Thursday, November 12, 2015
crime victims fund
YOUNGSTOWN
Local reaction to a Congressional raid on a crime victims’ assistance fund to achieve a federal budget deal ranges from concern to condemnation.
The two-year budget agreement Congress approved last month to prevent a partial federal government shutdown diverted $1.5 billion from the Crime Victims’ Fund to the general government treasury.
Created by the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) of 1984, the Crime Victims Fund consists of monies collected from federal fines, fees and settlements.
Due to settlements paid by companies and banks in response to U.S. Department of Justice investigations, that fund grew from $3 billion to $12 billion between 2009 and 2014, according to the DOJ.
“If they reduce our VOCA funds, it is going to put all of the victims’ services programming at risk, including our Sojourner House domestic- violence shelter, our rape-crisis services and the legal advocacy that we do on behalf of our victims,” said Joseph Caruso, president and chief executive officer of Compass Family and Community Services.
Compass, which has Youngstown and Warren offices, is receiving $341,294 in VOCA funding for 2016.
Help Hotline’s associate director, Cathy Grizinski, was more blunt.
“It’s just another revictimization of people who are already suffering great losses in their life,” said Grizinski, whose crisis intervention, information and referral agency has a $52,341 VOCA grant for 2016.
That grant pays for a crime-victim advocate and a 24-hour crime-victim hot line at the agency, which serves Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties.
The Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office is getting $237,068 in VOCA monies for 2016, which is nearly double the $124,751 it got for 2015.
County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains said he is using the extra money to hire a fourth victim-witness advocate to expand service already provided in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to Austintown and Boardman courts.
The extra money also is paying for computer upgrades and purchase of a new copier for the advocates, Gains said.
Gains said his office’s 2016 allocation is secure and that any cuts to his program wouldn’t start until 2017. “I don’t anticipate a reduction” in VOCA funding to the county prosecutor’s office, he added.
“That’s no different than what they’re doing to Social Security and what they have done historically to Social Security, borrowing from Social Security to balance the budget,” Gains said of the Congressional action concerning the Crime Victims Fund.
“These are all programs that crime victims depend on to work throughout this justice system and also through the healing process and recovery process. It would be devastating if any of these programs were cut back,” Duane Piccirilli, executive director of the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board, said of the local programs that depend on VOCA funds.
“These are not taxpayers’ dollars,” he said of the VOCA monies, which are derived from court cases.
“It’s so important that victims aren’t revictimized,” he added.
Besides VOCA grants to Compass and Help Hotline, Catholic Charities gets VOCA money for its Christina House battered persons shelter in Columbiana County, Piccirilli said. That grant is $193,426 for 2016.
“It’s absurd that Congress would try to balance its federal budget on the backs of crime victims,” complained Anthony Traficanti, chairman of the Mahoning County commissioners.
Traficanti, who previously was district director and Congressional liaison for the late U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., said he wants to write a protest letter to Ohio’s U.S. representatives and senators and that he hopes they will support corrective legislation.
Traficanti also said he will ask his colleagues to support a commissioners’ resolution of protest.
Traficanti suggested budget management alternatives, including controlling Congressional payroll and government travel expenses and foreign aid payments.
“We will continue to be vigilant in reminding lawmakers what the intent of the fund is and that our victim services providers count on these dollars to help the most vulnerable among us,” said Lisa Hackley, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
“I was deeply disappointed that the agreement reduced the Crime Victims’ Fund. This sets a very dangerous precedent for the fund,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th.
However, Ryan said he voted for the budget deal “to avoid a costly government shutdown, manage the national debt, stop an increase in Medicare insurance premiums and prevent a drastic cut in Social Security disability benefits.”
Rachel Petri, a spokeswoman of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said the senator voted for the deal to keep Social Security disability intact and to curb “automatic spending cuts to domestic priorities.”
She added, however, that she doesn’t expect the budget deal will adversely affect services to crime victims and that $5 billion is expected to be added to the Crime Victims Fund this year through DOJ settlements.