A Family Domestic Violence Court

Who are we?

We are Rhode Island Family Court . We recently instituted a Family Domestic Violence Court in Providence county in which Chief Judge Jeremiah has dedicated resources for the purpose of streamlining domestic abuse complaints. For consistency, the magistrate is exclusively dedicated to hear all matters for protection from domestic abuse. This specialty court handles all ex parte requests for temporary protection orders, motions, reviews, accelerations, dismissals and extensions.

Additionally, Chief Judge Jeremiah has dedicated two court personnel ("Domestic Abuse Case Managers") who are responsible for assisting litigants involved in the Family Domestic Violence Court. These employees' primary responsibilities include the identifying family needs, strengths, and risks, and developing appropriate service plans. In order to fully meet the needs of the victims and their families, the services requested within the grant proposal will augment direct services.

The program goals are twofold: (1) to provide direct case management for families of domestic violence; and (2) to ensure that children who are impacted by domestic violence receive representation in custody and visitation decisions. The number of service hours dedicated will be the equivalent to the court hours that is, in excess of thirty-five (35) hours per week of dedicated service hours per employee.

The Rhode Island Family Court received a total of 2,121 petitions for protection from domestic abuse in the year 2002. Of these, 727 involved one or more children in common between the victim and the defendant. The number of children impacted by this violence was 923. The breakdown demographically is as follows: 525 complaints involved families with one (1) child; 283 complaints involved families with two (2) children; 94 complaints involved families with three (3) children; 15 complaints involved families with four (4) children; six (6) complaints involved families with more than five (5) children.

The ethnic/cultural demographic make-up of the individuals seeking protection is as follows:z Sixty (60%) percent are Caucasian; twelve (12%) percent are Latino; ten (10%) percent are African-American; one (1%) percent are Asian; one (1%) percent are Multi-racial; fifteen (15%) are unknown; one (1 %) percent are characterized as "Other." The age demographic breakdown is as follows: Forty-nine (49¡!0) of petitioners are between the ages of 19 and 34; thirty-nine (39%) of the petitioners are between the ages of 35 and 59; nine and one-half (9 1/2%) percent are under age 18, and 2.3% are over the age of 60. Additionally, seventy-nine (79%) percent are female and twenty-one (21%) percent are male.

The program objectives will be accomplished by court-based case management including comprehensive evaluation, direct service provision, wrap-around service identification and court intervention. Specially trained Court Impact Advocate volunteers will be recruited to investigate and report on the best interests of children involved in custody and visitation disputes where a finding of domestic violence has been made. This component will follow the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) model utilized in child abuse and neglect cases.

Action Plan

Rhode Island as a state possesses reasonably extensive crisis intervention and emergency services for domestic violence victims through the affiliates of the Coalition Against Domestic Violence. However, many women do not avail themselves of these services. Rather, they rely on law enforcement, family and friends for advice, assistance and succor. The required response by law enforcement to a report or an investigation of a domestic disturbance is a notice of the availability of an emergency ex parte restraining order from the Family Court." See RIGL ¤ 15-15-5 duties of police officers. Public knowledge of the attainability of civil restraining orders is also fairly common. What is not fully developed are support services and justice related services directed to the varied needs of parents and their children. This is where the Family Domestic Violence Court steps in.

The Family Domestic Violence Court is currently structured as follows:

All Providence and Bristol county complaints for protection from abuse are assigned to a specialized court calendar and courtroom exclusively devoted to the handling of domestic violence matters that is available to victims all day MondayFriday during business hours. Emergency orders are available through law enforcement 24 hours a day, 7 days per week by contact with an after-hours duty judge. Emergencies are set down for the next business day before the Family Domestic Violence Court magistrate.

The Family Domestic Violence Court is staffed by a full time trained staff composed of a magistrate, domestic violence liaison clerk, domestic violence advocate, two part-time case managers, court clerk, court recorder and sheriff. 19 The case managers will focus exclusively on cases where minor children are present in the home.

Magistrate hears all ex parte requests for protective order, accelerations, dismissals, motions, hearings and conducts compliance reviews for cases of family violence (where minor children are present in the home.) The magistrate reports to the Chief Judge of the Family Court.

Domestic Violence Liaison accepts all abuse complaints and filings; acts as central intake unit in Providence county; screens for all related cases. The liaison is supervised by the domestic relations principal clerk.

Domestic Violence Advocate assists victims in completing court forms, explains court processes; provides information on domestic violence support agencies and accompanies victims to the courtroom. The advocate is employed by a domestic violence support agency but is housed within the court building.

Case Managers assess the needs, strengths and risks of victims and their families; develop service plans; refer victims and their families to appropriate agencies; interview perpetrators and refer them to appropriate intervention programs, substance abuse agencies and mental health services; monitor perpetrator compliance with court orders; coordinate with law enforcement, probation and parole, counselors, child protection services, child support enforcement and the like and make recommendations to the court. The case managers presently split their time between the Family Domestic Violence Court and other departments.

Family Services Department within the Rhode Island Family Court provides onsite and off-site supervised visitation between a victim's children and their parents; supervises immediate urinalysis and alcohol testing; conducts home studies and investigations. Family Services acts pursuant to the magistrate's or a judge's order.

The Family Domestic Violence Court staff has received specialized domestic violence training by experts in the field. A coordinating council has been appointed by the Chief Judge to act as a community partnership work group. The council is tasked with promoting information sharing, best practices, cross-training, institutional coordination of procedures, development of protocols across a broad spectrum of providers and improving service delivery within various sectors of the community. The overall goal of the council is to advance the administration of justice in domestic violence cases through community collaboration.

In the planning of the Family Domestic Violence Court, several deficiencies have been observed. One area is the systemic lack of focus on the children who witness domestic violence, and the attendant lack of children specific services. z¡ Correspondingly, the court has noted the need for in-house advocates for children as well as children's caseworkers similar to the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) model utilized in child abuse and neglect cases. 21 In addition, professional clinical assessments for children along with referrals to primary health care, behavioral health, and school-based services are also presently inadequate for this population. With the augmentation of several staff members to the Family Domestic Violence Court team as well as with the benefit of several consultants, the vision of a comprehensive family centered program could be realized. Consequently, the court proposes the following to enhance the Family Domestic Violence Court:

Domestic Violence Services Director to oversee staff, provide programmatic support, serve as primary liaison between the court and all community partners, act as program and services coordinator for all victims' services; also to maintain a caseload of victim clients, assess family needs, strengths and risks, prepare appropriate service plans for family; manage high-risk cases particularly where the defendant is considered extremely lethal, or highconflict custody and visitation matters, child protection investigations and petitions, and/or criminal investigations and trials are pending.

In addition, the Domestic Violence Services Director shall recruit, train and supervise all child impact advocates; develop policies, procedures and materials related thereto. Responsibilities include review of volunteer applications, interview volunteer applicants, develop training curriculum, train volunteers, assign cases to volunteers, provide peer support to volunteers and monitor volunteer activities. Please see organizational chart, infra.

Staff and interdisciplinary training for Family Domestic Violence Court staff and volunteers as well as other partners involved in providing services to victims of domestic violence.

The volunteer will provide information to the two case managers and the services director for the formulation of recommendations to the court. These recommendations will be an invaluable tool for the court to make informed decisions. Heretofore, children of domestic abuse have had no participation in custody or visitation matters save for the appointment of paid guardians ad litem (paid for only by the parties who could afford them). It is extremely rare that a victim fleeing domestic abuse could afford a guardian ad litem. Therefore, guardians ad litem were almost never appointed in domestic abuse cases. The child impact advocate volunteers will fill this void.

Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds will be used to fully and holistically address the needs of the 923 children a year in Providence and Bristol counties who witness domestic abuse. Only with the addition of skilled personnel and specialized training will a voice be given to the silent victims - the children of domestic abuse.

An action plan detailing planned activities, timelines and person(s) responsible immediately follows as does a management organizational chart. Moreover, a description of the Rhode Island Family Court's infrastructure is attached in the appendix.