COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - - - Room 696, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania December 17, 2002 1:15 p.m. - - - BILL 020613 - resolution authorizing the City Council's Committees on Public Safety and Public Health & Human Services to hold joint hearings to investigate the unmet needs of domestic violence... - - - PRESENT: COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ, Chair COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED-MILLER - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 I N D E X BILL 020613 PRESIDENT JUDGE FREDERICA MASSIAH-JACKSON .. HONORABLE MYRNA FIELD ...................... HONORABLE IDEE FOX ......................... 16 CAROL TRACY, Women's Law Project ........... 58 CYNTHIA FIGUEROA, Women Against Abuse ...... 85 ROBERTA HACKER, Women in Transition ........ 101 ANA LISA YODER, Lutheran Settlement House .. 112 NEYDARY ZAMBRANO, Congreso de Latinos Unidos .................................... 133 CHRIS MALLIOS, ESQUIRE ..................... 143 OURANIA PAPADEMETRIOU, Women Against Abuse Legal Center .............................. 159 STEPHANIE GONZALEZ FERRANDEZ, Phila. Legal Assistance ................................ 176 STACEY SOBEL, Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights .............................. 201 3 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613
This is the Committee on Public Safety on Resolution 020613. The Council people who are on the Committee, please come up to the hearing room on the sixth floor. We're about to begin. Will you please read the resolution.
Authorizing the City Council's Committees on Public Safety and Public Health and Human Services to hold joint hearings to investigate the unmet needs of domestic violence victims in Philadelphia, the current response of Philadelphia agencies to domestic violence, and the full range of options to enhance that response through the implementation of a coordinated community response, and further authorizing the Committee to issue subpoenas and such other process as may be appropriate to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents in furtherance of the investigation to the full extent authorized by Section 2-401 of the Home Rule Charter.
Thank you. This is not one of those issues that this Council takes up that deals with contracts or 4 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 deals with the distribution of monies to special interests across the city. There are very few people that give political contributions in order to further the public policy issues that we will be discussing here today. In essence is, how do we respond to abuse and to the abuse that families and women suffering in our city and across the society every day? And how do we as a government organize ourselves to be able to structure a process and institutionalize systems that are able to sensitively take care of the problems that these acts of violence occur and bring about? So this is not an issue in which if you're interested in it, you can make the Inquirer in terms of a list of contributors that give to your campaign and so on. It's an issue about human beings and human rights and the rights of people to be able to have a city government and a court system that answers to their needs. And we have quite an impressive list of individuals to testify. And I would call at this time, because of the pressing appointments that they have, the President Judge Massiah-Jackson and the 5 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 Honorable Judge Field. JUDGE FIELD: Excuse me. Could I possibly have one of our books for our presiding councilman? I think they gave one to Councilman Rizzo, but you didn't get one.
I didn't get one here. Thank you. Please identify yourselves for the record. Thank you for coming. JUDGE JACKSON: Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, Councilman Ortiz. Good afternoon, Councilman Rizzo. My name is Frederica Massiah-Jackson. I'm the President Judge of our Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia. And our Court of Common Pleas has three divisions.
Put the microphone closer to you. JUDGE JACKSON: Our Court of Common Pleas has three divisions. We have the Family Court division, the Trial division and the Orphans Court division. And with me today we have Administrative Judge Myrna Field, who was appointed by the Supreme Court earlier this year, 2000, February of 2000, to 6 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 be the administrative judge of the Family Court division. I'm also joined by our supervising judge of Domestic Relations, Judge Idee Fox. Our domestic violence courts are located in the branch of our Domestic Relations of Family Court division, and that's why Judge Field and Judge Fox will be making presentations today. The First Judicial District recognizes that domestic violence and a domestic violence court can institutionalize procedures to promote victim safety, to ensure accountability and to enhance decision-making. Our First Judicial District works with several agencies and advocacy groups, many of whom are going to be testifying today, to strengthen the community's response to domestic violence. We know this is a serious problem in Philadelphia and in Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia Family Court's domestic violence court has been presented as a model for other jurisdictions, and you'll hear more about that from Administrative Judge Field and Supervising Judge Fox. Other cities call and visit us as they plan and create their own courts. 7 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 In the letter that Chairman Ortiz sent to me, you asked, "What additional resources do we need," and I'll simply say that we have prepared a very comprehensive book for you, for Councilwoman Marian Tasco and for the members of the two Committees. And in that book, I believe at Tab B -- no. It might be Tab A -- we have our wish list, Councilman Ortiz, for --
We all do that. JUDGE JACKSON: A wish list for additional staff, additional equipment and additional resources. And certainly when I come back to see you in February and the entire City Council relating to our FJD budget, I'll remind you of this day.
I will hope that we can begin putting what the wish list is on the record and what is needed. Because having had practiced in Family Court at one point in my lifetime, and my wife practiced at a very intensive few years in Family Court in that division representing children and women, I am very much aware of the trauma and the psychological, not only physical violence, that occurs and the danger that 8 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 many individuals have if they dare even to come before and try to bring in a case before the Court. So I would like you to take me through the process that takes place in the court, and also what is the current numbers of the case load that is presently before the judges, and the staffing that is available and how this process works vis-a-vis the clients that are brutalized in many ways. JUDGE JACKSON: I'm going to introduce you at this point to Administrative Judge Myrna Field, and she'll address those concerns.
Your Honor. JUDGE FIELD: Good afternoon. I am privileged --
You're going to have to -- because we don't have a very nice room here in terms of acoustics. JUDGE FIELD: Well, that's all the courtrooms, but we're not complaining about those. That's all of them.
You see, Judge, you didn't wait until I finished the sentence. I said we don't have a nice room in terms of acoustics, but otherwise, it's a very pleasant experience that you 9 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 have provided for us. So you're going to have to have the microphone closer to you. Our systems are not the ones they use in the United Nations. JUDGE FIELD: Okay. Good afternoon. I'm privileged to have an opportunity to discuss domestic violence with you. You asked a series of questions. The questions are answered in the book. What I'm going to do is give you the answers, a little bit of history and the answers to your questions about present numbers, and then I'm going to ask Judge Fox to walk you through the procedure. And I'll also address what we would love to have, finances permitting. Judge Fox will walk you through the procedure, and there is a section in our book that has all of the forms. So to understand where we are now, you need to understand the absolutely explosive growth of domestic violence. We always say every area of the court is exploding, but this area really has exploded. The Protection From Abuse Act was originally enacted in 1976, but it was not until 10 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 1989 that Family Court initiated a specialized unit staffed by five court employees to assist unrepresented victims of domestic violence. Unrepresented victims of domestic violence must be 99 percent of the people that we see.
How many? 99? JUDGE FIELD: About 99 percent. Is that fair? Unrepresented, 95 to 99. Basically, they're all unrepresented. And they are overwhelmingly female, although they are frequently men, but there are many more females. Okay. To complete petitions and initiate the court proceeding, it started out as the Abuse Assistance Unit and opened up in March of 1990 at 1600 Walnut. Women Against Abuse trained our original staff. At that time -- and this is important -- we had only one judge presiding over civil cases heard three days a week and contempt of those orders heard two days a week. So we did the whole job in 1990 in five judge days. In '89, as we opened, 2,000 petitions were filed. As soon as people became more aware of our program and by the end of 1990, we're up to 7900 petitions. And we already had problems trying to 11 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 handle the significant increase. In 1991, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was about to close down the unit. A media campaign by many of the people in this room assisted in a reversal of that decision. Funding has always been a problem because the Commonwealth has never -- has only funded abuse for the first year. Other than that, we have always had to fund it through the court budget. The University of Pennsylvania Law School's public service program volunteers students from other areas, and of course, the advocacy groups, most of whom are represented here today, have consistently assisted the victims to come in and to file. In calendar year '99, we were up to 87 petitions -- 8700 petitions, an 800 increase over the year before. We also at that point had to put on a second judge.
Judge, you got to talk to the microphone. JUDGE FIELD: I'm sorry. A second judge for two days a week. So at that point, we were 12 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 devoting seven judge days weekly to this area. In 1992, we got additional responsibilities, because we had to prepare lists and docket. In 1992, we still used what I know you remember, the old-time docket books --
Yes. JUDGE FIELD: -- that you could break your back getting them down from the shelves. Well, we still used those in 1992, so we hand-prepared our court lists and, of course, we hand-entered our dockets. And that required us to hire one more person. So at that point, we're up to six. In 1993, Community Legal Service threatened to sue because they felt that our services were inadequate for unrepresented victims of domestic violence, and that was based on our staff. Administrative Judge Esther Sylvester, who was then the administrative judge, initiated a domestic violence counsel. And as a result of her efforts, three additional clerical employees were inaugurated into this portion of the Domestic Relations Court. By the end of 1994, we had over 13,000 petitions. 13 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 In 1994, the Protection From Abuse Act was amended and it then included stalking. Immediately we found an increase in our petitions. An additional courtroom was opened and two judges, ten judge days weekly, were devoted to Protection From Abuse cases. When the parents' computer system was modified to include domestic violence in May of 1995, we were able to computerize the domestic violence division. This, of course, meant that there were new cases. And at that point, we also were able to handle the cases heard in the Municipal Court. You may or may not be aware of the fact that in non-traditional hours, after 5 o'clock, weekends and holidays, persons seeking an emergency Protection From Abuse Act order go to the basement of the Criminal Justice Building. There they are heard by a non-Family Court employee. They are heard by a master. If the master determines an emergency order is appropriate, it is issued at that time, although it is not docketed.
If this happens and 14 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 there's an altercation during the weekend -- JUDGE FIELD: Right. The most common time, as a matter of fact.
And the police are trained to tell her where to go or take her to the basement of the Judicial Center? JUDGE FIELD: They will not take her. They will send her.
But many times women are afraid to go down there by themselves. JUDGE FIELD: No question. And it tends to happen late at night on Saturday. At the very least, it's dark. They may need public transportation, which tends to be less available in the midnight hours. And they also have children. They have to take their children with them in many cases.
Right. So many women perhaps don't go. They may be abused. They may be in a violent activity, and the police, they call the police and then the police tells them, Well, go down, take a taxi and go down to the Judicial Center 15 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 and they don't -- JUDGE FIELD: Yes. The police will not transport them, but they will come and stop the altercation and give them advice.
And they will tell them where to go? JUDGE FIELD: Where to go. But the second hurdle, assuming they get there, the second hurdle is that they have to convince the master on duty, who is not a Family Court employee, if this becomes a Municipal Court function, after hours and during the weekends and holidays, they have to convince that person that their plight is worthy of an emergency order. And if so, they will get it. We will docket it for them, but not until the next business day.
And what is the training that this individual they go before? JUDGE FIELD: Well, you will find as you go through our answers that we do not know what that training is because we have no jurisdiction over this non-First Judicial Court employee.
And if you had jurisdiction over this court employee, what would 16 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 you require of them? JUDGE FIELD: Same training that we give to all of our Domestic Violence Unit intake workers. Exactly the same training. And we're very lucky in that many of the advocacy groups in this room, at least two of them, Congreso and Women Against Abuse, are active on an almost daily basis in our court and have done some training for us, and also pick up if there's a language problem, which is very helpful.
Do you have any information or data in terms of cases that go before this arbitrator and are not -- JUDGE FIELD: Yes. Judge Fox tells me she can answer. JUDGE FOX: We don't.
To the microphone, and identify yourself for the record, please. JUDGE FOX: I'm Judge Idee Fox. I'm the supervising judge of Domestic Relations. We do not have access to the statistics as to the number of individuals who go to the CJC on the weekends or in the evenings and ask for a petition and are turned away, or ask for an emergency order and are turned away. These are not 17 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 statistics that are maintained by the group who carry out this function, and we do not have access to those statistics.
So we should get that in order to get a very clear picture of the actual incidents of domestic violence that do occur. JUDGE FIELD: Oh, I can tell you the actual -- I can tell you that. I can tell you that as of this moment, we have already processed --
No, but those are the ones that get to you. JUDGE FIELD: Well, the police would know how many they respond to.
But what about if they don't file? JUDGE FIELD: If they don't file, we're never going to find out.
That's what I'm saying. If they go before this -- JUDGE FIELD: The master will take what he deems to be an emergency, but then we treat it as if it was filed in front of us come the first business day.
So we don't know how 18 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 many he doesn't treat? JUDGE FIELD: No, we do not.
That he rejects because he doesn't have -- JUDGE FIELD: No, we do not know that.
And that's, I think, a number that can be essential for us to get a true picture of what the real incidences are. JUDGE FIELD: Let me bring another number to your attention that I think is astounding. I have an article here from yesterday's Inquirer. You may or may not have seen it.
I haven't seen it. I read the Daily News. Mark McDonald is here. JUDGE FIELD: The number that's astounding to me is in the whole state of New Jersey last year, 49,000 petitions were filed. In the whole City of Philadelphia this year, we will probably file 15,000. That's 15,000 cases of violence. And we do not know, of course, who got turned away and who could not get down there.
15,000 that you actually get to -- 19 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 JUDGE FIELD: We've docketed over 14,000 as of the 9th of December. And if tradition holds -- because I've done this work, I have physically sat as the abuse judge really for a considerable period of time. If tradition holds, the holiday season for a lot of people is not going to be very festive, that our numbers will go up at that time.
Judge, what happens to a family that comes before the Court? JUDGE FIELD: What happens to the family?
Yes. JUDGE FIELD: Well, the family, if you're taking about a family, they're already ripped apart by the time they get there.
Right. JUDGE FIELD: They are going to, assuming that -- well, the first step is, they have to serve the other side. And that's a horrendous task, just made a little bit easier by a very recent modification in the law. Typically what happens is, you call your home or you call where you know the other side is. 20 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 And may I say for this, unfairly, that most of the time it's the woman calling a husband, not all the time, but most of the time. She calls. He answers. She calls the police and she says, Help me, I know he's at 295 whatever. They get there. They see the curtains move. They ring the bell. They may even call up and hear his voice, but they will not break the door down. They have no jurisdiction to do it, and will not break the door down. So everything fades. And she repeats this many times. And on the tenth day, she comes back to court and she says, I have not been able to serve my husband. At that point, she discusses why not. At that point, we can authorize mail service. We can speed the whole thing up. And she's able to come back and eventually get a permanent order, which is good for 18 months.
But she is sent back to the house where the husband is still in? JUDGE FIELD: Maybe. Maybe. Oh, on the order, we can evict the husband, we can put in a temporary child support order, write in there -- she 21 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 has to file for child support. We can put temporary child custody, temporary child support order in that original order, as long as we accomplish service. In fairness constitutionally, we have got to serve the other side one way or another. They don't have to read the papers, but we have to give them the opportunity to read them. Okay. I'm going to move on to our wish list, because I think I've impressed you with our numbers, and I will hand out copies of yesterday's Inquirer article, which focused on New Jersey, but made the point that many of Pennsylvania problems are exactly the same. And I see my friend Ms. Frasier Clemens read it yesterday.
Hi. Good afternoon. JUDGE FIELD: Certainly. How are you?
Hi. I'd like to know how many emergency orders are issued on the weekends? JUDGE FIELD: On what?
On the weekends. 22 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 JUDGE FIELD: I cannot give you that number because we docket them. See, we pick them up and we docket them as if they came in when we were in business, when we were open on traditional hours. So we cannot answer that question. Now, I could, if you wish, start doing it on Monday and just ask the person -- I know it takes somebody a whole day Monday to do it. I know that. And I know that the night court; that is, whoever goes in there from 5:00 in the evening till 9:00 in the morning, works a half a day every day picking up that work. So I know the time it takes. But I could get you those numbers. We can start counting them -- probably count yesterday's, count Monday's.
Because the data collection is under your control, correct? JUDGE FOX: No. Well, there's two different levels of data collection, and I think the easier way to explain is just to walk you through it. We're really restricted by what the statute allows us to do and what the Rules of Civil Procedural allow us to do. After business hours and 23 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 on weekends, the Protection From Abuse, the emergency matters, are handled by what's referred to statewide as the Minor Judiciary. In Philadelphia, that would be Municipal Court. Municipal Court contracts out those services, and they have masters. I remember when I was an attorney and sometimes served as a bail commissioner down at the Roundhouse, at that time the bail commissioners did this, and little by little expanded based on the numbers. The system has been changed over the years based on the numbers. So what's happened now is, a family comes in with an emergency procedure. And you asked, Councilman, we have to hope that the police officers provide their information.
Right. Hope. JUDGE FOX: We have to hope that they do, because that's not something we can control, but what we do have available, those services, that they're there at the CJC. One of the reasons they're there is, that's a central location. It's open 24 hours a day and it is secure. And that's the most important thing, is that it is secure 24 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 there. It is always secure there. But a woman goes down there -- and I use that gender just for the purposes of explanation. A woman goes down there and explains to the people who are working there what happened, and she completes a petition based on whether or not there's the possibility of an order being issued. The Minor Judiciary does not accept a pleading as we would from 9:00 to 5:00 in Common Pleas Court. The Minor Judiciary accepts the petition and issues --
Is there staff there that advises them as to how to prepare the petition? JUDGE FOX: Yes, there is, and assists them in how to prepare the petition. And periodically we do reach out to that. I hope you don't think it's a closed door. We periodically, when we find out there's been a breakdown in communications between how they view these emergency orders and how we view them, we've set up in the last two years through Judge Presenza training programs with the masters down there to explain how the judges in Family Court view these emergency orders, these ex parte orders. 25 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 And it should be understood that this is an emergency order that travels into the next business day. Because the person comes down there, if they receive an emergency order, they receive that order, and the next working day it is transported to Domestic Relations on 11th street where it is docketed into our system and the packet forwarded to the Common Pleas Court judge, who reviews it, and if he or she believes it warrants the action of the master, will sign off on it, sometimes expand it, sometimes reduce it.
But if a woman comes in and she's beaten and she shows signs of having been beaten and -- JUDGE FOX: They're going to grant an order.
-- and she puts the order and the petition in, and then she, as Judge Field said, she has to serve that. JUDGE FOX: She has to serve --
She has to serve it. JUDGE FOX: With the assistance of the police department. The police department --
Does the master on 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 that weekend -- JUDGE FOX: Explain how --
-- does he call or she call the police department and say, I have a woman here who has been beaten, she has to go back to her home to serve this order? JUDGE FOX: No. They explain to go to the police district in her neighborhood or to contact the police in that neighborhood to meet them to serve the order.
Do we know, again -- and I know that this is just for the record -- do we know during this, because it is a weekend, and a woman who will actually go to the police department and -- JUDGE FOX: The way we can judge it, from our perspective, is how many women come into court on the return date. Because it's not just receiving an order. You receive a temporary ex parte order and you're given a hearing date. The way we judge it is when the individual comes back into court and says, I did not make service and why, and explains to the judge why they weren't able to make service. 27 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613
So let's say the woman goes to the master, she gets the petition, she gets the order and she does everything that you're talking about. She goes to the police district directly from the master's office. A police then accompanies her home, serves the order and then removes the husband from the house? JUDGE FOX: If there's an eviction, yes, they should.
Does the master order the eviction? JUDGE FOX: Yes, he can. He or she can.
He can? JUDGE FOX: Yes. They're authorized to order an eviction, and they often do. And oftentimes if the judge then reads it on Monday morning, say -- for example, if I'm the signing judge that day and I read the petition, and if the master failed to grant an eviction and now I read the facts and believe an eviction was warranted, I have the right to now evict that person even though the order wasn't originally entered that way.
So if it is not served, if the husband went to the bar by the time 28 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 and he's not there, the police are not going to stay around waiting for him to come back. She has to stay there with this guy who had just beaten her. JUDGE FIELD: Well, chances are she's not going to stay there, and that's where it's so important that these shelters be supported, because that's where she's going to have to go with the children.
Thank you. Thank you for that. So I understand, it's not a given that the eviction will be part of the process; is that right? That's not an automatic? JUDGE FOX: It's not a given that an eviction will be granted.
Now, if the complainant asks for the eviction, is that good enough? JUDGE FOX: If she --
If the wife -- JUDGE FOX: If she alleges facts that would warrant an eviction. 29 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613
She just simply says, I don't want this man in this house. JUDGE FOX: No, not under the Act. It would require that acts have been committed that would place her in danger and --
Well, if she comes in bruised, is that -- JUDGE FOX: See, now you're changing the facts on me. I mean, clearly -- I mean, that's why -- it's a system that is geared to pro se litigants. And by "pro se," I mean unrepresented litigants. It's a system that has developed around unrepresented litigants. So that the people who are accepting those emergency petitions are assisting people in preparing it. They oftentimes -- sometimes they take photographs of the individual and they attach that to the petition, so you see the photograph of the person, so you see the injury. So it's not just a matter she says, Hi, I want to throw him out, but, by the way, no one saw your injuries. People are looking at her and saying, I notice you have a black eye. How did you get that black eye?
So what I'm hearing, 30 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 and I don't mean to misinterpret this, is that if a person comes, goes through the process, is physically injured, could I assume that most likely there would be an eviction? JUDGE FOX: You can assume that if they are living together, there should be an eviction.
Well, then there should be. That's why I'm heading you back to the process where if the person says that I'm, A, frightened that I'm going to be beaten again, I have a black eye, that there shouldn't require any lobbying there to -- JUDGE FOX: No. 15
-- get that eviction? JUDGE FOX: No. You're right. There shouldn't be any lobbying to get that eviction. Because it's an ex parte order based on the reading of the petition.
Thank you, Mr. Rizzo. Do the shelters, do the agencies that take in women or men, although I believe men are usually the abusers and not the abusee, but are the 31 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 shelters represented during the weekends in this court? Are there people from these agencies that could determine that this lady or this woman or this family or child should not go back home because they would face imminent danger for their safety and so on and then take them to a shelter? JUDGE FIELD: I think if you're talking about the weekend, you have to realize that the First Judicial District does not control the weekend.
No. I understand that. I'm just asking whether there is a system -- because what we're trying to see is what, if anything, we need to change, if at all, in terms of the system and whether we should recommend that women shelter groups be at the courts during the weekends so that they can maybe take action of that sort or maybe you would recommend that, that would be the case. JUDGE FIELD: I think that they are more likely than not to get their information in a booklet, a copy of which is enclosed in here, and also from the police. I think that they are really -- the only person that can guarantee on site 32 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 that they will know something about what's happening on the weekend, because I can't tell you that volunteer groups are consistent in their representation in the CJC over the weekends. I think a lot of it depends on who gets lucky and gets there when the right people are present. But the largest problem here, and the worst of the problems, is the service problem, because fully 50 percent of the cases will not have service at the right time.
And what happens? JUDGE FIELD: And they just get continuances. And we have to string it out until we can get -- and I said they just amended the law, so there will be mail service and it will be a whole lot easier to get service. It's very hard to serve.
So that puts a woman in very, very dangerous -- JUDGE FIELD: Absolutely.
-- situations. If service cannot be confirmed or is not done and then there's a continuation -- JUDGE FOX: Councilman --
And I know about 33 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 continuances. JUDGE FOX: Councilman, I just want to clarify that even though the case may be continued for lack of service, the temporary order remains in effect. So that temporary order, whether it be a stay away order or an eviction, it remains in effect until the case comes back to court. So it's not like, Well, you didn't make service and the case is dismissed. JUDGE FIELD: But the problem is that he still doesn't know. And we keep saying "he," because it is more likely than not it's going to be he. He still doesn't know.
I accept culpability for the male gender. JUDGE FIELD: No. You don't have to. But he still doesn't know and he still can say, I didn't know, and walk in the house, start taking out the assets, obviously refuse to do anything for the children financially on the theory that he knew nothing. JUDGE FOX: If I could just finish up Judge Field's response. We would be hardpressed to say that the need for advocacy groups or shelters or 34 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 community groups participating and being involved at the emergency site or any site in the courts is not something we would encourage and hope for. The more educated the public, the more assistance that can be provided pro se litigants, the more easier it will be for us for these cases to flow through the system. And that's why we don't want for a moment to think we discourage that. We encourage it, and any assistance we can give to any organization in trying to walk them through the system and understanding the system, we would volunteer.
But you have a case load of close to 16,000 a year. And you have how many judges at the present time? JUDGE FIELD: We have two judges sitting full time on this.
Two judges? JUDGE FIELD: And an additional judge sitting contempt part time, criminal contempt.
That's a case load of -- JUDGE FIELD: And the numbers are astounding. I mean, you can look at 60 cases a day. JUDGE FOX: We've tried very hard at one 35 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 time -- when Judge Field said "domestic violence," they had 60 to 100 cases a day. We've tried to break that number down to no more than 40 a day by scheduling according to the number. Now, that may seem a very difficult number, except if you look at the numbers that we presented to you, half of the cases, close to half of the cases that are before the judges, the parties don't appear. And the cases --
Even the complainant? JUDGE FOX: The complainant does not appear in close to half of the number of cases on any given day. JUDGE FIELD: But you need to realize, and I really don't want to be sarcastic, but great many of these women go back to the situation they came from for a lot of reasons that, frankly, are none of the Court's business. I mean, would I live with that man? Of course not. But some women don't see an out. And he is still providing financial support, and that's a habit she's lived with for a long time. And, unfortunately, she will go back, they will make up. They will go back. A lot of people can't get here because 36 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 they have young children, it's impossible, and a lot of people resolve their domestic difficulties before the first court day.
So what you are saying to me is that daily half of the complainants don't show up, which means that -- and we have no 8 case workers that can follow into this woman's home, we have no way of the Court sending somebody and say, Well, there's a life in danger here? There is no way of us being able to communicate with this person? JUDGE FOX: And we are required, if the person is not there, we are required to dismiss the action for lack of prosecution and vacate the temporary order.
So when they don't show up then, you're telling me that half of these actions are dismissed. Are they dismissed -- JUDGE FOX: They're dismissed for lack of prosecution.
-- immediately, or do you give them another chance and try to inform them -- JUDGE FOX: No, no. 37 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613
-- notify them, they didn't show? JUDGE FOX: No. They're dismissed, but then what should be made clear is if it's dismissed for lack of prosecution. If the next day she comes back into the unit and wants to refile, no one interferes with her ability to refile. She can refile and file again and get another court date, which is not unusual. But it's dismissed for lack of prosecution, and the parties do refile after they've been dismissed.
Do we have numbers on that of women that have not appeared and -- JUDGE FOX: In your packet --
-- that have come back and refiled? JUDGE FOX: We don't have numbers on the refiling. We do not keep numbers on the refiled petitions. But you see -- the petitions, as the ex parte petitions come in, they're walked over that judge. When Judge Field says there are two judges, there are 11 judges assigned to Domestic Relations. On any given day, there are two judges hearing just Domestic Relation civil cases. And then on Tuesdays 38 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 and Thursdays, there's a Domestic Relation judge hearing the criminal contempt cases.
So you have two and two -- JUDGE FOX: Two judges. JUDGE FIELD: Two and a half.
Two and a half. JUDGE FOX: Two judges five days a week hearing a civil protection lists and --
And the contempt? JUDGE FOX: And one judge two days a week hearing a criminal contempt list.
And the criminal contempt is, I guess, those individuals that have violated -- JUDGE FOX: That the district attorney has prosecuted.
What's the case load in that area? JUDGE FOX: The filings for the year 2002, new cases listed in the year 2002, were 1,020. There were over 2,000 cases listed, but the new cases were approximately 1,020.
And you have results 39 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 of the action, what the adjudication has been? JUDGE FOX: No. Those statistics we do not keep.
You can't keep? You don't have it? JUDGE FOX: We do not maintain those types of statistics.
So, Judge, how do we -- because that, to me, is -- the fact that 50 percent doesn't show up is something that we need to look at and see what, if anything, can be done. What are the resources that are needed for us to be able to have and make the system as effective as we can? Because I think what this does is save lives, if anything. I mean, we have people who have died at the hands of their husbands along these lines. JUDGE FIELD: There are none of us, including myself, that have ever sat in that court that have not, unfortunately, nothing else we could have done, but we are aware of a murder which came out -- homicides which came out of that court. No 24 one who sits there has ever. It's the single worst part of my experience in 11 years as a judge, sir. 40 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613
No? JUDGE FIELD: In the criminal cases. Just criminal. Not normally.
In the criminal contempt? JUDGE FOX: If they come in to testify in the petitions, it's because somebody subpoenaed that witness. In the court criminal cases, they're subpoenaed by the district attorney's office.
And do they show up? JUDGE FOX: We have not -- I have not noticed any problems with the police not showing up as far as the criminal subpoenas go.
So they dutifully come forward? JUDGE FOX: One of the difficulties that we have -- and you asked Judge Field about how we can improve services. These are families, and whether or not domestic violence has separated them or made them not live together or evicted somebody, oftentimes they have children together. Oftentimes 41 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 these are families in needs of services, whether it be treatment for alcoholism, for drug addiction, people don't have a job. These are families that are in need of help. We are a civil court that can enter an order. One of the problems we've had is a coordination of services citywide so that we can refer families for help. Oftentimes you'll see people will come in and say, Well, I don't really want him evicted. I'd like him to stay, but I'd like him to get help. How much help we can offer them, we're just -- we're a court. So we can try to provide referral services, but how much information we have is really based on sometimes the ingenuity of that judge in obtaining that information. So we'd like more communication between all of the groups in this room and throughout the city so these resources will be known to the judges, to the system, so we can always refer these families for help, because these are clearly families in need.
Well, one of the results of this hearing is that we get Carol in and the other groups that are here to have a meeting 42 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 with you and Judge Field and Judge Massiah-Jackson and so on and see how we can begin putting a process that can begin really putting services, preventive services and other types of assistance to both the husband and the wife and the family so we can begin to proceed and bring down the case load that we have presently in the city. JUDGE FOX: I would like to point out to you there's also another group that tends to -- when you talk about men and women, we have an increase in the number of senior citizens who have been abused by their adult children. And oftentimes the adult children have mental health and drug and alcohol problems, and the parents are very hardpressed. They're elderly parents who are trying to still have this closeness with their child, but at the same time, they are subject to threats and abuse. These are very, very difficult cases that are oftentimes neglected, because sometimes we look at domestic violence as a man/woman thing and we might sometimes overlook the number of senior citizens. We see an increase of those cases over the last two years, and these are adult children 43 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 with senior citizen parents.
Do we have any gay or lesbian couples that have -- and do we have a way of maybe -- because that's obviously part, and nobody talks about that. JUDGE FIELD: Oh, no. I've done those cases, but we don't count them. But you know when you have them in front of you. JUDGE FOX: We don't keep separate statistics about the demographics of the parties filing petitions, whether they be man, female or sexual preference. JUDGE FIELD: The statute talks about people living in the same household, and that covers it.
-- like to get some clarity on one issue. You had said that Philadelphia has 16,000 cases that have been filed this year. 44 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 JUDGE FIELD: 15. We expect to hit 15,000 by the end of the year. We're at 4 something now. 5
Okay. 14,000 by 6 December 9th? 7 JUDGE FIELD: Right. That's accurate. 8
New Jersey had 9 49,000 for the entire state. A comparable city in 10 New Jersey, do you know any numbers on the number of 11 people that have filed and -- 12 JUDGE FIELD: Well, they mention Camden, 13 Camden County. I'm going to give it. They had 14 3700. That's the only thing that's in this article.
I was actually just wondering how many judges and whatnot they had handling -- JUDGE FOX: The ratio of judges per case?
So is there anybody in any state, if you've done that type of research, that has the ideal? I mean, who has handled this well -- 45 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 JUDGE FOX: Well --
-- across the country? Nobody? JUDGE FOX: Well, if you look at the packet, we were --
I haven't had a chance to -- the first time I laid eyes on the packet is when I walked in the room. So I have not had a chance to read it. JUDGE FOX: If you look at --
I understand that, but people don't know that. People think that we've seen this and read it and whatnot, and that's not true. JUDGE FOX: If you look at what's been designated under Tab I, there's a creating a Domestic Relations court, a violence court, in your booklet. And Philadelphia was one of the best practices. So primarily because it was a designated court, it had a unit that handled the submission of the handling of the petitions. And we like to brag about that, but if you ask us are we in need of improvement, yes, we are. We are. For us to say we're not wouldn't be 46 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 fair to the citizens. So, yes, we're in need of improvement. It's a very difficult court. And I have to tell you, when you ask about a model, one of the difficulties with the model is, is the number of pro se litigants. It's much different in Philadelphia County than it is in Pittsburgh, where you have a number of smaller subdivisions. Primarily when we go to judicial conferences statewide and we talk about the number of pro se litigants in domestic violence cases, which is up to 90 to 95, then we talk about custody cases where they're as high as 80 to 85 percent, other judges can't believe it. Because it's just a very different type of atmosphere in the courtroom. We are very much trying to elicit testimony from people who are trying to communicate very emotional issues.
Well, I think this is an important issue, and to move one step further, I think that we have to figure out how to protect people once they get the protection order to prevent these murders and other people being injured. JUDGE FIELD: Remember, it's just what 47 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 the article says. It's only a piece of paper. It's like anything else that originates in a court. There are those who will respect it and those who will not stop.
Can the police, in your judgment, can the police, their role, can they enlarge, improve? How do you see law enforcement really? Once you give an order, how do you see that order being implemented and done? JUDGE FIELD: The Commissioner will be here, and I think that it would be fair to give him that chance. But if you look at --
But I'd like to hear from the judges. JUDGE FIELD: Well, if you look in here, you'll see one thing they can do is, every single police station has a contact person for domestic violence, which is a very new step. I think there's been, since I did it, which is probably about eight years ago, there has been an enormous public awareness, police awareness of the problem. I think the police are much more sensitive to these issues than they were when I was doing it about eight years ago. I think really 48 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 anybody in the field would say that, that there is more interest and more sensitivity to the needs in this area.
So in terms of resources, once again, could you clarify and state what is it that you need to be able to perform the judge of the domestic violence court -- JUDGE FIELD: Well, we were very conservative in our list. We didn't ask for more judges, which would be, of course, helpful, and more clerical staff, which would be more helpful.
Well, you should ask for more judges, ask for what -- JUDGE FIELD: We asked for a faster computer. Our computer system is about ten years old. Those of you in the area know that ten-year-old computers are prehistoric. We asked for additional --
You should see ours. JUDGE FIELD: We asked for additional staff. We asked for the ability to have audiovisual technology, because right now, I am ashamed to tell you, but it's true, that the people who come to be interviewed scream through a window until they get 49 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 behind there, for a lot of reasons, and we wanted audiovisual techniques so that we could interview more easily and more comfortably and also remembering the privacy needs. We would like to have more printed material in more languages to explain to people exactly what their rights are and what they can do and also where they can seek help outside of the courts.
Are your statistics -- you said you don't do the demographics, but are your statistics by race? You don't have that? JUDGE FIELD: No, no. We do not do that.
Can you do that? Legally can that be done? Can we see how many cases of abuse are coming from the Cambodian or Latino or African-American communities and so on? JUDGE FIELD: But you raise a very interesting issue --
Because I know that in our community, a lot of cases are not reported. And those that are then face other types of problems 50 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 that are cultural in framework and has to change. JUDGE FIELD: There are cultural implications. There are cultures in which this kind of behavior is the appropriate behavior. And we have an education need to tell people that it cannot be done. I just point to one case I had because it involved the Moroccan community, which I don't think is a huge number of people in Philadelphia. But apparently -- and wherever these people came from, this was what you did, this was the way that people took care of things in their household. And that's an education function. We have to tell people that in society we cannot do it.
But how can we structure a program for that community if we have no 18 sense of how many of them come in or how to do it? JUDGE FOX: I don't think it matters in the numbers. I think it's clear that domestic violence affects every community in the City of Philadelphia. That's been our experience. I don't think you can define a group that comes in or that's more one group than another group. So I think the services require across 51 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 the city in every community.
Are there bilingual -- how many bilingual personnel do you have? JUDGE FIELD: In that office? I don't know. There are two in there, but also we have Congreso, who is represented here today. I'm sure they'll tell you who comes to us with a bilingual counselor. I think they're here three days a week, and Women Against Abuse are here two days a week. And they -- they're all volunteers.
But Congreso is Spanish. How many bilingual staffing -- because we have -- JUDGE FIELD: Staff, two.
We have an ever growing Asian community, and the Asian community is much more diverse than just Chinese. JUDGE FIELD: Let me tell you what we have done, because we have the problem all through the court system of languages that are not frequently used, so we don't have -- we only have really on staff Spanish interpreters in the court system. 52 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 We have a telephone system where you call a telephone number. It's a very modest rate, something like a dollar and a half a minute. The list is like 75 languages long. Now, we can call that number, we get a translator in whatever exotic language. It's an amazing list. And with the use of the speaker phone, we can at least advise people of their rights and what is going on in the courtroom. For a full-scale hearing, there's no question we have to have an interpreter, in what might take us a few days to get that interpreter in the Philadelphia community. But for an immediate court information service, we can do it hours a day on a frankly 16 toll-free telephone number at very modest court. 17
Because we have a 18 large Mong community in this city. 19 JUDGE FIELD: I'd love to give you the 20 language list, like 75 languages long. They service 21 everybody, and they do it while you wait. It's very 22 fast. It's just an amazing system. 23 Actually, we have found that our call 24 for exotic languages has not been as much as we thought, and that may be because we are not 53 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 educating that community as to the rights that they have.
People may not know about it, or if they do, it's -- I mean, when I call up an office and I get a phone message and it said if you want to continue in English, press 2. If you want to continue in Spanish, press 1. If you want to continue in Vietnamese -- I mean, you sort of hang up almost immediately, because by the time you get to 4, you're just like confused. So I would imagine that a lot of folks that come from different cultures are not used to this type of technology and can't access it. So our duty then is to see how we can make those communities and our services more accessible to them in whatever way is needed, and sometimes, as Judge Fox said, we have to be very creative as to how we do certain things. Anything else, Judge? JUDGE FIELD: Well, I have a very creative system that I don't know a whole lot about that crossed my desk, but I think it's a marvelous thing. It's called the Sentinel System. And for the cost of $7 a day, you rent this system. It 54 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 works like electronic monitoring. I don't have a share in this business. I don't even know anything much about it. But you put a button in the house, a button -- he has to wear a button, she wears a button. You set your distance. If he comes within X number of feet of the wife -- and we've been saying the wife all along because that's the normal ordinary scenario --
Sort of like a ankle bracelet? JUDGE FIELD: The satellite reads it and it can go directly into the police. I think it's an extraordinarily simple, easy system.
Is that used anywhere in the country? JUDGE FIELD: I'm sure he tells you where he's using it, yes. But if there was interest, I could contact them.
I would like to -- let's see it and see if there are any constitutional provisions that may be -- JUDGE FIELD: Exactly the same as anything else that's monitoring. It keeps somebody 55 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 away from the house. They know they're going to spring an alarm. And it's a cheap and easy 24-hour solution, as opposed to posting a police officer, because --
But he has to wear it, right? JUDGE FIELD: Well, if he doesn't wear it, of course -- it's the same thing like the order. It's a piece of paper. You respect it or you don't.
It's not like the ankle that is very difficult to take off? JUDGE FIELD: Well, I never ordered it because I really never had the finances to consider the system. And one button --
Maybe we should look into it. JUDGE FIELD: But I was amazed. I had done the math once. For like $50,000, you got an extraordinary number of days at $7 a day. And we would never be able to do our 14,000 cases. I understand that. But we certainly could isolate the 500 worst and use a system like that. It's cheaper than a police officer outside the front door, which is your alternative. 56 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613
I have no problem recommending that we do something like that. And I see Terry looking at this and Carol. That might be something that we might be able to begin looking in and making available. If $50,000 is it, we're spending -- that's one consultant or one law firm that we don't give a contract to, and maybe we can use in-house lawyers or something like that. But $50,000 is not a lot of money to spend for one -- even if it saves one woman. JUDGE FIELD: It's a modest number. You price it by the day, and it's a modest number of days. But as I said, we could probably handle our worst cases like this. Obviously, staff morale, this is a very difficult job from inside. It's not very pleasant for the participants, of course, and not for the plaintiff, but it's equally difficult for our staff.
It is the most emotionally draining legal practice there is in the system. I remember Lydia, my wife, she would come home just devastated by some of the cases. And you need a certain emotional strength to be able to practice law and do these cases. And I don't know 57 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 how many attorneys we have and how long they last in this practice, because it is such an emotional drain on the individual. So you can imagine if it's an emotional drain on the attorney representing, we can imagine the pain and suffering that goes through the individuals that they represent. Judge, the staff and I will go through this. This is what we were asking for, and you have answered that Interrogatory that we sent to you in a -- JUDGE FIELD: I want to point to you just where the specific answers, which tab is the -- we're not going to go over the answers, but i want to make sure you know they're all there. They're all at C. All of your answers are at C.
We really appreciate it. If anything comes up that we may need further clarification, we will be in touch with you. I really appreciate this booklet that you have given us. I think it's probably one of the most complete answers that we've ever gotten from the courts, because usually what we get is that, We can't give you the statistics, we don't have the 58 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 resources, we're not technologically there and so on. But I see that it takes a certain type of leadership to be able to accomplish a certain type of job. So I thank you, Your Honors, Field, Fox and Massiah. I'm glad that you guys are in the leadership. Thank you very much. JUDGE FIELD: Thank you very much and thank you for the opportunity to address you on this.
Thank you. Carol Tracy and Cynthia Figueroa. I get Cynthia, then I get Roberta Hacker and Lisa Yoder, Neydary Zambrano. Ms. Tracy, please identify yourself for the record. CAROL TRACY: My name is Carol Tracy and I'm the executive director of the Women's Law Project in Philadelphia. Councilman Ortiz, we deeply appreciate the Public Safety Committee and the Health and Human Services Committee holding these hearings today. The Women's Law Project is a public interest law center devoted to improving the legal, 59 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 social and health status of women. Our work involves high-impact litigation, public policy development, advocacy and public education. We're pleased that the Committee is having these hearings. The Committee laid similar groundwork for efforts to improve the Philadelphia Police Department's response to sexual assault when it held a series of hearings over the past two years. As a result of these hearings, we've developed a good working relationship with the police department leadership and the Special Victims division. Over the last three years, we have accomplished a significant amount, including the reopening and review of thousands of mishandled sex crime cases, the improvement of the Department's crime coding system, supervision of investigations and decision-making and the soon-to-be-realized relocation of the Special Victims division to a more hospitable location. Much remains to be done in that area, including development of a protocol for responding to sexual assaults complaints and a comprehensive training program for the division, all of which will 60 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 be facilitated by the Division's upcoming move. Philadelphia once led the nation in the development and provision of meaningful legal remedies and housing and emergency shelter options for victims of domestic violence. Over the last ten years, however, Philadelphia has fallen behind many other major urban areas in its response to domestic violence victims and their children. The United States Department of Justice Violence Against Women office recommends that the appropriate response to domestic violence is the establishment of a coordinated community response. That represents an effort to coordinate the responses of the police, medical professionals and institutions, health and human service providers, the criminal justice system and advocates in cases involving violence against women. With a coordinated community response, procedures are implemented to enable interagency cooperation and a uniform responses. However, unlike many other major urban areas, like Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and San Diego, Philadelphia has not begun efforts to establish such a response. Although Philadelphia is now lagging 61 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 behind some other cities, we also have the benefit of learning from the experiences of those who have already moved towards a coordinated community response. And my testimony has a summary of several cities at the end of it. As the four Philadelphia providers will tell you today, the need for domestic violence services far exceeds their capacity to serve. While they and their clients interact with the City's police, courts and housing, Health and Human Services offices seeking needed help and protection from domestic violence, no one has a complete or accurate picture of the prevalence of domestic violence or of the services available. There is no central locus in government charged with responding to domestic violence, nor do the City's agencies have an understanding of the capacity of and services provided by the domestic violence agencies. This leads to inefficient use of scarce resources as the counselor, police officer, judicial officer or health care providers scramble to locate the assistance and service needed by an individual he or she is attempting to help.
62 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 A recent case tragically underscores the need for coordination. Jennifer Foster reported that her 16-year-old daughter, Nikea Goldsby, had been raped by her father. The report, as we understand it, came through the Department of Human Services and was sent to the Child Abuse Unit of the Special Victims division. Because of serious understaffing there, which is now in the process of being corrected, it took more than two weeks to assign this to an investigator. In the meantime, Jennifer Foster and her daughter had obtained a Protection From Abuse order and called police repeatedly for help within days. Although police came to the house in response to the calls, nothing significant was done to protect the mother and daughter. The day they were to be interviewed by the Child Abuse Unit, they were found murdered. This case represents the worst possible failure in the system. We do not know much else about this family. They could also have been involved with numerous other social service and school systems that also failed them. Let me also say at the outset that 63 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 domestic violence is complicated. It's about relationships. There is no quick answer or one clear response that is appropriate. That is why all the agencies and disciplines that are involved in domestic violence must be at the table. The four domestic violence agencies that are here today, Women Against Abuse, Women in Transition, Lutheran Settlement House Women's Program and Congreso, are the experts. They understand the complexity and danger associated with domestic violence. There is always the temptation when policy-makers focus on domestic violence to have knee jerk responses, such as mandating Protection From Abuse orders or mandating arrests. Responses that are not carefully planned with the full involvement of the person who knows the full range of issues facing victims can actually put women and children in greater danger. It is critical as we move forward to have the expertise of the domestic violence advocates guiding the efforts to improve and expand services. There's several areas that I'd like to highlight involving the police, the courts and human 64 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 services and housing systems, and I will try to highlight my comments, and you have in the testimony more in-depth responses. We've had a good working relationship with Police Commissioner Johnson, and he has made a clear commitment to continue to working with us on domestic violence and on the ongoing issues related to sex crimes. And the police have reached out to us on two significant issues. One was changing their 9-1-1 response, which I assume when they testify, they will discuss with you to improve and give a higher priority to domestic violence, and their 9-1-1 operators also asked to get more training in domestic violence, which Women in Transition was able to accomplish. The second big effort is, the police department is part of a nationally funded project by the National Center for Victims of Crime on Stalking and Domestic Violence. And it began as a small project, a pilot project, in the Northeast, and they are in the process of expanding it citywide, and they've asked for assistance from the domestic violence community in doing that. One of the interesting things out of the 65 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 pilot study that was pretty startling even to us, it showed that the 15th Police District alone had 700 domestic violence calls a year, that the entire Northeast division probably has 20,000 domestic violence calls. That's just the Northeast division.
20,000 calls? CAROL TRACY: That's what their report told us. See, we don't know. And one of the real issues that's important for us is just to find out how many domestic violence calls come through 9-1-1, how many are responded to, what the followup is with the victim assistance officers.
In one division. And how do they respond to those 20,000 calls? CAROL TRACY: Well, I think they'll probably be better able to answer that than I, but with the 9-1-1 call, it's a high priority now and the police -- it's a higher priority than it used to be. Domestic violence, until last year, was included in something called domestic disturbance. 66 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 That included everything from a dog bite to domestic violence. They've isolated domestic violence and given it a higher priority, so it should get very high response time. The police come. Depending on what is going on, they may or may not make an arrest. It may or may not be appropriate to make an arrest. They are supposed to give information to the caller about how to get a protection order. They may need to transport them to the hospital. There are a whole range of issues that the police should be responding to. The police have a new protocol that they put in place last year. Unfortunately, they did that without the input of the domestic violence community. Now, in an early meeting with Commissioner Johnson, we asked to have that directive reopened and to get input from the rest of us, and we are in the process of doing that, because we don't think that they probably have enough information or enough clarity about what to do when they respond to the call. Each district -- and I think that Judge 67 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 Field mentioned that each police district has victim assistance officers and domestic abuse detectives. One of the problems that we have as a community is we don't know each other. And it's been -- the communication between the domestic violence advocates and the police is not what it should be. Through the stalking project and other projects, we have been able to get additional information and are in the process of setting up some meetings. I think the leadership of the police department is committed to improving its response to domestic violence. There are 6,000 patrol officers, and you know the complexity that is involved in getting everyone on board. The coding of domestic violence also needs some improvement. We worked closely with the police department to improve their coding, which was part of the crisis and the scandal in the Sex Crimes Unit. However, all the crimes that should be cross-coded as domestic violence currently are not. So it's an area that additionally needs improvement, as does their training. For something that is as severe as domestic violence, something that is as lethal as domestic violence, two- or three-hour 68 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 cadet training is simply not sufficient, and that is primarily what domestic violence training is now. So they need to improve that. And we need to be able to set up a system with them where we have information going back and forth, including complaints about bad service. For example, if a call comes into my office where the police haven't responded appropriately and I call the victim assistance officer, I have had nothing but good experiences doing that. But, you know, I'm the director of the Women's Law Project. It's not clear to me that that is true for the women who are calling themselves. Part of the problem is, we don't know. We simply don't know.
The police department has this new system, the Comstat system -- CAROL TRACY: Right.
-- that sort of tracks how many cars are stolen and how many houses are broken into in a neighborhood, and then they assign and they're able to catalogue and track. And they don't have anything along the lines in which they can track how many cases come in and what's 69 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 been the followup on those cases? CAROL TRACY: I think they could.
They could, but they don't have it. CAROL TRACY: What I've been told, I think, April a year ago, the police devoted an entire Comstat day to domestic violence. We tried to involve ourselves in it, but we're not invited. So I think that they have the internal capacity to do that, and I think the mapping of domestic violence is very important. And I think it's also critical to look at the households where there is repeated violence. And there's a fair amount of scholarship that talks about that being a really effective tool, just looking at the repeat houses. The 9-1-1 -- Inspector Small, who is in charge of 9-1-1 or emergency room operations, indicated that they thought there was a possibility of being able to put up hot addresses so that there would be even faster response time, or if the police are going back to the same address repeatedly, it means the danger is most likely escalating. That isn't in place now, but as he said, they have the 70 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 capacity to do that. The police department's extraordinary invitation to us to review cases is something that we'd like to -- to review sexual assault cases is something we'd like to explore with them in the domestic violence cases. That review, as we have reported to you in the past, has really been going very well. And the last time we reviewed in May, we saw a marked improvement in the way the police are keeping track of their files. We're not only looking at the unfounded cases, but we're looking at a random sample of open cases. So we think that this would have a review of domestic violence cases, but the advocacy community would have the potential to be very beneficial. I'd also just like to make some comments about Family Court. You heard a great deal about it. Family Court, as you heard, is the form in which profound and life-altering decisions are made. Tens of thousands of families come to the Domestic Relations division each year to resolve personal and intimate family matters involving divorce, child support, child custody and domestic violence. 71 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 Thousands more are summoned to its juvenile branch where child abuse and neglect and juvenile justice cases are heard. This court will render decisions about where and with whom children will live and when and under what circumstances parents can see their children. This court has the awesome responsibility of issuing orders to protect families from violence and stalking, and it has what is considered the civil equivalent of the death penalty, the power to terminate parental rights. And like other courts, it can order the arrest and imprisonment of those who disregard its order. Despite the magnitude of its decisions, it is the court that has the least resources. And I think the court officials who were just here were very modest in their requests. They need considerably more. There are several serious problems that I'd like to draw your attention to. The first is that the Domestic Relations branch, which is located at 34 South 11th, was closed to the public for many years. In response to a resolution by the Philadelphia Bar Association to open the court to 72 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 the public as required by federal and state constitutions, the court agreed to do that, but this goal has been achieved only in small part. Only people who know to identify themselves as observers are permitted limited access to the courtrooms. The general public simply cannot walk into the court and expect to visit a courtroom. Councilman Ortiz, if you wanted to go in to hear a domestic violence proceeding, unless you went up and identified yourself as observer, you would not be allowed in that courtroom. If you had a relative or a friend who was looking for support, you would not be allowed to go into that courtroom.
Frightened litigants in need of support persons or persons sometimes to care for their children while they were in the courtroom are denied this assistance. The court has taken no steps to address the space and security limitations that prevent it from opening completely to the public as required by the Constitution. And as you'll notice on this floor, there's a significant amount of First Judicial District court funds being expended to make fancy courtrooms here, and yet not one dime of that has 73 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 been diverted to 34 South 11th to make sure that that court is open and that it is safe. The vast majority of people using this court don't have lawyers. Judge Field and Judge Fox explained that. The court does not have the resources to provide them with written material or sufficient personnel to help them understand the law, the procedures and how to navigate such a complex process. So most of those 16,000 people who are coming there are on their own, with the exception of the help that is provided by the domestic violence agencies who are there. They're not on the payroll of court. The court doesn't pay them a penny to do what they are doing. There are no social services offered to these families in the Domestic Relations division. Unlike the Dependency division at 1801 Vine, which is mandated to provide services for families in which child abuse and neglect are present, no such mandate or availability of resources --
That's the area that I was surprised, because when I asked, they give the order and, in essence, tell the person, Well, go 74 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 back and serve it. But without trying to provide the other services, they don't have the resources to be able to get those services ordered, to mandate the services. CAROL TRACY: And I think that's part of the reason for these hearings, because there has to be much better coordination of these services. The court can't provide behavioral health services out of its own budget or out of its own mandate, but Health and Human Services could be in those courtrooms helping people. Many more resources could be co-located there, because we have people --
And at the site of these sessions where the masters are located, that there's presently no social service agencies present at that -- CAROL TRACY: There's nothing there.
There's nothing down there. CAROL TRACY: The only reason to keep it at the CJC is that there's at least some security there. 34 South 11th would probably be disastrous. You have to go down an alley to get into that courtroom. 75 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613
Yeah, I know that. CAROL TRACY: So at the moment -- but the issue that they were talking about, and I'm not sure they made really clear, is they have to -- they have consultants who are doing the clerical work associated with the order, so they can't get into the court's computer system. So everything has to come back over to Family Court the next day. If they had just staff, their own staff that's over in Municipal Court on the emergency orders, then it would be processed immediately. Things get done twice. They do them by hand or in whatever way they do them when the emergency orders are processed and then they have to be reinput into their computer system.
But, I mean, if a woman comes in very frightened and very insecure, there is no way of really reassuring that person in terms of that you have entered a system that will make you safe. I mean, I don't think the person gets that feeling once you enter into the system. CAROL TRACY: And you asked a critical question, and it's a question that certainly as we've been reviewing the statistics about why do 76 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 half of the petitioners not show up. Now, it's much too simplistic and it's probably not accurate to say, Well, they decided to go back to their abusers. There are many complex reasons that they haven't come back. The fact that someone went to the effort to go down there in the middle of the night or on the weekend to get an emergency order suggests that there was some significant urgency associated with why they were there. Why they don't follow through -- now, it may well be their choice not to follow through. It may be that they're in greater danger by following through, but we don't have a clue why they don't follow through, and I don't think it's particularly healthy to speculate about it, particularly the speculation of she has chosen to go back. I'd also just like to make a few comments -- although any time you would like to stand in the doorway of 34 South 11th or anyone else on Council who would at 8:45 to 9:15 just to experience what people are going through, it's a worthwhile thing to do, because it's really -- it's unbelievable. 77 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 People have to show their papers when they come in. People get turned away. You're not allowed in the courtroom. You have to stand outside. In some ways, words are inadequate to convey the experiences of those who are in that court, including the judges. They have long lists. They rarely have lawyers in the courtroom. They don't have lawyers to present arguments or to offer witnesses. The pro se litigants, unless they have been assisted by Women Against Abuse or Congreso, have very little information about how to present their cases. Sometimes they just present the wrong thing. Sometimes the judges are unbelievably rude to them, to the petitioners and to the respondents. The hearings are very short. It's not an area in which justice as we know it and particularly as lawyers who practice in other courtrooms, it is not the kind of justice that we think is appropriate.
Well, when you have a case load as big as the case loads are, they try and speed it up. CAROL TRACY: Yes. Right. In the area of Health and Human 78 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 Services' response to domestic violence, the Women's Law Project has just completed a major study for community behavioral health on the needs of pregnant and parenting women suffering from substance use disorders. In the course of that study, where we met with consumers, health and social service agencies, case workers and outreach workers, we found, an a massive literature review substantiated, that violence is endemic in the lives of women who are in Philadelphia's health and social services systems, as well as the criminal justice system. Case worker after case worker described going into homes to provide services to children where it was obvious that domestic violence existed. Some case workers would provide a hotline number, others were frustrated there were not enough domestic violence services to accommodate their clients. Many blame the mother for letting the abuser hurt her and her children. Most just turn a blind eye to the abuse because they didn't know what to do or believe that nothing could be done. Determining what can be done can be particularly challenging, especially if the woman is not yet seeking services. Extricating one's self 79 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 and one's children from domestic violence is both complex and dangerous. It frequently requires multi-systems coordinated response. Unfortunately, a fragmented social, health and law enforcement system which we currently have cannot accommodate most of these families. In the area of housing, you will hear Philadelphia has only one domestic violence shelter. As a result of the limited shelter beds --
One? CAROL TRACY: Yes. You'll hear much more about that from Cynthia shortly. Domestic violence victims and their families often must fall back on the City's homeless shelter system.
We have 15,000 cases that come forward. We have one shelter? CAROL TRACY: Yes. And we have --
So even if we wanted to, even if the judge wanted to, there would be no 22 place to send women that are needed? CAROL TRACY: Well, and shelter is just one response, and I will defer that to the next panel to describe in more detail to you. 80 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 But we have been told -- what I wanted to point out to you is that we've been told that when a battered woman goes into the Office of Emergency -- OESS, that she has to provide a PFA. Now, that can be a very dangerous thing to do.
Put that -- CAROL TRACY: Protection From Abuse petition.
Say it, for the record. CAROL TRACY: That can be quite dangerous. Only victims of abuse themselves can decide what remedies are safe to pursue. Obtaining a protection order may result in greater violence than just leaving. So the city has no business in making that determination for a victim. Even the Commonwealth's Department of Public Welfare does not require that, or any other piece of paper, for that matter.
And if she doesn't produce it or she refuses? CAROL TRACY: Well, we hope you will hear that, because we have not been able to get the clarity that we would like to on that issue when 81 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 we've made phone calls.
I don't think they're here. CAROL TRACY: When they come to testify, I would like to be proven wrong on that, but it's not what we have had.
Do we have them on the witness list? Tomorrow, okay. CAROL TRACY: Tomorrow, yeah. And in closing, I just want to say all of the speakers invited to present testimony today and tomorrow represent organizations and arms of city government that respond to or interact with domestic violence victims in some way. Through the testimony they present, we hope to gain not only an assessment of the need, but also an inventory of existing services that are currently available for domestic violence victims in Philadelphia and the policies and procedures that govern their availability. Only by knowing what the need is and what services are currently provided can we begin the process of identifying the gaps and move towards building the coordinated response to domestic 82 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 violence to which we all aspire.
They said 15,000, the judges said 15,000. I know that this would be more or less anecdotal and unscientific, but if actually 15,000 actually make it to be able to file a petition, what are the real numbers that we may have out there that potentially are out there in terms of that? CAROL TRACY: Well, if one police district gets -- one division, the Northeast division, gets 20,000 --
CAROL TRACY: -- and I think we have some national statistics that they'll be able to discuss. Councilman Ortiz, it is endemic. It is a public health crisis. It is a criminal justice crisis.
But it's not a crisis -- CAROL TRACY: And it's too marginal. Just in --
It's not a crisis that gets a lot of attention. CAROL TRACY: In today's paper there was 83 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 yet another story of a woman crossing the street with her child and her abuser shot the child first. The bullet hit the child in the hip. The mother fell on top of the child, huddled -- put her hands over her head. He stood there with the gun pointed at her head, shot her three times. The rest of the gun didn't fire. By some miracle, she only got fragments. She and the child left the hospital. And a passerby went after him and he was arrested. This is someone walking across the street. This happens day in and day out in Philadelphia and in cities and communities throughout the nation. And we as a community have not taken this seriously enough. We have marginalized it. We have blamed the victim. And we are just too far behind the times in dealing with this crisis. And that's why we appreciate so much your willingness to have these hearings to bring people together.
We don't see it as a crisis. That's the whole point. CAROL TRACY: We see it as a crisis.
I know, but I don't think the rest of the system sees it as a public 84 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 health crisis. CAROL TRACY: That's correct. That is correct.
It is. And we see it as such. Thank you. CAROL TRACY: Thank you.
Don't go away. CAROL TRACY: I won't. I'll be over here.
Cynthia. CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: Thank you, Councilman Ortiz. Again, my name is Cynthia Figueroa and I'm the executive director of Women Against Abuse, and I do want to state that we are the largest provider in Pennsylvania and we are operate the only battered women's shelter in Philadelphia.
I mean, that to me is -- because I kept asking the judge what, if anything, can the judge do and the court to send somebody -- first, that they're not present in the courtroom, and, second, that we actually don't have the facility, that we only have one, and if they go 85 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 to a shelter, which is more or less structured along the lines to service homeless citizens, not women who have been or families who have been abused. So they don't even -- that shelter doesn't have the services to provide to a family, a woman with her child that goes into it. They're not homeless. They have a home. They just can't go to that home. And there are no 10 services to be able to treat her and advise her and give her the right guidance as to how to proceed. Go ahead, Ms. Figueroa. CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: With me are representatives from four other organizations in Philadelphia that also provide services to battered women, Roberta Hacker, the executive director of Women in Transition and Lisa Yoder from Lutheran Settlement House, Neydary Zambrano from Congreso de Latinos Unidos, Latina Domestic Violence Program. These four organizations represent the only programs in the City of Philadelphia that are actually certified by the Pennsylvania Coalition of Domestic Violence to provide services.
We get 20,000 calls from one district; we have four organizations that 86 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 are certified? CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: That is correct. I want to begin briefly by describing what the reality is in Philadelphia as well as we know it, and just giving you a brief overview of the resources --
It's surprising that so few women actually die with so few services. CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: I don't think it's that so many women actually die. It's how many women are actually classified in a domestic violence-related homicide.
That might be true. CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: I want to follow that by discussing specifically our services and share some of the obstacles that are faced. At nationally it is estimated that 1.5 million are raped or physically assaulted by an intimate partner in the United States. In 2001 in Pennsylvania, 75 domestic violence incidents that occurred resulted in 110 deaths. The truth is, as you've asked here, Councilman, is that certain -- there is no exact number of how many people in Philadelphia are affected by domestic violence. 87 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 Those statistics quote that one in every four women experience some kind of violence and that there is statistics that show that 35 percent of adolescents are in abusive dating relationships. As we providers know, we are just reaching the tip of the iceberg. I want to paint you a very quick picture of what we have as far as resources for the numbers that are presented. As Judge Field reported, we have about 50,000 orders of protection -- 15,000, I'm sorry, that are filed annually. There are four service providers. Collectively last year we, as four agencies, served 18,000 people experiencing domestic violence in Philadelphia.
You saw three a day? CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: Well, equally alarming is the limited staff and financial resources that the domestic violence community has to serve women and children. As the fifth largest city in the nation, we have some of the most limited resources in the nation. The four domestic violence agencies collectively have a total of 104 full-time staff that are devoted specifically to direct service. 88 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 There are only two major funders at a state level that provide domestic violence funding specifically for domestic violence programs. This is the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Our combined allocations from these two funders is $2.9 million per year for all four agencies. That does not reflect our entire budgets, but gives you an idea of what the state is providing. Women Against Abuse, along with the other providers, rely heavily on funding from private organizations and other city systems. Currently Women Against Abuse is the only domestic violent provider that receives funding from the Department of Human Services, which is a rarity in the state and in the nation.
Is that funding on top of the 2.9? CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: Yes.
It is? CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: Yes, but that's specific just to Women Against Abuse. 89 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613
And by how much does that increase your budget? CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: Women Against Abuse's operating budget is 3.2 million. We have 78 staff, but that's, again, not all direct service, and that's all three sites, transitional housing, legal services, et cetera. As organizations, we nominally cover Philadelphia. We are all centrally located in Philadelphia. Congreso is in the lower North Philadelphia neighborhood; Lutheran Settlement House is in the Frankford section; Women in Transition is located in Center City; Women Against Abuse Legal Center is located in Center City; our shelter is in a confidential location, as well as our transitional housing.
Are there any organizations in Southwest Philadelphia? CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: No. 23
That means they don't 90 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 have a problem with -- CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: Nothing in the Northeast as well. We mentioned there was pilot project that was done. This will give you an idea of the lack of communication between the police department and the domestic violence communities. A pilot project for stalking initiative was done in the 15th District. There is no domestic violence service provider.
So we have a problem that in one district we have 20,000 calls, which may or may not be followed up on by the police. We have four agencies that deal directly with this problem, and they're all located really within a mile radius of each other, less than a mile radius of each other, and none in the far Northeast, none in West Philly or Northwest or Chestnut Hill. Because the rich also suffer from abuse. And none across in other areas of the city. What happens in those areas? CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: What happens is, we --
Obviously, you get calls from each of these areas. 91 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: I think all of us can speak to this separately, but what happens is that we're providing services all over Philadelphia County. And what you'll see as we continue to talk about numbers is, we're incredibly stretched thin and, unfortunately, not only are we pulled to do direct service, but then we're put in a position of having to do systems advocacy for systems that are not appropriately dealing with victims of domestic violence.
The availability and proximity are two very key aspects of women coming forward. If they have to travel distances, it puts a very different outlook on the situation, and many perhaps do not come. CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: It's a tremendous burden, especially for women -- as we know, domestic violence, one of the processes by which women are controlled is isolation, and a lot of these women never learn the public transportation system, can't get to our facilities, it's a risk for them to flee even to leave their homes.
And are the city social service agencies -- well, that will be 92 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 tomorrow, but are they set up to be able to -- do they have the systems within their own structures to be able to intervene in these cases where you can't and so on? CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: The quick answer to that is no. I think that there is strong staff in all of the human services fields that work very well to meet the needs of battered women, but more often than not, unfortunately, women's needs are not being met, women and children.
Continue. Go ahead. CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: Okay. As we have heard today, we don't have an idea of how many calls to the police department come in or how many of the reports are actually coded as 48 as domestic violence, and we're hoping that these hearings will be able to produce those numbers for us. We also know that the largest growing population, the juvenile justice system, is females, the majority of which report a history of family violence, yet there is extremely limited resources to provide services to adolescents, and there is zero to limited resources for adolescents fleeing domestic violence situations. 93 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 Again, just to reiterate, there's only one shelter in the City of Philadelphia, at which our capacity is constantly full.
When you say there's limited funding, do you have any type of -- CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: I can speak for Women Against Abuse, and my colleagues would have to answer, but we do not receive any funding that's particularly just for adolescents. We meet the needs of adolescents through what we're already receiving in support. These organizations here are to provide a wide range of services together. We provide individual counseling, both in person and over the phone. We provide group counseling, shelter, a limited number of transitional housing. Everybody will provide you a little bit more information about the services that they provide. We fulfill only a portion of the need in Philadelphia, and we are confident that by telling you what we need and what we face, you can begin to understand and assist us in our efforts. Particularly, Women Against Abuse was founded in 1975 and opened the first shelter in 94 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 Philadelphia in 1977. The Legal Center was founded in 1979, and we opened Sojourner House, our transitional housing program, in 1987. Women Against Abuse provides assistance to just over 11,000 people a year. Three service areas include, as mentioned, the shelter for battered women, transitional housing program and the Legal Center. As you will hear throughout these hearings, Women Against Abuse is only able to reach a small percentage. Our shelter only holds 55 women and children and our transitional housing program only consists of 12 units.
The capacity is 55? CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: That is correct. It gets worse. Women Against Abuse constantly has to turn women and children away from shelter, because we're operating at full capacity. Furthermore, their tremendous needs and funding requirements, women are only allowed to remain at the shelter of a term from 30 to 45 days at max. Given the severe housing shortage in Philadelphia, this is far from enough time to secure permanent housing. 95 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 One common question that we get asked about domestic violence is why women stay. Philosophically many people in this room have heard me respond to this question, and often, as I mentioned, instead of providing direct service, we're in the business of justifying or sensitizing systems and society why it's so difficult for women to leave. Leaving is not always the answer. Why women should be blamed for abuse is still something that we face every day. Unfortunately, housing is an enormous obstacle for battered women attempting to leave and stay away from their abusive partner. This is becoming repetitive, but, again, there is only one shelter. Just to paint a bigger picture on a national level, the lack of shelter for -- the lack of shelter for battered women is a nationwide problem. New York, with a population of 8 million people, has only 15,000 beds available in the shelter for battered women. That far exceeds the capacity. Every day in New York an average of ten beds open up. However, the citywide hotline receives 600 calls a day during the week. Los Angeles has a similar problem in 96 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 Ventura County. 500 women were turned away from two domestic violence shelters in 2001.
And we have no idea how many calls we receive a day? CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: We receive approximately about 600 a week.
But we don't know how many the police receive a day? CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: That's correct. In Chicago, there are 211 shelter beds out of a population of 2.9, and there are rarely openings. To give you a comparison, while I point out that other cities suffer severe shortages for domestic violence, the situation is actually worse in Philadelphia than in other major cities. Chicago has approximately one domestic violence shelter bed for every 13,744 residents, and New York has approximately one domestic violence shelter bed for every 533 residents. However, Philadelphia has one shelter bed for every 23,076 residents.
Do you know how many 97 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 contracts we have per lawyer in the City of Philadelphia that they get from the city? I bet you it's lower than 23,000. CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: I'm sure you're correct. Additionally, our lack of resources have meant that Women Against Abuse has had to operate as a triage system where the victims suffering the most severe abuse are the victims that receive services. Abuse tends to become more severe at times, so only by offering full services to victims suffering abuse, we tend to ignore victims attempting to get help early on in the relationship. A triage system, essentially, forces women to wait until the abuse is a matter of life and death. An additional systems frustration that we have as domestic violence advocate is the police response to 9-1-1 and violations from Protection From Abuse orders. The police does not always respond in a timely fashion, and when they do respond, there is concerns regarding followup or their response when they arrive. This is not to say that we haven't had positive experiences with the police and that they 98 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 have provided excellent services to some of our clients. Unfortunately, several bad experiences combined with many different experiences have left us wondering how seriously the Department has chosen to face domestic violence. We've had several cases where victims have called us in desperation because they've called the police, for the police never to respond. We should not and cannot have the capacity to be screeners for 9-1-1 calls. This puts victims in more danger and discourages them from calling the police a second time. Most recently, I myself personally received a call from a community legal services lawyer. She had a client on the phone who had a Protection From Abuse order. The abuser showed up at her door and was pounding on her door. The client called 9-1-1, as instructed, and a half hour passed. She called again. The lawyer called me to ask if there was any shelter space available. We were at capacity. I asked my staff to make arrangements to move families and double up. We created the space and instructed the client, once there was a safe and 99 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 available passage, for her to leave. She left minutes later. The police 4 never arrived. She's still in our shelter. 5 Women Against Abuse and our providers, 6 unfortunately, spend much of our time and staff 7 energy advocating with systems on behalf of battered 8 women and not enough time and resources related to 9 intervention and prevention. 10 While part of our role is to do advocacy 11 on behalf of the victims, the advocacy should not be 12 for fundamental services. These gaps in systems and 13 lack of sensitivity have left us reacting to 14 domestic violence rather than preventing. 15 The support to end domestic violence has 16 to come from the top and has to be supported by 17 local city administrators. The women and children 18 who experience domestic violence every day need our 19 help and our support from the city. 20 Thank you very much for your time and concern, and a special thanks to the Public Safety Committee.
You know, sometimes you think you know certain things and you actually don't. And what this is -- this is good, because 100 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 even those of us who are sensitive to these issues, our ignorance is immense. And I didn't know that the recourse available to abused women in this city, the primary one, because you don't have enough room 6 in one house, is the shelter system, which is totally inadequate and, if anything, I think it exacerbates the problem. Because as we talked with the Special Victims Unit, it seems to heap abuse on the abuse, and they're not prepared to handle. I don't know whether they're really prepared to handle homeless folk, much less a problem of family relationships that has gotten to such a dysfunctional level that it's abusive. And a city this large, we don't have the resources or the staffing and we don't have the systems set up to be able to go forward with this is -- CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: I just want to add about the Office of Emergency Shelter Services, it's not only that it is an issue that a homeless shelter is not an appropriate placement for a family fleeing domestic violence, but also there's a safety factor that needs to be considered for the other residents of a homeless shelter, including the staff. And that one of the reasons domestic violence shelters 101 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 are so specific is that there's a confidential location and that there are safety measures in place.
But if the problem is as big -- I'm sorry. You know, maybe it's part our fault because we don't -- we're not putting our attention as to where it should be as a government, and hopefully we can begin to change that, and individuals such as Councilman Cohen and myself who are here. I didn't know it was this bad and huge. And if I didn't know, you can imagine what some of my colleagues don't know. CYNTHIA FIGUEROA: And I would just like to say for the record that as providers, we often get dumped on or beat up quite a bit about why aren't we doing more, and I would say that we are doing the absolute very most that we can possibly do with the really minimal, minimal services and resources that we've been provided to by the state and the city.
But as a government, we spend so much money on so many things. Go ahead. Continue. ROBERTA HACKER: Given all this 102 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 information, I've pretty much rewritten, so I'm not sure I'm going to be speaking directly to what I've written. My name is Roberta --
Just add. Don't be repetitive and don't give us what your agency does, because we know what your agency does. And we'll put all of the testimonies on the record. What we want to do is really present a very true picture of what the situation is in the City of Philadelphia and the dysfunctional systems that we have operating within the City of Philadelphia, and then get into some of the suggestions, recommendations as to how to change these things and what is needed in terms of resources and other things. Obviously one of the things we need is more housing that we can begin putting women and families into shelters that are appropriate with the social services. As Carol said, we have to begin locating services within a place in which they all can communicate with each other. We've been trying to do that now for two years with the Special Victims Unit, and we have not 103 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 accomplished -- we have a place, but we have not accomplished yet the job of getting everybody and all the departments within it. But we will. I think during the next few months that will be done. So I don't want to hear -- just tell me what has your experience been and where do we go from here, in your estimation, where do we as a political and legislative body can begin to do to change, one, the consciousness of this Council and then put that consciousness into the budget and into the legislative area. ROBERTA HACKER: As I said, Councilman, I'm Roberta Hacker. I'm the executive director of Women in Transition. Let me address that, then. I will skip the overview of my agency. And I guess you've asked the right person, because I'm pretty much a straight shooter, so I'll lay it out for you. One of the things I want to have on record is that Women in Transition has just celebrated our 30th anniversary. We are the only agency in the city that has a contract with the coordinating office on drug and alcohol abuse. We were the first agency to be contracted in 1985 to 104 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 provide some screening services for women with substance abuse issues. Our focus and, perhaps, our greatest niche in the city is on the issues that overlap domestic violence and substance abuse. However, the other area that is of primary importance is taking the leap to link domestic violence not only to substance abuse, but to child abuse as well. And that is pretty much a lot of the work that we've been doing. But before we go there, I want to let you know something else. You were talking about some of the areas in the city where we provide services, and Cynthia laid out where we are located. However, I want to tell you something that's so fascinating. Our clients, we serve in person about 500 clients a year, 500 women a year. We answer about 3,000 hotline calls. Those hotline calls primarily come from two zip codes in the city. They are 19144, which is Germantown, and the other is 19143, which is Kingsessing. Those women come into our agency every day for services and counseling. So while we may 105 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 start out at the beginning of the year with 500 women that have come in for one-time service, because that's primarily what we do, we wind up providing a lot of crisis intervention services. Last night we had a graduation of women that went through about two years' worth of counseling and support groups. We graduated four women at that time. So there are four women that really made incredible changes in their lives. So I want to give you that positive piece, that these are women that came to us before they had to go to the police for help, before they had to go into the shelter. And so we were able to provide early intervention that cut off a lot of crisis work for them. But there are countless others that are still in a very serious and difficult crisis situation. I also want to stay that the --
But that number is a very small minority. ROBERTA HACKER: It's a teeny number, teeny. I mean, how much are we talking about, the number of protection orders? I think that's just the tip of the iceberg, and everybody pretty much would agree. 106 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613
We're talking 15,000 orders that go to court or go through the system. We're talking about four that actually availed themselves of preventive services. ROBERTA HACKER: Well, that's four that went through two years' worth of counseling to make incredible monumental changes in their lives. I want to focus on two areas that come to my attention and it pretty much has been the work of Women in Transition; that is, the 24-hour hotline services and volunteer training and the issue of linking domestic violence to substance abuse, child abuse and promoting collaborative partnerships. The first is the 24-hour hotline and volunteer training. That's pretty much the service that we first provided when we started over 30 years ago, and we pretty much honed in on making that an effective service. The four domestic violence programs collaborate after hours on operating our hotline. So we collaborate them together so we can assure that there's always coverage. But one of the issues that's unique to us in Philadelphia is that almost every other major city in the country has an 800, 107 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 one number, where people can call for help. If we were able to do that and have the support and endorsement and funding from the City of Philadelphia to operate a single 800 hotline for battered women, that would relieve a tremendous amount of stress --
How many cities have that? ROBERTA HACKER: New York City, Chicago, LA, I think. CAROL TRACY: Big cities like Philadelphia. Some of the major cities have it.
What would be the approximate cost? ROBERTA HACKER: $900,000 to start.
And to be staffed with -- ROBERTA HACKER: All four of us staff a hotline. So all four of us have about one hotline counselor dedicated to our hotline. And that means that we can basically have one person on a line at a time for about a call that may range from 15 to 20 minutes.
So of the top ten 108 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613 largest cities in the country, probably most of them have this? ROBERTA HACKER: Yes, or something like that. But that's an issue. The other issue that comes back to haunt us is is that the more work that we do in the community --
Has it been proposed over the years? ROBERTA HACKER: We have talked about this for a long time. I mentioned it to Mayor Street during his transition.
We'll make it happen. ROBERTA HACKER: That would be wonderful.
We'll make it happen. ROBERTA HACKER: I mean, the issue that we get is that as we do outreach to the communities; for example, when we do training at hospitals, then when they try to reach us via our hotline, they experience busy signals. So, I mean -- and it's a very difficult situation for us and it's a difficult situation for women. 109 12/17/02 - PUBLIC EALTH - BILL 020613