MDVPTB welcomes the new as it celebrates the past.
In this year of great transition in state government, the Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board is recognizing its own 25th anniversary. Reaching such a significant milestone is an excellent time to honor past accomplishments in the effort to end domestic and sexual violence by considering new ideas for the future. In that spirit the Board is excited to have the opportunity to work with newly elected legislators, a new governor, a new attorney general, and many other new local officials. The Board appreciates all those who have made significant contributions in the field during its 25 years, and welcomes the fresh perspectives of newly elected officials it will be working with in the future.

When MDVPTB began its work, there were no shelters specifically for domestic violence victims in the state of Michigan. There were very limited resources available to battered women attempting to flee due to domestic violence. Only a few sexual assault programs existed, and they were all very young. During MDVPTB’s first year, 16 domestic violence shelters were founded. Since then the system has grown to 45 shelters providing services to every county in the state and 29 programs offering sexual assault services.

Domestic and sexual violence involves more than providing shelter and counseling services. There are repercussions in the areas of health care, employment, child welfare, the criminal and civil justice systems, just to name a few. Domestic and sexual violence impacts us all. We look forward to continuing to address these issues in partnership with you.

Michigan Legislature updates domestic violence statutes.
In December 2002, the Michigan Legislature enacted the following amendments to complete the domestic violence legislative package it passed in December 2001:

• 02 PA 694, effective December 30, 2002 amends MCL 28.242 & 28.243 to include personal protection orders issued against adult respondents in Michigan or other jurisdictions in provisions governing the destruction of fingerprint and arrest cards, and the reporting of final dispositions to the Michigan State Police and the FBI.
• 02 PA 732, effective December 30, 2002, MCL 400.1511 clarifies the team membership, confidentiality and immunity provisions of the domestic violence fatality review team statute.
• 02 PA 715, effective March 31, 2003, amends MCL 600.5808 to include dating and former dating relationships in the 5-year limitations period for civil actions to recover damages for injury to a person or property brought by a person who has been assaulted or battered by an individual with whom he or she has a domestic relationship.

SCAO issues custody and parenting time guidelines.
The State Court Administrative Office has issued Guidelines for Enforcement of Custody and Parenting Time Violations (ADM 2002-11, November 27, 2002), outlining the steps Friend of the Court offices should take in enforcing custody and parenting time violations. The guidelines explain that makeup parenting time should be used for the most simple parenting time violations, joint meetings should be used to try to resolve disagreements over portions of the order, investigations and motions should be used to change the order, and show cause proceedings should be used with the more difficult cases. The guidelines give examples of when and when not to use a particular remedy and provide information concerning how to deal with parenting time disputes in domestic violence cases.

MCOLES Model Policy updated and distributed.
Using S*T*O*P funds provided through MDVPTB, the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES) has updated the State of Michigan Model Policy: The Law Enforcement Response to Domestic Violence. The updates include all of the domestic violence laws enacted in 2001, taking effect in April and October of 2002. The model policy was distributed in early February to all training academies throughout Michigan.

Mr. Lynn Ried, MCOLES Career Development staff, has been assigned the coordinator responsibilities for this project. Mr. Ried has been with MCOLES since 1997 and is a retired Detective Sergeant from the Lansing Police Department. For more information about the State of Michigan Model Policy: The Law Enforcement Response to Domestic Violence, please contact Lynn Ried at riedl@michigan.gov, or by phone at 517-322-1949.

MCOLES offers free domestic violence training.
MCOLES is continuing to offer a free eight-hour in-service training on domestic violence to all law enforcement agencies throughout Michigan. Utilizing federal S*T*O*P dollars, MDVPTB subcontracts with MCOLES and supports this project to provide training and education for law enforcement officers throughout Michigan regarding domestic and sexual violence. The training, team-taught by a law enforcement office, prosecutor and domestic violence expert, focuses on domestic violence nature and dynamics, law enforcement response and prosecution. Content incorporates the recently updated and distributed Michigan Law Enforcement Response to Domestic Violence: Officer Manual and participants receive a copy of the revised State of Michigan Model Policy: The Law Enforcement Response to Domestic Violence. To view the Officer Manual go to www.mcoles.org and scroll down to the bottom of the home page. From there, click on “Domestic Violence Officer Manual.”

For more information about the free training, please contact Mr. Ried at riedl@michigan.gov or by phone at 517-322-1949.

Michigan State Police training CD distributed.
In collaboration with MDVPTB, and utilizing Federal S*T*O*P grant funds provided through MDVPTB, the Michigan State Police (MSP) has developed a high-tech, interactive, scenario-based training CD that teaches and reviews domestic violence laws and procedures for law enforcement officers. It also offers the opportunity for police officers to refine their skills in domestic violence investigation.

The CD has been distributed to all law enforcement agencies and domestic violence service providers in Michigan. Covering the most recent changes to Michigan domestic violence law, the interactive training CD may be used by officers on individual computers, or in a group training session. For more information about the MSP domestic violence training CD, contact Sgt. Michele Hernandez at hernanm@michigan.gov or by phone at 517-336-6603.

MJI posts updates to benchbooks online.
In October 2002 the Michigan Judicial Institute (MJI) began to provide monthly electronic updates to its judicial benchbooks. These updates summarize relevant legislation, court rules, rules of evidence, and case law appearing after the publication date of each benchbook. Updates can be found on the MJI Web site under Resources. MJI intends to periodically republish its benchbooks to incorporate these updates into the main text. E-report readers may be particularly interested in reviewing updates currently posted for the Sexual Assault Benchbook (2002), and for Domestic Violence: A Guide to Civil and Criminal Proceedings (2d Ed, 2001). Click here to view a legislative summary including information not appearing in either the Domestic Violence Benchbook or its online updates.

Grants to Encourage Arrests (GTEA) projects are underway.
Work continues in all areas funded by the $750,000 in federal Grants to Encourage Arrests (GTEA) awarded to MDVPTB last September by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Board is working in collaboration with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan (PAAM), Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCADSV), Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES), Michigan State Police (MSP), and Michigan Judicial Institute (MJI).

1. Advisory Task Force
   In January, MDVPTB convened the first meeting of the Grants to Encourage Arrests Advisory Task Force (GTEAATF), consisting of representatives of federal, state and tribal criminal justice systems, and domestic violence service providers. Task Force members identified policies, practices, resources and information delivery methods most needed to improve the capability of their professions to provide safety for domestic violence victims and accountability for perpetrators. During the GTEA grant period, MDVPTB will work with Advisory Task Force members and their organizations to further define and implement these recommendations.
2. Full Faith and Credit Trainings Scheduled
   Twelve regional trainings on the Full Faith and Credit provisions of the federal Violence Against Women Act (18 USC 2265), and the recent Michigan legislation implementing that federal law, have been scheduled. The trainings will discuss laws and procedures for enforcement of protection orders issued by the courts of other states, tribes, and U.S. territories; custody provisions within protections orders; jurisdictional and other considerations regarding violations of protection orders on tribal land or affecting members in Indian tribes; and federal domestic violence crimes. The trainings are offered by the GTEA partners along with the Michigan Indian Law Enforcement Association and the Michigan Indian Judges Association and are open to federal, state and tribal law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, court personnel and domestic violence service providers. Supervisors and trainers are particularly encouraged to attend. For more information, check the spotlight box on the MDVPTB Web site.
3. Michigan Attorney General's Office Domestic Violence Unit
   To enhance the ability of prosecutors in rural areas of Michigan to respond to crimes involving domestic violence, the Michigan Department of Attorney General will assign a Special Assistant Attorney General to each of three groups of counties that have applied for participation in the Michigan Attorney General's Domestic Violence Unit. The three consortiums of counties have tentatively been set to include: 1) Charlevoix, Emmet and Otsego; 2) Antrim, Grand Traverse and Leelanau; and, 3) Alger, Delta, Iron and Marquette. These Special AAG's will handle cases involving domestic violence, be involved in setting up protocol and conduct training as needed for prosecutors, service providers and law enforcement officers. If any other counties are interested in this program, please contact Assistant Attorney General Amy Ronayne Krause who is coordinating this project for Attorney General Michael A. Cox. She may be reached at ronaynea@michigan.gov or by calling 517-241-6563.
   

Special Feature: The intersection of domestic violence and child welfare.
When a family becomes involved in overlapping cases of domestic violence and child abuse and neglect it can raise complicated questions that cross multiple jurisdictions.

MDVPTB is represented on the Children’s Justice Act’s Task Force, Domestic Violence subcommittee – one group carefully examining these questions. The subcommittee is a multidisciplinary group working to increase the coordination among various systems, and therefore, improve overall response to cases involving both domestic violence and child welfare. The Honorable Susan Dobrich, Chair of the subcommittee, is encouraged about the potential of this effort. "The subcommittee’s work offers a wonderful opportunity to build an effective statewide plan for designing the most appropriate interventions in these cases," said Dobrich. "We must balance the welfare of children, safety for adult survivors as well as suitable consequences for people who choose to use violence against people they say they love."

At the subcommittee meeting in January, members heard from David Berns, director of the El Paso County, Colorado Department of Human Services and former Michigan FIA director for Marquette County. His agency is involved in a national pilot program where efforts to address domestic violence and child maltreatment are tightly coordinated by an expert board of advisors.

The membership of the project’s board is comprised of staff from the domestic violence center, Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team (DVERT), Department of Human Resources, a chief judge, four survivors of domestic violence and other community representatives. The vision of the collaboration has three parts:

• the needs of DV victims and their children are met without unnecessarily involving the Department of Human Services and/or the Juvenile Courts
• clients feel supported and not re-victimized by our systems
• a proactive, holistic approach is part of our community and organizational culture – it is a part of our personal values.

Some of the challenges to implementation of enhanced interventions, as outlined by Mr. Berns were:

• maintaining safety for children and their mothers
• confidentiality
• offender accountability
• engaging the courts
• disproportionate representation
• engaging family experts in leadership positions
• issues of Failure to Protect
• dealing with children who witness domestic violence.

"We know that the child welfare agency needs help from the entire community to protect children. We all need to work together." said Berns. "We wanted to see if our community could provide protection, not just the child welfare system.” Berns added, "We have virtually no Failure to Protect cases going into court, especially if the case presents as a domestic violence situation. The defining question is, is this a safety issue or a compliance issue. If it’s a compliance issue, then let’s see what else we can do."

Nannette Bowler, newly appointed Family Independence Agency director and former executive director and chief legal counsel to the Children’s Commission, the organization responsible for the Binsfield legislation during the 1990s, is committed to finding solutions for this troubled area.

"We have done a great deal to identify common ground between the issues of child welfare and domestic violence," said Bowler. "From here, our vision involves working to improve approaches where the needs of domestic violence victims are met, while maintaining the safety of the children. The welfare of Michigan's children also requires us to address the core of the problem, the batterer."

Through its representation on the Governor’s task force subcommittee and other collaborations, the Board is committed to finding responsive and responsible policies, protocols and practices to address domestic violence and child welfare issues. For instance, MDVPTB executive director, Debi Cain is a member of the national advisory committee for the implementation phase of a federal project resulting from the landmark document entitled, Effective Intervention in Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment Cases: Guidelines for Policy and Practice, (commonly referred to as simply the "Greenbook". This document, published in 1999 by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) offers recommendations regarding policies and practices of domestic violence and child welfare services for juvenile courts.

The Greenbook evolved into a federal initiative in which the U.S. Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services funded six pilot sites across the nation to implement the guidelines outlined in the Greenbook and measure the success of coordinated efforts to address domestic violence and child maltreatment. On-going technical assistance is also provided to the six sites. David Berns manages one of those pilot sites in El Paso County, Colorado.

Another resource in this area is a 2000 effort by the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators. This group published Guidelines for Public Child Welfare Agencies Serving Children and Families Experiencing Domestic Violence. These Guidelines offer a conceptual framework and guidance to child welfare administrators by offering concrete model policies, practices, programs and protocols addressing this challenging intersection. MDVPTB's Debi Cain also sat on the national committee for this effort.

Over the past 25 years, MDVPTB, in collaboration with others, has made tremendous strides in increasing safety for Michigan’s domestic and sexual violence survivors and their children. The Board is committed to continuing its collaboration with other organizations to better address the overlap of domestic violence and child abuse and neglect.

What’s Ahead: First Michigan Conference on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Legal System Scheduled for April 10-12, 2003 in Detroit, Michigan
The first Michigan Conference on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Legal System has been scheduled in conjunction with the 15th Annual Meeting of the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts. Produced by the State Bar of Michigan Open Justice Commission and the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts. The 2 ½ day conference will bring together leaders at the state and national levels from courts, bar associations, academia, and community organizations to discuss the challenges and opportunities in making policies and decisions addressing under-representation, accessibility, and equal application of the law. The conference includes a wide selection of substantive programs, respected state and national speakers, unique cultural special events, and networking opportunities for all participants. Participants may attend the entire conference or portions of it. Among others, the conference will offer a workshop on Racial and Ethnic Issues in Family and Domestic Violence Cases.

The conference will be held April 10-12, 2003 at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center Hotel. To register, or for more information, go to www.michbar.org and click on “Open Justice Commission,” or call Linda Perkins or Stacey Smith at the National Center for State Courts, 800-616-6165. 

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