Recommendations for Criminal Justice Agencies and Local Disability Rights Specialists - Crime Victims with Disabilities OVC Bulletin :: National Organization for Victim Assistance® (NOVA) ::

Many of the recommendations presented by the Symposium participants apply to all criminal justice agencies: law enforcement, prosecution, judiciary, corrections, and victim assistance. All agencies must work in concert with one another to ensure that vulnerable victims are identified and served. However, since the focus of this Bulletin is on improved victim assistance services, emphasis is placed on recommendations for those who work in victim assistance programs. Victim assistance program staff interested in implementing any of the recommendations are welcome to contact NOVA or OVC staff for suggestions on how to get started. Many of the recommendations apply equally to those victim assistance programs that are not based in a criminal justice agency.

1. Criminal justice agencies and victim assistance programs should receive training on the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and should support its vigorous enforcement. Agencies/programs should take advantage of technical assistance provided by the Federal government to help ensure enforcement of the ADA. Programs that are not required to abide by the letter of the law should commit to adhering to the spirit of the law. This will help to ensure equal access to the justice system-as called for by Federal law and State constitutional amendments and statutes.

2. When full physical accessibility is not immediately achievable, criminal justice agencies and victim assistance programs should initiate transition planning that focuses on obtaining accessibility by a designated date. Public and nonprofit agencies should understand that development of compliance plans are typically mandated under Titles II and III of the ADA, and with some exceptions, compliance plans are required, not optional. These compliance plans serve as a roadmap in taking incremental steps to improve accessibility, even if complete implementation of the plan must be delayed. The victim assistance sector should join with disability advocates and representatives of the various populations within the community to conduct a community needs assessment survey to ensure that the compliance plan is appropriate and effective.

3. Criminal justice and victim assistance personnel should receive training on disabilities, including developing an understanding of disability cultures. Special efforts should be made to identify qualified victim advocates with disabilities as trainers. In addition, criminal justice agencies and victim assistance programs should enlist qualified people with a wide range of different disabilities to lead in all stages of policy development, decision making, program development, and service delivery for crime victims with disabilities from the time of the crime through case disposition and beyond. People with disabilities should be proactively recruited and trained to become volunteers and paid staff members in criminal justice-oriented programs, especially in system-based or private victim assistance programs.

4. Criminal justice agencies and victim assistance programs should reach out proactively to local disability service organizations. They should provide them with information about victim rights and services, then the service organization in turn, can inform their constituents on how better to access the criminal justice system, particularly the victim assistance programs.

5. Criminal justice agencies and victim assistance programs must develop coalitions, cross-training, and joint training opportunities with disability advocacy and services programs to build better working relationships and to better understand the services each offer when working with people with disabilities.¹ In some communities, this coalition could be formalized as an interagency team or coordinating council, including involvement of local or State governmental task forces on disabilities. Communities may wish to emulate the models developed within the domestic violence victim advocacy community. The Commonwealth of Kentucky's Model Protocol for Local Coordinating Councils on Domestic Violence could be a useful guide. Call 502-564-2611 for information.

6. Collaborative partnerships must also be fostered with other community-based entities, such as schools, social service agencies, citizen groups, and churches or synagogues. Utilizing the resources of the entire community will help to ensure that service delivery is seamless, more inclusive, and does not duplicate or waste limited resources.

7. Leaders in the victim assistance and disability advocacy fields should work together to develop and utilize innovative ways to communicate, such as e-mail lists serve. These links would allow the timely sharing of information and ideas between disability groups and individuals with expertise in disability rights and services with similar experts in victim rights and services. Regional and State Web sites devoted to the needs of crime victims offer another way of fostering this exchange.

8. Agencies should implement or extend streamlined interviewing and intake procedures so that crime victims with disabilities, particularly those with cognitive or communications disabilities, do not have to bear repeated interviewing in different locations. A multidisciplinary approach involving a law enforcement officer, a prosecutor, a victim assistance specialist, and others, as needed, in victim-friendly environments would be more effective and cost-efficient.

9. Agencies should develop and implement specific protocols on disclosures, confidentiality, and safety for crime victims with disabilities, particularly where there is potential for retaliation by a caregiver or a disability services agency. For example, when a crime victim reports to a law enforcement officer (or, when it does not get reported to a police agency, to a victim advocate), that he or she is being victimized by a caregiver and has reason to fear for his or her safety, that victim should be provided with assistance to relocate if necessary and to have emergency replacement caregiver services provided.

10. Criminal justice agencies and victim assistance programs should be proactive in acquiring assistance technology that would help crime victims with disabilities to be informed, present, heard, and understood more effectively when they communicate with law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, and victim advocates. For example, victim assistance service providers should know what accommodations will be needed so that a person with a communication disability can make a Victim Impact Statement at the time of sentencing. Assistance technology and accommodations costs (i.e., for computer software, sign language interpreters, par transit, etc.) should be considered part of the cost of "doing business."

Victim assistance agencies should be aware that under Federal VOCA guidelines, VOCA funds may be used to make services accessible to victims with disabilities. Specific allowable costs include the purchase of items such as Braille equipment or TTY/TTD machines, or for minor building improvements that make services more accessible to victims with disabilities. Specific guidance is contained in the Office of Justice Programs, Office of the Comptroller, Financial Guide.

11. Once the agency is accessible and staff is trained, criminal justice agencies and victim assistance programs should publicize their ability to work with crime victims with disabilities by putting the universal symbol of access (the line drawing of a wheelchair) and a TDD/TTY number on all literature, promotional materials, business cards, etc., used by the agency.

12. Victim assistance and criminal justice agencies should incorporate into existing policies, procedures, and protocols the specific inclusion of persons with disabilities who are victims/witnesses of domestic violence, sexual violence, child abuse, impaired driving crashes, survivors of homicide victims, or other violent personal crimes. Parallel policies should be written to cover economic crimes committed against people with disabilities.

13. Statistical information about crime victims with disabilities should be systematically collected by criminal justice agencies and victim assistance programs, using the ADA to define disability status.

14. Prosecutors should invoke hate crimes statutes, if indicated, when prosecuting crimes against people with disabilities. Judges should apply equal sentencing or sentencing enhancements, when allowed, for offenders who victimize people with disabilities.

15. When a violent personal crime occurs against a person with a disability who is institutionalized, the investigation of the crime should not be handled administratively or informally by the institution's own investigators. Dan Sorensen, in his California Victims of Crime Committee Report (January 12, 1997), noted that there were several studies that suggested that 80 percent to 85 percent of criminal abuse of residents of institutions (an estimated 2.3 million people) never reached law enforcement authorities. Criminal prosecution should be pursued in cases of violent crime.

¹NOVA has presented at least one workshop on a disability-related topic at its annual conferences since the early 1980's. In 1998, NOVA will present a plenary session on working with crime victims with disabilities, along with a track of six workshops devoted to this issue. The Office for Victims of Crime is sponsoring two of these workshops, including one on requirements of the ADA and technical assistance available to victim assistance agencies to meet these requirements. Crime victim advocates with disabilities will work closely with the conference coordinator to design and present the plenary session and the workshops.