, one in four women will be a victim of domestic violence. And domestic abuse is a crime that damages entire communities, not just women. Witnessing violence between one’s parents is the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next: boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partner when they grow up.

And while not prosecuting domestic violence cases may seem to save money in the short term, it actually has staggering financial consequences. The health-related costs of domestic violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year. Nearly $4.1 billion of that is for direct medical and mental health care services, and nearly $1.8 billion are for the indirect costs of lost productivity or wages. Victims lost almost 8 million days of paid work because of the violence.

It should go without saying, but apparently doesn’t, that preventing domestic abuse is essential to promoting communities’ economic and social well-being. That the Topeka City Council would even consider such action is a heartbreaking illustration of the consequences of austerity.

Giselle

A clear signal to DV victims that it isn't thought of as a 'real' crime.

Shame on them.

lazygal

A slippery slope methinks. What's next? Child abuse not worth investigating cos those pesky kids often can't articulate what's happened and need psychologists? Rape victims, sure no doesn't always mean no when there's a recession on does it?

iguana

What else is going on in Kansas at the moment? Call me extremely paranoid/ extremely naive but surely this is a red herring proposition to distract the public's attention from something else.

Does domestic violence even need to be categorised as a special crime in order to prosecute the perpetrator? Anybody attacking someone else would surely come under crimes like common assault, GBH, rape, etc. The marital and residential status of those involved would be irrelevant.

Daftendirekt

This is actually like something you'd read in The Onion.

The whole point of having a law of the land is to protect people from those who'd seek to to do them harm. The idea that you can simply start removing people from its protection when it becomes inconvenient or expensive is nothing short of insane.

Morag

Holy fúck they did it.

http://www.womensviewsonnews.org/2011/10/domestic-violence-law-repealed-in-topeka-kansas/

Summary of story from Huffington Post, October 12, 2011

In the past month, people held as suspects in domestic battery cases in northeast Kansas, USA, have been set free with no charges against them.

Prosecutors say they are overwhelmed with felonies and, faced with budget cuts, can not afford to pursue the cases.

Meanwhile in Topeka, the state’s capital, the City Council and mayor repealed the city’s domestic abuse law on Tuesday night – a move designed to ensure the city would not be stuck with the bill for prosecuting such cases .

Topeka has had at least 35 reported incidents of domestic battery or assault since early September.

Those cases are not being pursued, and as of last Friday, 18 people jailed have been released without facing charges, according to Topeka police.

City and county officials are locked in a dispute about who should fund the prosecutions.

Faced with a ten percent budget cut, Topeka City officials claim the cost of paying the County a day rate of $74 per inmate to jail several hundred suspected abusers is too high. They also say they can’t meet the costs of hiring additional staff to handle prosecutions.

However, both parties insist they are hoping to strike a deal to end the dispute.

“I absolutely do not understand it,” Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said after the vote.

“It’s really outrageous that they’re playing with family safety to see who blinks first. People could die while they’re waiting to straighten this out.”

The move has sparked protests and email campaigns against the decision. The fact that the controversial decision was made during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month has made it hard to bury.

“It can’t continue like this. They have to be prosecuted,” said County Commissioner Ted Ensley, a Democrat. “Supposing they’re charged and they’re not prosecuted and it ends up they go back and cause a death of a woman or a child.”

LittleBook

I don't think there's a message here specifically about domestic violence.

As I understand it, what's happening here is that there was a row over who prosecutes "domestic battery and other misdemeanours". "Assault" is a misdemeanour, "aggravated assault" is a felony. I think in much the same way, not all instances of domestic assault are misdemeanours. Most people charged with misdemeanours are released pending a court appearance.

(I'm open to correction on that, it's just my general understanding)

So it could be possible that anyone arrested for drug possession, prostitution, reckless driving, petty theft, etc. in Topeka at the moment will not be charged (they don't say which other misdemeanours are being repealed).

Basically the city and the county were playing chicken and since domestic violence is the most emotive "misdemeanour", it was being used to highlight this political issue.

The county has been prosecuting these cases up to now but "abruptly" announced that, due to budget cuts, this would not continue and the city would have to do it. The city claimed it didn't have the experience, resources or facilities specific to domestic violence issues.

Topeka Decriminalises Domestic Batter, Other Misdemeanours

Topeka City Manager Dan Stanley defended the decision to decriminalize domestic battery in a statement sent out to council members before the vote. "The Topeka Municipal Court is not a court of record. That means a conviction in which the penalty may be jail can be automatically appealed to District Court—forcing the victim to go through trial a second time. Any action to repeal [domestic battery] from City ordinances is done for the benefit of the victims and to place the responsibility and the seriousness of the crime in the venue where it belongs—the District Court. This is where the services for victims and families already exists, and the DA has a long history of handling these sensitive cases," he wrote.

Repealing the local ordinance on misdemeanour domestic violence has left the DA with "sole authority" over these crimes and he's stated that he will be taking them back on.

DA in Topeka Says He Might Prosecute Some Misdemeanour Domestic Violence Cases

Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor, who had announced last month that he would no longer pursue such cases, said in a statement that he now has “sole authority” over such cases after the city of Topeka voted to repeal a local domestic violence ordinance.

“We will do so with less staff, less resources and severe constraints on our ability to effectively seek justice,” Taylor said. “But we will do so willingly to preserve the public safety of all the citizens of Shawnee County.”

This statement oozes political schmooze but I don't know enough about Topeka to know who's the bad guy. It could be that this was an inspired move on the part of the city.