HB 273-EXTENDING COUNCIL ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE  9:27:55 AM CHAIR LYNN announced the final order of business was HOUSE BILL NO. 273, "An Act extending the termination date of the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault; and providing for an effective date." 9:28:10 AM REPRESENTATIVE LINDSEY HOLMES, Alaska State Legislature, as prime sponsor, presented HB 273. She said the proposed legislation would extend the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (CDVSA) for the eight years that were recommended in the legislative audit. She reviewed that Alaska leads the nation in sexual abuse and domestic violence and that CDVSA is the entity that is charged with addressing this problem. She said the council was created in 1981, and since then has served Alaskans by funding and monitoring domestic violence and assault programs and prevention activities. She related that the council not only provides training, outreach, and statewide public information programs, but it also acts as the state's grant-making arm and coordinator for statewide efforts. REPRESENTATIVE HOLMES said the statutory mandate is: To provide for planning and coordination of services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault or to their families and to perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual assault, and to provide for crisis intervention and prevention programs. 9:29:44 AM REPRESENTATIVE HOLMES listed the following primary functions of CDVSA: to develop, implement, maintain, and monitor domestic violence, sexual assault, and crisis intervention and prevention programs, in coordination with authorities in the field of domestic violence and sexual assault; to break down "silos in this area" and coordinate services between the Department of Public Safety (DPS), the Department of Law (DOL), the Department of Education & Early Development (DEED), Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), the Department of Corrections (DOC), and other agencies; to oversee, monitor, coordinate and dispense funds for existing and expanding services and programs to meet domestic violence and sexual assault victims; to provide technical assistance to programs around the state; to consult with public employers and other agencies that are required to provide continuing education programs; and to consult with other agencies. REPRESENTATIVE HOLMES said there has been much discussion over the years regarding the role of the council. In 2006, the legislature established a task force, on which she served, which came up with 26 recommendations. Some of the recommendations were made into statute. All but two of the rest, she reported, were fully addressed by the council. The final two recommendations relate to batterers intervention, and she said the council has been working diligently to address those. She said the Division of Legislative Audit had three recommendations for the council. The council has completely complied with two of them, which were to implement written procedures to ensure that public notices are posted in a timely manner and to improve grant reward and monitoring policies and procedures. The council has taken steps to comply with the third recommendation, which was to work with DHSS to ensure that people providing services are "fully up to speed" on how to address the needs of victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. She said it is actually the department's responsibility to create those procedures; the council has made efforts over the last few months to fulfill their role in working with the department. REPRESENTATIVE HOLMES stated that in light of the "mighty task" in front of CDVSA and the fact that the council has been very responsive over the years, she would urge the committee to approve the eight-year sunset extension proposed under HB 273. 9:32:45 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER asked if the council's membership includes someone from DOC, so that that department has input regarding the transition of people coming out of prison and the training and counseling involved. 9:33:07 AM REPRESENTATIVE HOLMES answered yes, in response to one of the aforementioned 26 recommendations, one of the council's seats is now filled by either the commissioner or commissioner designee of DOC. 9:33:25 AM REPRESENTATIVE ISAACSON thanked Representative Holmes for bringing HB 273 forward. He said he does not think anyone would doubt the need for the council, but he questioned what steps are being taken to ensure that the money allotted to CDVSA is being used for the purposes intended. 9:33:59 AM REPRESENTATIVE HOLMES responded that there are standards in place. For example, she said forms have been standardized, and there is a method by which the content in forms submitted by grantees is checked for accuracy. She deferred to Lauree Morton, the executive director of CDVSA for further information. 9:35:52 AM KRIS CURTIS, Legislative Auditor, Legislative Audit Division, Legislative Affairs Agency, presented a sunset review of CDVSA, dated May 21, 2013. She said the purpose of any sunset audit is to determine if a council, or any other entity, is serving the public's interest, and whether its termination date should be extended. She said the division's audit report also provides a summary of the council's organization and function, and a description of its funding sources. She said the audit concluded that the council is serving the public's interest by funding and monitoring Alaskan domestic violence and sexual assault programs and prevention response activities. The audit also found that the council effectively served as the central coordinator for related services throughout the state. She reported that the Legislative Audit Division recommended the maximum extension allowed in statute, which is eight years. 9:36:56 AM REPRESENTATIVE ISAACSON asked Ms. Curtis if she foresees any problems related to a misuse of funds. MS. CURTIS responded that the audit found that the council has controls in place, such as the aforementioned forms; however, the problem was that the forms were not being used consistently, which she said is a much easier problem to address. She said the cause of the recommendation was staff turnover and a lack of procedures. She said she cannot say what the current state is, since the audit was done in the spring of 2013; however, she reiterated that the division does consider "that type of recommendation much easier to address." 9:38:33 AM REPRESENTATIVE HUGHES asked if the council takes steps to ensure the effective use of the funds given to nonprofit groups. Further, she asked what amount "is being spent on these programs on an annual basis." 9:39:22 AM MS. CURTIS directed attention to a schedule on page 16 of the audit, [included in the committee packet], which shows a schedule of funding sources and expenditures. She said it shows that in fiscal year 2012 (FY 12), the council granted $12.7 million in awards. There is an appendix to the report, which shows who received the money in the account and how much they received. In general, she reported, the council funded the following: 20 community-based victim service programs, 6 community-based batterers' intervention programs, 3 prison-based batterers' intervention programs, and 13 other related programs. She said the audit found that there was some inconsistency in the council's monitoring files - they did not always have evidence of follow-up on some of their findings - and that contributed to the recommendation. 9:40:48 AM REPRESENTATIVE HUGHES indicated that her question stems from feedback she has received from her constituents regarding their concern about the accountability of non-profit organizations that receive state funds. 9:41:09 AM LAUREE MORTON, Executive Director, Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (CDVSA), reported that over the past year, there were over 9,330 people who sought assistance from the funded programs. She continued as follows: About 75 percent of them was related to domestic violence, about 20 percent related to sexual assault, 3 percent to stalking, and about 30 percent to other violent crime victims. MS. MORTON said the council receives a federal grant through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), which allows the council to fund services for victims of other violent crimes. She said about 68 percent of the people who sought services were adults - of whom 79 percent were women and 17 percent were men - and about 28 percent were children. She indicated that 4 percent of those who applied did not note age or sex. Ms. Morton said the programs are generally supported in the respective communities; in the past year there were over 3,000 volunteers who donated over 78,000 hours of service. MS. MORTON reported that there were 262 intakes into the council-funded batterers' programs last year and 84 people who completed the programs. She said the task force recommendation still outstanding has to do with the programs. She said since assuming her executive director role two years ago, the council has been diligently working on its batterer's intervention programs. She said current regulations narrowly define what a program can look like. Back when the regulations were first instituted in the mid '90s, there was only one program available, which was crafted from "the Duluth model" from Minnesota. Over the years, she said, programs have been made more effective by being customized through consideration of factors including a person's age, lethality, and cultural affiliation. She explained that the council is in a year-long process of revising the regulations and has entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with DOC to take that task on, and the council will be reviewing the first draft of regulations at its meeting the end of this month. 9:44:18 AM MS. MORTON said the council also has a research component funded through the governor's initiative, which looks at the statewide population. She said the Alaska victimization survey was conducted in 2010, and she reported that unfortunately, 58 percent of adult women in Alaska have been sexually assaulted, suffered domestic violence, or both. She said the council plans to repeat that survey in 2015 and, while it does not expect to see the "lifetime number" to change in five years, it does hope to see the start of "down-trending" in the past year. MS. MORTON said the council has also put together a composite of almost every statistic in the state regarding domestic violence and sexual assault, which is called "the dashboard." She said it shows about 36 different items on the dashboard, including child abuse, elder abuse, how crimes are reported, the rates of reports, how many incidents are accepted for prosecution, and how many of those are successfully prosecuted. MS. MORTON said the council also has an evaluation of one of the state's significant primary prevention activities, which is conducted through the school system and called, "The Fourth R." She explained that added to the first three "Rs," [Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic], the fourth "R" is Relationships. She indicated that the program has been in place for grades seven, eight, and nine, and has existed for three years. She said the program has gone through an institutional review board at a college level and there are intervention schools where the program is being actively used, as well as a control group of schools, where it is not being implemented. The intent is to have the final result at the end of this summer, and the council hopes that The Fourth R will show an effect on young people's ability to enter into respectful and nonviolent relationships. 9:46:34 AM MS. MORTON relayed that the council coordinates several activities around state, including: sexual assault response team training for communities and the justice system to help people protect themselves from re-victimization. She said it brings together advocates, health care, and law enforcement to create a seamless system for the victim who comes forward to report an assault. She said the council also has a federal program called, "Services Training Officers and Prosecutors" (STOP), which uses federal funding to train first responders to domestic violence and sexual assault. She said the council has implemented several prevention activities, particularly through the governor's initiative. One of them is called, Coaching Boys Into Men, where coaches talk to boys about how to treat their dating partners and the adult women in their lives with respect. The theory is that coaches are natural leaders in schools and can be roles models. 9:48:26 AM MS. MORTON, in response to Representative Isaacson's previously stated concern about ineligible groups possibly getting funded, said the council has a request for proposal (RFP) process, which is open every two years in a grant cycle. She said any eligible entity can apply, and there are standards and regulations, by which the council judges those applications to determine whether the applicants qualify. The council makes the awards and then it is "up to the staff to ensure that they are implemented correctly and that the funds are being properly used." She surmised Representative Isaacson may have read in the audit something that was "not a failure in the practical day-to-day matter of making sure that it was happening," but "a failure in correctly ensuring all the paperwork was done." She said the council has instituted ways to ensure that this does not happen anymore: program coordinators meet on a quarterly basis with a checklist of everything in the files. She said there is also a routine business practice for on-sight evaluation files, where they are checked for accuracy and completeness, and she signs off on them. 9:50:14 AM REPRESENTATIVE ISAACSON concluded that the council is ensuring and approving eligibility and monitoring where funds are going to make certain they are being used properly. [MS. MORTON nodded.] REPRESENTATIVE ISAACSON asked Ms. Morton to talk about the success that the council has seen. 9:51:19 AM MS. MORTON said she thinks the council has moved away from looking at programs and their outputs to asking questions about the quality of services provided, such as ascertaining whether the people in the programs are safer, know about more resources, and are better able to enter into the justice system. She said there is a list of seven outcome measure questions in the short term that the council started asking last year to determine if there are ways to improve services to victims. She said the council is also looking for intervention programs for batterers as part of the regulation revision - "a way to think through outcome measures and performance measures." She said she thinks it is "a little more than recidivism." She mentioned "a high mark to get back into the justice system" and figuring out why patterns of behavior are actually changing. She ventured there is more of a willingness to acknowledge problems and talk about them, and, as communities, look for ways to stop violence and sexual assault. She said she started this work in 1984, moved to Alaska in 1989, where she worked in a crisis center in Bethel, Alaska, for five years before moving to Juneau. She said there is "a distinct difference in the air" where people are saying they do not want sexual assault or domestic violence to happen in Alaska any more. 9:53:24 AM REPRESENTATIVE ISAACSON said he interpreted Ms. Morton's testimony as meaning that the very presence of the council and its perpetual focus on the issues is helping to bring awareness, and that awareness is bringing people to a place where they want to put a stop to [sexual assault and domestic violence]. MS. MORTON confirmed that is correct. 9:53:55 AM REPRESENTATIVE HUGHES thanked Ms. Morton for her work. She indicated that after hearing the statistics presented by Ms. Morton, she thinks Alaska has a long way to go; however, she said the headway that has been made is encouraging. She said she thinks drugs and alcohol are key issues, and she asked Ms. Morton to talk about how the council is making headway by addressing them. MS. MORTON said there is a program called, "Sisters," which helps women who enter into programs who also have substance abuse issues to coordinate efforts with a local substance abuse program to give the women an opportunity to work toward their sobriety. It also helps with childcare. She said not every program in the state is able to provide that source, but it is a model in the state being looked at by the council. Another program just started this past year, she related, is a cooperative agreement with the Division of Behavioral Health, wherein victims who come to the council's programs and have an identified mental health need are able to access 10 sessions with behavioral health staff that have received a specific amount of "trauma-informed care training." In terms of prevention, she said one thing she has recently asked staff to do is to work with the various prevention coordinators throughout the administration that deal with sexual assault, domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental health, suicide prevention, to identify where there may be common concerns in order to work better together. She expressed her hope that in the next couple of months, the council will produce an agreement of overarching strategies in the state and a list of how individual programs feed into that. REPRESENTATIVE HUGHES emphasized her belief that people are medicating mental health issues with substance abuse, which then leads to domestic violence and sexual abuse. She surmised that many assaults are happening when people are under the influence [of drugs and/or alcohol]. She expressed her hope that the council will consider mental health first aid as it moves forward. 9:58:06 AM CHAIR LYNN asked Ms. Morton to restate the percentage of victims that are men. MS. MORTON answered about 17 percent of those in the council's programs last year were men. CHAIR LYNN, after ascertaining that no one else wished to testify, closed public testimony on HB 273. 9:58:34 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER thanked Ms. Morton for her work. CHAIR LYNN echoed Representative Keller's thanks. REPRESENTATIVE KELLER indicated that as a result of Alaska becoming firm on the issue of sexual abuse and domestic violence, there are more people in correctional facilities. He said he has heard from constituents that even though the court orders counseling, training, and programs, "nothing's available, at least at one of the institutions." He indicated that letting perpetrators [who have served their sentences] out of prison [without having had counseling] would result in repeated offenses and an increased problem. He asked the council to pay attention to that. He noted that Deputy Commissioner Ron Taylor is interested in and has ideas related to this issue. 10:00:02 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER moved to report HB 273 out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, HB 273 was reported out of the House State Affairs Standing Committee.