Abuse penalties questioned
Fines the same for beating a dog in county

By Maria Herne
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
If you beat a dog in Schuylkill County, you'll probably get a
$100 fine.
If you repeatedly beat a woman, you'll probably get the same
fine.
In 2001, county judges heard 98 Protection From Abuse cases,
finding the defendant guilty in 48 percent of those cases, either
after a hearing or through a technical violation or plea.
Of those found guilty, the majority were ordered to pay court
costs, plus a $100 fine. No defendants were ordered to pay more
than a $250 fine for violating the court order. In 27 percent of
the cases, the charges were dismissed or the defendant was found
not guilty. In the rest of the cases, charges were withdrawn or the
matter is not yet resolved. Sarah T. Casey, executive director of
Schuylkill Women in Crisis, finds it disturbing that in most cases,
the fine for violating a PFA is little more than the fine someone
would get for cruelty and abuse toward an animal.
"In most of the counties surrounding Schuylkill County, the
penalties given for indirect criminal contempt are much stiffer
than those in Schuylkill County," Casey said. "What kind of message
are we sending those who repeatedly violate Protection From Abuse
orders? That it's OK to abuse women in Schuylkill County, because
you'll only get a slap on the wrist?"
Under state law, the minimum fine for contempt of a PFA is $100;
the maximum fine is $1,000 and up to six months in jail.
Like others who are familiar with how the county's legal system
does and doesn't work for victims of domestic violence, Casey
believes some changes are in order.
Valerie West, a manager/attorney with Mid-Penn Legal Services,
with offices in Pottsville and Reading, regularly handles domestic
violence cases.
She finds fault with the local requirement that a custody order
must be established within 30 days after a PFA is filed.
West said she feels a custody order should be allowed to stand
for the full term of the PFA - up to 18 months - as it does in many
other counties in the state.
"It places an undue burden on the plaintiff, in terms of cost,
finding legal representation and facing their abuser - not to
mention a further burden on the system to provide those services,"
West said. "It may be difficult for the parties to reach an
agreement so soon after violence has occurred. It's
counter-productive."
The lack of supervised custody visitation in the county - a
neutral, safe, supervised place where children can be exchanged
from one parent to another for the purposes of visitation
- is also a concern.
"Right now we don't have any agency in the county willing to
handle supervised custody visits," West said. "Obviously, in
domestic violence cases this is a major concern to us. There's a
potential for further incidents of abuse to occur during these
meetings without some sort of outside supervision."
Marsha Chwastiak, an attorney in the Pottsville office of
Mid-Penn Legal Services, said she would like to see more funds made
available to provide social services for troubled families
grappling with domestic violence issues.
"If I had one wish for Christmas, it would be to have more
resources available to help these families so they can try and sort
out their problems," Chwastiak said. "In the majority of domestic
violence cases I see, alcohol, drug and mental health problems are
at the heart of the problem. I feel these are more social problems
than legal cases," she said.
Other problems targeted by SWIC include a need for more
expedient service of PFAs; the need for free or affordable legal
representation and assistance with PFA and contempt hearings and
other civil matters related to abuse, including custody and
support; and the lack of proper training by law enforcement
officials in handling domestic violence cases, Casey said.
A recent $202,297 federal grant from the U.S. Department of
Justice Violence Against Women Office may be the answer to some of
these problems.
Through the collaborative efforts of Schuylkill Women In Crisis,
the Schuylkill County Sheriff's Department and county grant writer
Lorraine A. Bennick, the Pathways to Safety program was
initiated.
The two-year program is fully funded under the Justice
Department's "Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement
of Protection Orders" initiative. Some of the ways the funds will
be spent include:
$90,000 to hire a civil justice attorney, at $45,000 a year for
two years, to ensure that all victims of domestic violence are
represented at second hearings in PFAs and assisted with other
civil matters.
$20,171 to support overtime costs of two additional officers to
serve PFAs during nonscheduled work hours, ensuring more expedient
and immediate delivery and service of PFA orders.
$3,645 to develop a domestic violence training program for local
police departments, led by a victim's advocacy trainer; the goal of
these mini-workshops will be to ensure that local police
departments consistently adhere to proper PFA protocol.
$15,000 to hire a consultant to provide a complete, detailed
study of establishing the most cost effective link between county
facilities and municipal police departments and to establish JNET,
an information management system funded by the state of PA and
operated by the Pennsylvania Justice Network.
JNET was launched in 1998 by the Ridge-Schweiker administration
to help local and state police, courts, prisons and probation and
parole officers exchange instantly updated information on
individuals moving through the criminal justice system - making it
possible to better track potentially dangerous individuals.
By helping justice agencies share criminal files more easily,
JNET improves efficiency and reduces potential errors that could
occur from each agency maintaining disparate data files.
JNET is also used to prevent the detention of individuals
wrongly identified as criminal suspects.
"The Pathways to Safety program will compliment existing SWIC
programs and address problems experienced by victims of domestic
violence," Casey said. "We believe that victims of domestic
violence deserve immediate, consistent, respectful treatment and
that offenders receive swift, efficient, just punishment."