Domestic Abuse Task Force Urges Longer Restraining Orders

Interesting article about changes to laws affecting domestic violence victims.

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Domestic-abuse-task-force-urges-longer-3379681.php

Ken Dixon
Published 05:57 p.m., Saturday, March 3, 2012

HARTFORD -- Restraining orders against domestic abusers could be extended to a year under legislation promoted Monday by a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Speaker of the House Christopher G. Donovan.

Currently, the maximum allowable time for a restraining order is six months. The extension was one of 20 recommendations that members of the speaker's three-year-old Task Force on Domestic Violence announced as legislative goals.

The group's proposals include forcing local bail commissioners to consider the victims of domestic abuse when evaluating the release of defendants. The August 2009 stabbing murder of Cathy Fox of Milford, following the release of her estranged husband on $1,000 bond, was cited as an example why this provision is needed.

During a news conference in the Legislative Office Building, Rep. Mae M. Flexer, D-Danielson, chairwoman of the task force, said the 2012 agenda would build on the previous three years. She warned that after funding was found last year for around-the-clock staffing at the state's domestic violence shelters, lawmakers have to work again to find money in the budget for similar programs.

"The most important thing that we can do is to talk about this issue, so that we can finally change the way that people look at domestic violence," Flexer said. "The question is not, 'Why does she stay with him? Why does she let him treat her that way?'

But instead, it becomes, 'Why does he think he can treat her that way?' " Donovan said, "We want to make sure that when a victim has worked up the courage to call police, request a restraining order, or to leave her home, we want to make sure that the services are in place to support a victim to protect herself. It's all of our responsibility to be vigilant, to help victims seek assistance, to promote prevention, to teach our kids at an early age about healthy relationships and to advocate for changes that make domestic violence socially unacceptable."

He said that the recommendations will become the basis of several bills that will work their way through the Legislature over the next two and a half months. Rep. Clark J. Chapin, R-New Milford, a member of the speaker's panel, said the task force has met with broad support. While some proposals require money, such as an expansion of the GPS tracking system for convicted abuses, others, such as the creation of more domestic violence dockets in state courts, do not, he said.

The GPS tracking project used $140,000 in now-expired federal funds to monitor abusers in Bridgeport, Hartford and Danielson. To renew it and spread it farther around the state, would take a million dollars currently not planned in the budget that takes effect July 1.

Annually over the last 10 years, about 16 homicides in the state have been attributable to domestic violence. Last year, the number dropped to 12, said Karen Jarmoc, a former House member who is the executive director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. About 37,000 court cases a year, one-third of all criminal cases, are linked to domestic violence, she said. The coalition, an 18-member group, annually assists 54,000 victims.

"Connecticut is only one of a handful of states that only allow a restraining order to be six months," she said. "Most states are one year to five years."