Transcripts For CSPAN Mariska Hargitay Testifies On Combating Sexual Assault 20170617

Conversation in a number of issues across the country. We announced the formation of the task force to end Sexual Violence in april. Month. Assault awareness with the goal of highlighting these issues with educating our peers the challenges our nation faces ande challenges our nation faces and how we can help combat Sexual Violence in its many forms. Under my colleagues have their own reason for being here, but for peers the challenges our nation faces and how we can help combat Sexual Violence in its many forms. Under my colleagues have their own reason for being here, but for me, i want to be involved because i saw this problem firsthand as a prosecutor. The two topics we have decided to focus on is Sexual Assault kit backlog and access to nurses. A Sexual Assault kit is a tool. These examinations are completed by a medical professional, specifically trained Sexual Assault nurse examiner. The purpose of this examination is for genetic evidence that may have been left behind. Our nation faces a backlog. Hundreds of thousands of it. Variance testing procedures, unclear guidelines, lack of training, budget restrictions and a large caseload. These untested kits represent victims, victims the waiting for justice. That is why this issue is a priority for this tax force. After theble to go perpetrators. We have a very special panel of witnesses. We are pleased to welcome ms. Mariska hargitay, she is on law and order, s. V. U. She is the reason why my daughter first finished her year of law school because she wanted to follow up on the work you portrayed on tv. She is the reason why my daughter firsta reallife advoce for victims of Sexual Assault. As an actress, and advocate, ms. Hartigay is an inspiration and force of change. She was awakened to the weight of shame, fear, darkness and isolation victims suffer. She decided to be part of a multiple Education Awareness Campaign around these issues for many organizations. She has made Public Service announcements to end the rape announcements to end the rape backlog, bring justice to survivors, prevent child abuse, and engage men to prevent violence and abuse. She has filmed many Public Service announcements. She is a voice to other organizations in hopes of raising awareness and much needed Financial Support for their programs. She is committed to ending violence and abuse. She spends as much time offscreen dealing with these issues as she did in her role as detective. We are pleased you are here to speak with us and look forward to hearing from you. I would like to welcome our next witness, victim advocate, from waco, texas. She is a loving mother, wife, author, speaker, radio host and Sexual Assault survivor. Response she is a spokesperson for the Dallas Police program. The empowering ministry for victims of sexual abuse support and survivor initiatives. Ms. Masters, we look forward to your testimony. Our next witness, mr. Nathan james for Congressional Research service. A variety of issues, including Law Enforcement, corrections, and forensic sciences. His recent work is focused on appropriations for the department of justice, the use , promotingessment policing reforms, and analysis of reported increases of Violent Crime in cities across the United States and Law Enforcement militarization. We are glad to have your expert knowledge and we look forward to working with you. I am pleased to announce the next two witnesses, my good friend, mike omalley, and our chief prosecutor, thank you both for traveling all the way from cleveland. In november of mike omalley was 2016, elected to prosecuting a county prosecuting attorney to cuyahoga valley. Havinghe knows it well, been the chief. His office prosecutes nearly 12,000 defendants and handles nearly 7,000 juvenile complaints annually. Prior to taking office he served as First Assistant safety director and a Cleveland City councilman he began his career as a probation officer while attending law school at night. Rick bell, his super sidekick has been an assistant prosecutor for 27 years. Hes currently the special investigations divisions chief overseeing the following task forces, cold case homicides crimes against children and and sexualafficking assault kit task force. Mr. Bell has supervised every unit of the Criminal Division including the major crime units and Community Based protection units. Were glad both of you could be here today and look forward to your testimony. Last but not least, dr. Jennifer markowitz from the International Association of forensic nurses. Shes a forensic nursing consultant who specializes in issues relating to Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence and strangulation, including forensic examination and professional education and curriculum development. She provides expert testimony, case consultation and technical assistance, develops training material, resources and publications and is a forensic nurse examiner since dr. 1995. Markowitz regularly served as faculty consultant for the jag, u. S. Army the marine corps and , coast guard. In she was named the 2004, distinguished fellow the International Association of forensic nurses. In 2012 she served as their president. Thank you very much for being here today, we look forward to your testimony. Ill now hand it over to my fellow cochairs for their Opening Statement. Ms. Kuster. Ms. Kuster thank you, mr. Joyce. I want to thank everyone for being with us. Thank you for bring with us at our Bipartisan Task force to end Sexual Violence. I am delighted to have everyone with us. Thank you foray, your leadership on this issue and are advocacy and for speaking out area i am delighted to have Michael Omalley and richard bell with us. We have a lot to learn. And hopefully practices to share. It Jennifer Markowitz and nathan james, thank you for the work you do. David said that his reason for being here my reason for being here is that over four undergraduatean assaulted. I was a few years after that i was working as staff on capitol hill. Jackie and i were working in assaultedoffices next to each. To be sexuallyw harassed in the workplace, we did not have a name for it back then. A few months after that, i was attacked walking home on capitol hill. I luckily was able to get away. The reason i bring this up is that, not about my story, but because it is so common. I did not tell anyone any of these stories for 40 years. I did not tell my husband, my son, my own family. The reason i now understand is because i thought it was my fault. I thought it was in the wrong place, i had done the wrong thing. It did not make any sense to me in my 20s why it would be my fault. It has taken me 40 years to understand it certainly was not and i really appreciate living now. If our generation had been more butous and spoken up now i am dedicating my life and im delighted to be here with my colleagues in a bipartisan way. Together,men coming our staff has done an extraordinary job, young men and young women. The time is now. Us this morning, we have a moment and can really change the world. Our intention is to bring together members of congress and legislation in initiatives to a dress Sexual Violence in areas we intend to tackle, k12 education, college safety, military, online harassment, and Data Collection and Law Enforcement training. We are starting today with the rape kit backlog. This is really at the core. It is a demonstration that as a society, we are not caring about victims, survivors of Sexual Assault, men and women. After the trauma of Sexual Assault and an intensely personal Sexual Assault forensic exam, no survivor should experience the pain and distress of having their Sexual Assault kit backlogs. There is no other crime we would do this, not process the evidence. The failure to test these kits allow rapists to remain on the streets and put more people at risk. We know this true from evidence of communities. We will hear from mariska and others about what we have learned about serial predators. Im encouraged by previous bipartisan efforts, the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, to retest backlogs, engage with survivors, and bring Sexual Assault predators to justice. We will can tell you continue to build on the progress we have made reducing the Sexual Assault kit backlog. Funding is important, and we will be prepared to fund that with you. I am eager to him explore the topics of access to Sexual Assault nurse examiners, known as s. A. N. E. Nurses. They provide compassionate their short and longterm recovery of survivors. In communities across this country and World Community such as my district in New Hampshire, many survivors do not have access to s. A. N. E. Nurses. I would like to explore ways to make that available. We want to ensure everyone has access to a s. A. N. E. Nurse. I think my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and i look forward to this discussion. I yield back. Thank you, representative kuster. Mr. Meehan i want to thank my colleagues for being part of this Bipartisan Task force. And identifying the gamut of important issues we want to collectively address. I cannot think of anything more important for us to kick it off then with this important issue that has this distinguished panel before us today. I think you each for your presence here today. You for your dedication to this issue through your. Rofessional work as a former prosecutor, we have had the ability or opportunity to engage with the victims on a Broad Spectrum of issues. In a broad sense, there is thanng more dehumanizing someone who has had to go through the crime of being sexually assaulted, in and of its health. Is a different type of victims than any other we deal with because i think as representative kuster and others have discussed, no one considers themselves fair, robbed on sight of the street, somehow participant. Yet we so often see victims beginning to question what their role in relationship is to this. How we respond is every bit as as thent to the victim mechanics of this process that we are going through. I think we also have seen progress in this area. Certainly from my time as a prosecutor about a decade ago, to where we are today. We also know there is a long way to go. And yourargitay organization, the joyful heart, has looked at the issue of rape kit backlogs, something you have experienced via your professional work. Those who have open themselves to you, what we find is that once somebody has a place to go, these stories are overwhelming in the form of not just the emotion, but the search for a place to help give me closure, but not even closure. I think the issue is, give me back control of this thing that was stolen from me. I thank you for allowing us to go on his journey together. I will note and i hope everyone here will Pay Attention to a film that was put together by ms. Hartigay and was released in evidence of what is identified already as remarkable response. I wish you luck as you continue to use that as the voice of some victims who have experienced this, and where we need to go to continue. , i want torkowitz thank you for your work in this space. One of the important places we made progress is with the Sexual Assault nurse examiners. They goes to that first experience, post trauma. Is engaged,ebody and the importance of us, not only being able to collect the dence, but the humiliated he may leading process of what can be a five to six hour procedure. We close with the idea that, having had the procedure, now you have been doubly victimized. What happens with that evidence . After going through all of that, we leave it sitting on a shelf. We have become part of the process. Thank michaelt to for your devon your office. On the part ofst Law Enforcement to do this right. Most offices want to do what is right for the victims. Issues ofs are just resources, sometimes it is not an appreciation for what you can. Ell us you can tell us how we can do this better. I want to thank this remarkably experienced panel that will bring broad perspective. I think my colleagues were putting this issue front and center. It cannot be more timely. Ms. Hartigay, i hope you will allow us to continue to press forward, not just from this hearing, but collectively. Thank you, i yield back. Speier. Sentative after this particularly traumatic week for soothing to mes personally that we have a Bipartisan Group of members here focused on a very important issue. I want to thank my colleagues for being here, being part of this very important effort. I want to especially thank masters, a victims survivor who is here. It is hard to have to recall that experience, over and over again. Panel. Our starstudded not forigay, if it were you, Joyful Foundation would not be here. We are deeply grateful for your longterm commitment to this issue. Room, andund this there are mostly women here. We know the statistics that one in four women are probably going to be sexually assaulted in their lives. If we look at your faces, we know that some of you have. I wish we would have as many men in this room as we have women in this room, because this issue will not be fully addressed until we have a complete s ofrstanding by both sexe what really goes on. Over 30 years ago, i was then a county supervisor and one of the deputy das came in to meet with me and said, we are having a terrible time getting cases. Ions on rape i said, tell me what the problem is. One problem was, they did not have a comprehensive and angation done, actual a valuation of the victim when they came into the emergency room. There was an issue around the chain of custody of the evidence. Effort to tryy and address the issue. The conviction rate went way up. When there is a commitment by people to do the right thing, we can do the right thing. There is no clearer demonstration of our countries lack of regard for Sexual Assault survivors, then ignoring the backlog of Sexual Assault cases. Ever let the dna in a murder case sit on a shelf. And yet, it is commonplace to let the dna of Sexual Assault victims sit on the shelf. The backlog of kits, the bureaucratic discrimination against survivors, and the lack of sufficient Sexual Assault sponsored teams and Sexual Assault nurse examiners is an injustice committed against women because they are women. Refuse to let this injustice stand. I yield back. Thank you. I now recognize ms. Hartigay for her Opening Statement. Good morning, thank you for your heartfelt comments and passions for this work. I am Mariska Hargitay and im speaking to you today as the founder of the foundation. I want to thank you for making this the topic of your first briefing. By elevating this issue youre sending a powerful message to survivals of Sexual Assault, that their cases matter. They matter. Youre demonstrating to lawenforcement and prosecutors that we must work to do everything we can still hold offenders accountable and keep our communities safe. You have my full statement on record, so i would like to use my time today on how far we untestedaddressing the t backlog. Rape ki in 2014, congress created the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative to provide jurisdictions with critically needed resources to test accolade kits, great multidisciplinary teams to investigate and prosecute related cases, and address the need for victim notification and reengagement with the criminal Justice System. Impact cannot be overstated. We have heard from Law Enforcement and prosecutors, that the requirement to create a team to undertake systemic reform, bringing communities together like never before. These focused resources are helping lawenforcement get the street,nals off easing personnel, facilities facilitating community engagement, and keeping neighborhoods safer. We ever the same feedback from victim advocates. It is helping agencies already stretched thin to implement reforms and catalyze positive changes. I first testified in congress backlog inape kit may, 2010. Today the National Landscape is different. Untested idea how many rape kits were sitting on shelves. The best guess was an estimated 400,000. But now that number is disputed. Because most jurisdictions do not have systems for tracking or we cannot be kits, sure of the total number. However, through Public Record request, investigated journalism, grassroots advocacy, and legislative reform, we are beginning to understand the scope of the backlog, nationwide. Since 2010, more than 200,000 untested rape kits have been accounted for. Haveates and washington dc passed laws requiring audits of untested rape kits. When i testified in 2010, there laws on the kit books. Rape kit reform have been passed. Joyful heart launched a National Campaign to pass comprehensive rape kit reform legislation in all 50 states by 2020. Since 2010, 30 states have enacted some sort of rape kit reform. Last week, texas became the first to enact all of six pillars of our National Best practices. Also seeing a change in Law Enforcement understanding of the impact of trauma on survivors. Jurisdictions now understand this important perspective, and are implementing trauma informed and victim centered practices that seek to avoid revictimization and further harm. Although we have seen progress, there is more work to be done. Today, only eight states have laws requiring testing in both currents or backlogged kits. That means in most states, the decision to send kits for testing is less left up to the discretion of an individual. We must reverse that trend to ensure every kit connected to a reported case is tested. The numbers do not lie. Testing all kits solves crime and saves lives. The survivors legislative district should not determine the outcome of their case or their right to information. Half on behalf of, thank you. On behalf of all survivors across the country, i thank you for your attention on this issue and i look forward to continuing this dialogue. I know that you join me in commending the jurisdictions taking responsibility for reform and together, we are committed to raising awareness on those who have not. Thank you. Thank you very much miss hargitay. Ms. Masters . Ms. Masters good morning. I am lavinia masters and i am a survivor of rape and i am an advocate now. I always like to start out that my victimization was three parts. The first part was the actual violent rape where my perpetrator, Kevin Lynn Turner, i love sharing his name because i used to be afraid to even speak about him. But now the shame is on him, its no longer on me so Kevin Lynn Turner decided he would come into my home one night when i was asleep on the couch and rape me violently at knife point. I was only 13yearsold at the time. It was hard because as a child, youre supposed to feel safe in your home. Especially when your family is there. But Kevin Lynn Turner decided he was going to attack me, put a knife to my throat. He could have taken my life so that was the first part of my victimization. My second part was when the police came out and i had to go to park Memorial Hospital and do the exam. It was tedious, to me they were insensitive was it your boyfriend, did you let him in the window . Me,questions they asked they helped make it feel like it was my fault, the things that happened that night. The third part of my victimization was to find out 20 something years later that my rape kit was sitting on the shelf. Me as a child thinking police were looking high and low for the guy that raped me, surely you had some concern for a child that was raped in the middle of the night . Surely, you do not discriminate against my skin color, didnt discriminate against me as a female, didnt discriminate against my age or gender. Surely you would look for the rapist that tried to almost take the life of a child. I was disappointed with that. And here i am, over 30 something years and at that point in my life i said three strikes, youre out no more. This ornot stand for allow this to happen to another victim in my nation, my land, where i live and im supposed to feel safe and where i give my life and my everything to be a part of this country. I stand as an advocate today. And i stand letting you know that i did not believe in myself as a child. But Kevin Lynn Turner made me believe in myself. He made me believe in werewolves, made me believe these vicious monsters will attack you. And once they attack victims we , take on these hideous formations of ourselves. We become dark, we get in these places and nobody understands. You begin to look at us differently. I thought i was a straight a student. Raped mesummer when he in 1985. When i went back to school i was different. Something was wrong with me. I didnt understand it myself or why my grades began to go down. I didnt understand why i look at people differently or why did why i do not understand any man that crossed my path. I didnt have the services or counseling or anyone to reach out and say its going to be ok, we are here for you were going , to get through. I had to try to make it happen all on my own. My parents didnt understand. Im thankful today to be here. I feel the passion that you have on this panel to say, no more. I feel the passion that you feel for others. We did not forget about you. Because i felt i was forgotten about. I felt no one cared what happened to me that night. I felt alone, desolated, take ond. I began to the hideous form of a monster myself. Mask throughout life, pretending i was something i was not, wanting to be free, live my life to the fullest. But i couldnt. But im thankful once again for backlog, and the Justice System and the past sisters i have worked with, being an advocate because i am in a better place now. I am excited about the work you are doing. I am here for all victims. Hurricanewith katrina, i said im going back, i will rescue and be a voice. I will let them know that we are survivors. I am empowered today because of things like this the bipartisan , task force. We decided were going to stick together and put Everything Else aside because your life matters to me. My life matters. I dont care what anybody else says, my life matters to me. I wore a mask for far too long, im free and im here and im going to use my voice and i want to smile and im happy about everything i do, everything i encounter. My life matters, every victims lives matter. Thats why i am here today and i am here today and im excited to be a part of this. I thank you for your passion today. [applause] thank you ms. Masters and i think i speak on behalf of all of us, we appreciate you being here with us today sharing your story and apologize for what took place for 27 years. That is why we are here today. I would be remiss if i did not introduce other members of our panel. Representative Tom Ohalloran and representative Debbie Wasserman schultz who joins us here today. And now to mr. James for his testimony, thank you. Your Opening Statement. Mr. James congressman joyce, congressman kuster, congressman meehan. Nd congressman better . I once a thank you for inviting me today to discuss the department of justices efforts to reduce rape kit backlogs and increase the number of Sexual Assault nurse examiners. Before i begin, i should note that National Guidelines on objectivity, nonpartisanship, require me to confine my remarks to the technical, professional and nonevocative aspects of the matter under consideration and interest Bipartisan Task force. I can discuss doj programs related to rape kit backlogs and i can respond to questions from Task Force Members. But i am limited to addressing issues within my field of expertise and i cannot answer questions from the public. Doj has several programs specifically targeted at reducing rape kit backlogs and expanding the number of s. A. N. E. s. Sexual assault initiatives for inventory in testing rape kits, applying designated personnel to work investigate new leads, supporting victims, developing evidence tracking systems, training Law Enforcement on Sexual Assault investigations. The Sexual Assault forensic evidence inventory tracking and reporting Program Provides funds to inventory existing rape kits, track them as they move forward toward this position and provide the public with data on how they are being processed. However, grants under this program cannot be used for testing rape kits. By 2010, congress appropriated funding for a Sexual Assault Forensic Exam Program so that we can use for the purpose specified in section 304 of the justice for all act which authorized grants training, technical assistance, education and equipment related to the collection and analysis of dna samples by medical personnel and those treating victims of Sexual Assault, which include s. A. N. E. s. Doj has several programs where funds can be used for using backlogs or hiring s. A. N. E. s, but these are not the sole purposes of the program. For example, the capacity enhanced backlog reduction Program Provides funding for analyzing dna samples and increasing the capacity of public laboratories. Funds other this program can be used to analyze biological evidence collected as part of a Sexual Assault kit and committed submitted to a crime lab for analysis. In addition, funds for a program may be a note among other things used to identify and conduct inventories of rape kit backlogs and develop policy for responding to those backlogs and training medical personnel in the collection and preservation of evidence of Sexual Assault cases. Finally, doj has some programs which provides funding for a variety of criminal justice purposes. While funds under these programs be used for reducing rape kits or increasing s. A. N. E. s, these are not the specified purposes of the program. Again, thank you for your invitation to this forum. I look forward to questions you might have. Thank you, mr. James. Let me assure you this is not about politics, this is about justice. My representative Wasserman Schultz say we are appropriators, we are not here as democrats or republicans. Were appropriators, here to do the right thing so i appreciate your limitations but feel free to answer questions. We are just prosecutors or former prosecutors or prosecutor wannabes so we all appreciate and its amazing how it cuts through party lines and when we talk about things like heroin and Sexual Assault. It does not stop at any countys one borders. Thats why i appreciate our next witness, prosecutor omalley and the work that his office has done in fighting funds within his own department to make sure that we try to process those backlogs. I recognize prosecutor omalley for his Opening Statements. Mr. Omalley thank you, esteemed members of this committee. County i will adlib. We are ahead of the curve because of an initial grant by the department of justice. In 2007 and 2009, the department of justice gave Cuyahoga County money to begin investigating cold case homicides. It was also geared towards dna evidence. We used that money to look at homicides with sexual motivation. As a result of that, we ended up solving 17 homicides and 14 rapes. Cleveland the city of we had a horrendous crime , committed by an individual by the name of anthony soul over the course of a number of years. He brutally raped and murdered 11 women in the city of cleveland. As a result of that crime, and the deficiencies demonstrated through the criminal Justice System, the focus was shined upon the issue of rape kits within our county. Within Cuyahoga County alone, there was 5000 untested rape kits sitting on the shelves of Law Enforcement. A number thats inexcusable and really understandable. Throughout the state of ohio, we had 14,000 rape kits that had been sitting on shelves. But because we had those initial department of justice grants and because we had investigators hired who were predominantly retired Police Officers and because we were geared up to begin to handle this, all efforts were put into an issue by attorney general mike dewine who started a Program Threat the state of ohio to test all rape kits within our state. He provided funding at a statewide level. Cuyahoga county continued to receive grants so that we can hire investigators. We had 5000 kits but we had 6700 sexual a schulte Sexual Assault incidences that we needed to investigate. Currently of those 6700 cases which is almost unimaginable, the victims out there who have not yet received justice within our county, we have processed 3700 investigations. Again, we have a task force now that started from a simple department of justice grant in 2007, that includes representatives from the state Attorney Generals Office, local police agencies, our county sheriffs department. We have representatives from the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center embedded within our task force to assist victims and to the other we have a collaborative effort to investigate these brutal crimes. Seek justice for the victims and close out these cases on behalf of the residents we all serve. While this was going on, representatives from the state of ohio assisted us in this endeavor by passing state laws, one that moved back the statute of limitations to 25 years. It also mandated that if anybody arrested for felony offense within the state of ohio would ab intotely receive a sw the system to assist us in solving these crimes. Again, what we have accomplished within our own county could not have been accomplished without the assistance of the federal government. As many of the representatives or former prosecutors law , enforcement is tasked with handling the current issues, let alone trying to go back 20 years in dealing with issues from 20 years ago, but we must do it on , behalf of all these victims. And so while we move forward, we are doing the best we can in our own county and through the state of ohio. But we continue to need assistance from the federal government in our efforts to bring justice to 14,000 cases from our state. I want to thank you for your time, i want to thank you for your leadership in this position and our panelists. In particular, our victims out there like ms. Masters who found the courage to come forward and represent all victims out there who need our help. I just want to thank the panel today. Thank you for being here. Prosecutor omalley and also id like to recognize at this time the distinguished lady from michigan, Debbie Dingell who has joined us here as a member of our panel as well. And again, dr. Markowitz, if you would like to give a couple comments. good morning, my name is Jennifer Markowitz, a forensic nurse examiner and past president of the International Association of forensic nurses and current chair of the Governor Affairs committee. I want to thank chairman kuster, joyce, and members of the Bipartisan Task force to speak to you today about the work of Sexual Assault nurse examiners and Sexual Assault forensic examiners and the challenges patients face when gaining access to our services. Ifn is a professional organization of nurses who provide Specialized Health care for patients affected by violence and trauma. We establish and provide standards of practice and education for forensic nurses. Our members have the knowledge and expertise to decrease short and longterm Health Consequences of violence, improved patient recovery and lower healthcare costs. Forensic nurses integrate the evidentiary needs for patients into our overall medical evaluation and treatment in a seamless process. We provide medical testimony in court when necessary and consult with a authorities, as well as other members of the multidisciplinary team. Sexual assault nurse examiners or s. A. N. E. s, are the most recognized within medical forensic nursing. Studies reveal medical forensic examinations conducted by result in more positive experiences in the Health Care System and are significantly associated with increased prosecution rates for these particular crimes. My testimony today will highlight three Priority Areas for s. A. N. E. s. One, expanding access to s. A. N. E. Services. Number two, enhancing access to s. A. N. E. Services. And number three, broadening public understanding of s. A. N. E. Services. In regards to expanding access, as clinicians, we understand the importance of comprehensive Sexual Assault forensic examinations, readily accessible to patients across the United States. Although there is recognition optimal. N. E. s are the Health Care Provider after Sexual Assault, only 70 of possible Emergency Departments, including those designated level one and Level Two Trauma Centers have s. A. N. E. s available. Level one and Level Two Trauma Centers manage every aspect of critical injuries, including prompt availability of care by a variety of specialties. Designated aspect of care missing from the requirements for level one and Level Two Trauma Centers is the Sexual Assault specialists. At a minimum, processes should be in place to ensure adult and pediatrics provide prompt access day,a. N. E. s, 24 hours a seven days a week, regardless of the age of the patient. This can be accomplished through onsite services, contracts with s. A. N. E. Communitybased programs to respond to patients around the clock who have been sexually assaulted. Or formalized transfer agreements with area programs either hospitals or communitybased to ensure Rapid Response to these patients. In doing so a majority of , americans would have access to s. A. N. E. Services, expanding availability in urban and rural areas. The second point regarding enhancing s. A. N. E. Sustainability through education is of significant concern for us. Sustainability requires that we put money into both expanding s. A. N. E. Programs, as well as moving into new Patient Populations Healthcare Systems , and organizations. While there may be Agency Support for starting new programs or grant dollars available for initial education, funding is also needed for continuing education. Competency and currency of practice are critical for s. A. N. E. s. As with other health care specialties, access to new technologies and familiarity with state of science ensures patients are provided highquality care. Continuing education also benefits the criminal Justice System with access to s. A. N. E. s able to testify to the fullest extent of their clinical experience. Funding on education must be prioritized. Too often it is left to the individual s. A. N. E. s to cover the cost. That brings me to my next point. We improve it quality of evidence collected during the forensic exam, of particular benefit to Sexual Assault patients. However, the Sexual Assault kit is only one aspect of the patient encounter. It is vital s. A. N. E. s recognize as much for their ability to provide confidence of healthcare as our ability to provide detailed evidence collection and maintain chain of custody. Researchers identified myriad , acute Health Issues that occur , at higher rates in Sexual Assault patients than their nonassaulted counterparts. S. A. N. E. s have the ability to attend to the unique Health Care Needs of patients, connect patients with followup resources and referrals for longterm medical issues and collaborate with professionals within the medical community and with ancillary disciplines to target individualized care of Sexual Assault patients across the lifespan. Research is greatly needed to understand how Patient Outcomes differ with specialized Sexual Assault care when that is provided. While it is become clear patients that receive s. A. N. E. Care have improved criminal improved outcomes, there is no research to provide data related to healthcare outcomes. I hope youll give consideration to what i shared. I appreciate your time and are willing to answer any questions from the task force, thank you so much. Thank you very much, dr. Markowitz. Lastly, mr. Bell. You have an Opening Statement youd like to say . Much,ll thank you very distinguished members of the subcommittee for the opportunity to testify about our work to end Sexual Violence. As prosecutor omalley highlighted, in ohio we learned we have 14,000 backlogged rape kits from a period of time between 1993 and 2009. Area,700 were from our the cleveland, ohio and Cuyahoga County area. Compounding the problem is that the statute of limitations in ohio bearing down on us as prosecutors. We knew that unless we reviewed each one of these cases, we were going to run out of time on our watch. We took it very seriously and we had sometimes one day, sometimes two hours before the grand jury time would run out and we would lose the case. In order to make the most of our resources, we understand we had to form a task force with several agencies detailing personnel to one physical location which is very important. Our belief was that using a multidisciplinary approach in at one location would yield the best results. Because of the volume of the investigations we needed to well. Ritize our cases, as we tackled the oldest ones first. We were able to identify many defendants. Some we were not able to identify, but we were able to indict as john doe defendants using dni dna profiles as identification. Now we are concentrating on the serial sex offenders who are out on the street or will be out of prison within one year. To give you an idea of that magnitude as well as the danger to our community, of the 6700 rape kits being investigated, testing and review of their criminal histories reveal there are at least 670 serial sex offenders. The essence of the multidisciplinary approach is to share ideas among Task Force Members as well as sharing ideas with other jurisdictions. Our office began an annual best practices summit that continues to this day. The first summit in cleveland in 2014, memphis, 2015. Detroit, 2016 and the next one , will be held in portland, 2017. These four cities have very similar taskforces. The taskforces have the same name to encourage uniformity, the taskforces keeps statistics to measure ourselves. We work with Rti International to provide data to make sense of our progress. Earlier this year western , reserve university partnered to hold another collaborative meeting of the taskforces, houston, portland, dallas, detroit, memphis, Washington State and kansas state and others to discuss what , statistics would and should be collected across the taskforces. Pillarsestablished four of best practices. First, test all kits. You test all caps, you develop leads that solve the identity of the stranger rape cases. 56 of our serial rapists have been identified as both an acquaintance rape as well as a stranger rapist on a different case. Second, swallow all felony arrestees. D, there arrestees swabbe more robust and the more victims cases you will solve. Third, investigate all positive and negative rape kit reports you receive from the laboratory. We solved rape cases even on cases where there is little dna. Or, there is no dna, because the Police Reports have revealed their secondary pieces of evidence that you might be able to present to the lab for testing. Lastly, investigate with a victimcentered approach. It is a very Important Pillar of our best practices. We notify and stan contact with our victims. We follow victim notification protocols reviewed by our Cleveland Rape Crisis Center as well as the joyful heart foundation. Testing the kits is the first step. But after testing is when the very detailed work begins. You dont just indict the case once the dna is discovered. Although the funding has been terrific, in order to make sure the kids get tested, additional funding is needed for investigators advocates and prosecutors to bring those cases together. Ohio has made a significant investment as well. The Attorney Generals Office, mike dewine had to put forth a 4 Million Investment in robotics and personnel. Our office has invested 1 million per year for the effort and the Attorney Generals Office has also invested an additional half 1 million for personnel. The Police Department has invested over 100,000 a year for the effort and our counsel has invested 679,000 per year and said they would do so for the next four years that we believe that we will need to complete the project. In 2015 and 2016 we received two milliondollar grants from the department of justice to investigate and prosecute with the grant we hired 20 investigators, four victim advocates and eight prosecutors. I want to reiterate what prosecutor omalley outline. Our success again with doj funding in 2006 to establish a cold case unit. The doj funding on three separate occasions over the last you 10 years has served as the foundation for all these partner contributions. Without it our structure could not sustain the work we do. We parlay the money that you give us and we ask our partners to also become invested. They see that that foundation is there and they know that we will be able to sustain the work that we do. Cuyahoga county alone we tested all the rape kits submitted by the police and we are investigating all those 6700 rape cases. We completed 3726, we have less than 3000 cases to finish. We solved 661 victims cases. And that would never have been solved or prosecuted without this effort. We have indicted 595 separate unique defenders. Convicted to 74 of them. We anticipate nearly 1000 will indicted. Each defendant has received a sentence of longer than 10 years. The impact extends beyond the victim. We have calculated the economic harm caused by them since the beenthey should have i investigated. Each type of crime has an average cost. Murderer, glory, breaking and entering. Weve added the cost of each of these indicted rapists and subsequent crimes theyve been convicted of since the rape they committed. Our first 593 defendants have caused 440 million in economic harm to the state of ohio. This would not have occurred had these kids been tested and the cases been investigated and prosecuted. What is the economic savings . Only when the task force prosecutes the cases does the community realize a savings. We are fortunate to work with one the countrys best research institutions. Their Research Indicates that the Tax Task Force is projected to produce a net savings of 38 million to our community. The savings derived from getting these offenders off the streets before they commit further crimes. Putting it another way, every rape kit saves 893,000 in future harm. Expanding the capacity is important. In 2011, ohio enacted a law that all arrestees are to be swapped bbed by the police. These are felony arrestees. It happens just like your printing. It ensures identification and lets Law Enforcement know if their dna matches other crime scenes. There are thousands of felons who have never been arrested and we need to know how systemic this is nationally. We believe 6000 people arrested were never swapped. Swabbed. Swabbing all felony arrestees is crucial to solving these stranger rape cases. Since we have indicted them, we have been able to determine who eight of them are. Going back to locate and swab felons has a cost and we and others will need funding to solve the problem. Case western study shows we realize savings when we follow up the kit testing with prosecutions of the criminals. Too do that you have the proper resources. Investigators advocates and prosecutors. We have been blessed because the Attorney Generals Office has tested the kids. Now we are in the second phase, investigating and prosecuting. Other taskforces will get to this point and they need to know the money will be there so they can plan to follow up on the testing kits. Testing is important but the real work and commitment to taxpayers only realized when funds are used to hire the personnel to do the job. If other prosecutors, Police Chiefs, mayors know the funding is there they can become invested to see the job through. The next steps, as the state moves to test all kits funding will be needed to complete for , the 1993 through 2011 cases. Submitting the pre1993 rape that is the law and other states. Investigating those pre1993 rape kits, the one before the statute of limitations will solve the john doe rape cases between 1993 and 1998. Hiring advocates and providing counseling and support, hiring investigators to swab and locate felons who are never swapped of at their arrest. This will help solve cases and deter future crimes. We have some rapists who understand they will be caught. And in their interviews after they have been prosecuted they realized they may be caught because of the crimes they committed and specifically said they stopped their behavior because of it. There is a deterrent effect here. Regarding swabbing, our office is instituting a new policy to ask to make sure defendants have been swabbed. We are working with Cleveland Police to implement proper procedures to swab all felony arrestees. We would like to thank the task force for allowing us to testify. We owe our success to the funding from the department of justice. The Attorney Generals Office for testing all the kids in a timely manner appropriate our partners, the police, the sheriff and rape crisis in this multidisciplinary approach. Our task force has reached this highlevel. Other taskforces will follow in the same footsteps as long as they have the resources that you would provide. On their behalf we like to recommend this body continue to focus on this effort to end Sexual Violence against women nationwide. Thank you very much. Thank you mr. Bell. Agree. [applause] as a former member of team justice in ohio, im very proud of the work youve done and i appreciate all you have continued to do Going Forward. We would like to recognize the members whove come in and we will do this in the order of which they got here. If you have any questions . Questions could go on for hours. Thank you. I represent an area in arizona that has a lot of native american and rural areas and doesnt have the type of assets discussed here today. Im very concerned about that whole process. I am hoping the reservations, the navajo reservations, the per capita offender case is higher than urban areas of america. My background is one, i was a rape investigator and homicide investigator in the city of chicago 40 years ago. I wouldve thought that in our Society Today we wouldve come a lot longer way than weve had today. What i have heard today is shocking. I was shocked when i first heard about rape kits being left on shelves. I was shocked when i saw the lack of understanding within our society of what a victim goes through. When you have to sit somebody that has just gone through that trauma, then understanding the trauma continues throughout their life and has an impact on families. And mr. Bell, you mention the cost to ohio, i would think that did not include the cost of therapy for victims throughout the process of their lives and their families lives in their childrens lives and the impact of their families. Having been involved in government here for just six months, i was in the legislature in arizona and my staff has looked up the statistics on what occurred in arizona and we had over 6000 cases on the shelves. I think even in 2017, we failed to pass some laws to help victims be able to get information from those test kits. Again, i will go back, i just found this out. I think my main concern here is one, mr. Bell maybe you can answer this better than i can, but as we look out into the future, how we never allow this to happen again . The cases i investigated were from very Young Children to the elderly. They were some of the most emotional cases you can imagine. The fact that our society is not willing or hopefully is willing, but has had relapses time and time again. I guess my major question is how do we make sure, from a funding standpoint and coordination standpoint and information standpoint because this dna testing has to get out to the other agencies. We have to have an educational effort within society, we have to be able to understand the role that we play in making sure the victims we should of been protecting all along, whats the cost going to be for us to be able to address those issues, and i will leave that to mr. Bell because you seem to have some of the best expertise in this area that ive heard. Please. I think as they first alluded to, to begin with, the state laws that mandate that there should be rape kit testing, those laws have to proliferate across the country. You cant just have eight or 13, it needs to multiply and we need to start rolling along that direction. Once that gets done, now there are certain restrictions, there are certain obligations the police have to have. They have to, on all new cases , submit to the laboratory any rape kit within 30 days. On old backlog cases, all rape kits within one year. Just so i dont forget, does that also have to be submitted to a National Database . The laboratories are responsible for that once they put together a complete dna profile. And theres a requirement for that. So that state system will attach to the federal system and youll know whether or not you have a multistate defender. Thats important but you also have to have chiefs of police buyin. They have to understand that solving the acquaintance rape cases, solving, the issue is the reason why rape testers were never needed to be tested before in the distant past was that if you knew the identity of the assailant, the prosecutors and the police, the juries, nobody would need to have the kit tested it was thought because you have to prove id pretty for. So if it was a date rape and the victim knew who the rapist was, that part of the case is solved. The issue was just consent. But the testing has revealed that you solve the stranger rape cases because the stranger rapists who are dangerous offenders, sure enough they are mean people to the people they know. So they are jerks to the people they know those cases are having suspects. When you test all kits, then you can actually solve those unsolved cases, the stranger cases because you look into the Police Reports on the other cases and you see the name. Thats important. The Police Chiefs and the Police Departments have to realize the true value there is out there and they need to become involved. The other thing is, why it works in many of the different jurisdictions is because theres oversight over the police on these old cases. Theres someone else is also working on those cases. Whether its the Prosecutors Office in our jurisdiction for or the Mayors Office in shelby in memphis tennessee or in detroit, you have to have a multidisciplinary approach where you have other people watching them Work Together and thats important. Mr. Chairman, just a quick statement. As this committee works, i believe weve just scratched the surface where our laws are today in the coordination purposes and i look forward to working with the committee. Thank you very much. Obviously its a statebystate effort that we will continue on. Thank you very much. I want to thank all for kosher for your leadership creating this task force. Believe that we havent had one that focuses on the importance of our responding and addressing Sexual Assault in all its facets. Each of us has been involved in this individual individually as legislators. Collectively we will be able to really be more effective. Im looking forward to participating. There are so many questions i want to ask. Im really asking, not only as a legislator, but as a mother who was about to send my first daughter to college. Knowing the unfortunately very significant statistics that exist on college campuses. About the likelihood of young women experiencing Sexual Assault during college. I will add that my daughter is here with me today. Which for me is a little scary but important because i want her to hear and be prepared to make sure that she can keep herself safe. Ive been involved in the rape kit testing for a very long time. We have more than 13000 untested rape kits in the state of florida. Proportionally, thats an astonishing number but we are also a state of 20 million people. That doesnt excuse it, but it is a frighteningly large problem. I actually was involved in one particular case, it was not the state of florida, where i spent a solid year trying to help a young woman who had experienced a Sexual Assault, a drugged rape experience. And the state, not only did the state not test the rape kit, but the lawenforcement leadership refused to respond, ignored entreaties from me and the victim. From other people in positions of authority so what do you think we need to do mechanically, there are things we can do, passing legislation to address rape kit reform is important. But i would like to know from you, because you are not lawenforcement, what do you think we should be doing to help people who are working on these issues every day and have the ability to use the mechanics of their position to help address making this a priority and helping them understand that it is a priority. Talk about it. I just want to say, it is so exciting to be in a room with such passionate and likeminded people. I think the first thing, i just want to say thank you again for your testimony and, my heart hurts right now. My heart physically hurts. I got choked up and i cried during my testimony, but i want to say its because we carry so much. I have access to my motions because thats what i do for a living, but you hear these stories, you hear words, dehumanizing, derailed, the way the lights go off track, these are not kits sitting on the shelf, these are peoples lives sitting on the shelf, getting derailed. Children getting derailed of what is this life supposed to be. I was on this track and i cant even make sense of whats happened to me. We have been letting perpetrators go by not testing these kits and saying we dont care about this issue so, as i said earlier, these are scary issues that people have turned away from because theyre frightening, but this is about talking about it. This is about a revolution, about facing these issues headon saying guess what, we need to talk about the spread this is going on, but what you said was so important because the funding is critical. We cant do any of this without the funding. Obviously. And the education and the reshifting and the victim need to change and thats about blaming attitudes are what we talking about it as i have spoken about the rape kit backlog, people have no idea. They dont know this is happening. They dont realize that if you dont test the kit which is usually not from a stranger but from somebody they know, they said in the movie that you spoke about earlier, and i am evidence to the film, which by the way is not out yet. It will be out next spring or this christmas on hbo. But somebody in Law Enforcement said we have rapes, but most of them are consensual sex because the people know each other and that, in my opinion is the problem. Can i just i think youre right, we do need to talk about it. I think im going to try to Start Talking about it in a little bit more laser focused way. I dont know if any my colleagues have done this, but when i go home im going to convene my Police Chiefs and are our county sheriffs and asked them to come and sit with me, for me to help shine a spotlight on this and ensure their making it a priority and use our platform and profile to be able to do that. But also, i want to know more from them about how much of a priority this is for them. Its also an issue of consent. That is the issue. You ask what is it, we have to talk about what rape is because just because you know the person that raped you doesnt mean its not rape. That is one of the core issues as we know. And the fact that these perpetrators change lanes. We know they escalate. Anthony is a perfect example. This is a man who raped and then it escalated and then he murdered. He murdered how many women . 11 women. And there were countless women going to lawenforcement saying this man raped me and they were not believed. This is an issue of being believed. They are less believed when it occurs someone they know you. It is much less likely it gets prosecuted. And awareness, its so important. Because when i was raped at 13, how the police came in and talk to me, did you know him, was it your boyfriend, are you sure you didnt let him in the window, are you sure asking me all these questions making me feel like maybe it was something i did wrong. What were you sleeping in, do you always sleep that way . Are you always on the couch, that was damning to me. For you to shift that blame on me as a child, that was not fair to me. So thats one of my concerns that we educate these people in these positions, these Police Officers went to dealing with victims because some of them, as they say they will look at you as you speak to them. You need to understand the place im in. I dont understand the place i am in. I was totally derailed that night and i was confused and i was like why are they talking to me, what did i do wrong. All i did was lay here on this couch to sleep. Why are they talking to me like i did something. He had a knife to my throat. I didnt ask for this car. I didnt ask for this to happen to me so why am i being treated this way. This is something i did not understand for a long time. It made me bitter for a long time with the Police Officers because i am like, how cruel are you . How insensitive are you. You have daughters . You have mothers . Do you have sons because its happening to our young men. You understand what im going through. We have to continue to raise awareness. I dont know if we have to do victim panels with the Police Officers but they have to have some sort of education about what victims go through. So they can get the questioning right and make sure they get the right evidence because most victims, if you, them the wrong way they will shut down. Theyre already ashamed of that is happening. They dont understand whats happening. If you come at me incorrectly or dont speak to me in a manner that i feel safe and comfortable with you and that you show that you are genuinely concerned about what is happening im not , going to be able to articulate whats happening to me. We have to raise awareness and we have to educate our Public Officials and thats why im excited today that you formed this task force to say were going to make this different and we can make this change to make a difference in our victims lives. Absolutely. Fixable. I want to reiterate that. We have a plan. Call it a shameless plug, but , lamar smiths legislation to help make sure that we add to the Fair Housing Act Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault because we have discrimination that goes on when someone applies for rental housing or is trying to remain in their home when they were a victim, and many apartment complexes have a policy that if you have a crime occurred in the occur, then the person is addicted. Of course the victim is not the perpetrator of the crime and they often and usually get evicted as well. I would urge you to consider cosponsoring that legislation as well. Thank you. Thank you so much for all your testimony today and your courage. Thank you very much. I want to thank all of the cochairs for convening this and all of the witnesses. I have met a couple of you when you came to detroit. Two of you came to detroit at different times. We had 11341 untested and then we found another 500 and we formed a task force to address the issue. Several people at this table were helpful. We were able to raise 70 million so far. I dont know why we should have to work that hard to raise it. We currently have fewer than a thousand remaining of the 2009 backlog kids and kim who is our prosecutor who is a fabulous worked thehas work so far has resulted in 78 convictions and the identification of 784 is the suspected serial rapist and over 50 are believed to have committed Sexual Assaults 10 to 15 times each. When i talked to kim, she needs money. You have just just raised. Now the money is needed for the investigation and prosecution of the cases. So i guess the question i would is all of you. We are trying to raise awareness. Im really aware of what its like to call the police and have them not respond, the stereotyping of people. Im concerned now, in the past couple of months ive had several High Schoolers that were raped and while the school responded appropriately, calling Law Enforcement, they have been demonized by the local community and people dont understand that its happening now not only in colleges and high schools. I had a young eighthgrade male come up to me at a town hall meeting and say we have to start to educate us in grade school. It was very touching. He was afraid to say it publicly, but he came up to me later. What would each of you say to us, we know we have to raise money. Im wondering, im not a prosecutor like several of them are. Can we swab in every jurisdiction . Is that allowed . Do we need to pass a law and what would each of you say we should be doing to help raise awareness . What laws arent on the books, and i do know, i agree with debbie, i lived in a Domestic Violence situation and nobody expects that somebody lived through what i lived through and hid in closets but we all need to talk about it more because people stereotype and dont want to talk about it, but what do we need to do . Weve each experiences from a different perspective. What do we need to do to help raise awareness, raise the money and help the victims and take away this typical stereotyping. It is training for these lawenforcement officers. They have to become part of it, i can remember calling the police and there was no way anybody was going to help me. Doorhandles were taken off the doors, we were hiding in closets scared that we were going to be shot. There was no one who is going to help us spread we have to help raise awareness and take that away. I take all of your suggestions for what we need to do. Any of yours. Let me set up by saying, has the public, we need to ensure that our Safety Forces are thoroughly compassionately investigating all these cases. I sat on Cleveland City council. Like perhaps many of you. I sat on the safety committee, but i had no idea that within the cleveland Police Department there were 5000 rape kits that were untested. Certainly it was a never discussion that was had at the Committee Table and when the soul tragedy occurred, it shed a light on something that has now gone nationwide that there are these kids that were sitting untested on shelves throughout our country. I think, as representatives, both locally and federally, state, we need to put and push that these cases are critical. They all need thorough investigation. Every victim needs to be heard. I think we can all do our part in making sure this is a priority Going Forward but every one of these cases are handled in an appropriate manner and justice is sought and received by the victims of these horrendous crimes. I think it starts at every level of government that we all ask which is how are these cases being investigated . Are the victims receiving the support and help they need . I think thats the best thing we can do Going Forward. We all know now there is a huge problem. Ohio is perhaps a little ahead of other states because we had an attorney general who took this as a priority, perhaps because he was a former county prosecutor and is now our attorney general. He understood the significance of getting these kits tested so i suggest that you work with Law Enforcement and ask them about these particular cases. If i may speak from the healthcare perspective, i think there are a couple of things we need to do. We certainly need to be talking about it and that needs to extend to the healthcare community. We need to do a far better job of understanding that its a Public Health care issue, that the short and longterm consequences of that type of assault can be significant in that every single one of our participants has the potential to develop healthcare related issues from the violence theyve experienced which means we need to talk about Sexual Violence and screening for Sexual Violence widely. We need to teach in medical and nursing schools. Our residents need to understand the impact of violence on the healthcare of the patients that they are seeing in Emergency Departments and Critical Care in a variety of healthcare settings. We need access to Sexual Assault nurse examiners who are understood to be more than simply evidence collectors but healthcare specialist to attend to those healthcare issues and potentially prevent some of the Sexual Violence. From our perspective, certainly the discussion needs to happen at all levels of our professional development and patient interactions. Thank you. I appreciate the answer and i understand you might have a question you like to ask. I have a couple questions. You referenced that level one and two Trauma Centers require all levels of care for everything except for Sexual Assault. It seems like that would be a good place for us to begin in terms of trying to begin to highlight the importance of having qualified, skillful nurses available. They dont necessarily have to be at the hospital. They can be on call, theres many ways it can be done. Would you agree with that. I do agree with that. If we had Sexual Assault nurse examiners in every level one and two trauma center, the vast majority of americans would be within a 60 minute drive or helicopter ride to a program which would widely expand access to that Critical Healthcare service. Mr. Omalley, and mr. Bell, i have always been concerned by the fact that such states have statute of limitations for rape. We just did a quick review, texas has a ten year, ohio has a 20, New Hampshire has six years, pennsylvania has 12, north dakota seven, florida has none for sexual battery. It seems to me, at a time when we have dna where you can link, clearly, without question that a victim was assaulted by this individual, we shouldnt have a statute of limitations at all. Could you speak to that . It seems like that was a stumbling block for you in terms of the cold cases that dated back in time. Its a good point. I think what you will see in ohio has changed the twentyyear to a 25 year and it could extend beyond that if you have dna. If its discovered, collected and then sent to the laboratory. If you do it properly, within that time period, there is a penalty for lawenforcement if they dont follow the time periods then that statute of limitation will extend from 25 to 30. There are ways to do so. There are lobbyists on the other side that would lobby for the defendants rights in saying thats too long, there could be changes that have occurred that know longerthat me be prevalent to refute the victims testimony, that peoples memories fade and so there is a delay in the process if you dont have some thing to force the police to bring these charges and investigate cases beforehand. Your point about with the advent , of dna, that statute of limitations can extend and perhaps disappear is very well put. Last question, you indicated every arrestee should be swabbed, that thats one of the pillars of your recommendation. We looked at that in california some decades ago, and the aclu was all over it because youre swabbing arrestees and not convicted felons. Could you speak to that issue . Certainly. The arrestee information is put into the database. If someone is exonerated, their cases could be sealed and they are automatically sealed by the administrators upon notification in ohio, we were able to. Overcome that same type of attack by putting in restrictions and making sure there were proper notifications that would be put in place for the laboratories to know, from the police or prosecutors or from the courts or clerk of courts when someone hasnt been exonerated for their case has been sealed in their dna can then be taken out of the system. That is something that can be overcome. Those challenges. I know that, for instance, our task force has testified in front of other state legislatures. The state of washington was very receptive to the idea that this is a mini Innocence Project in and of itself. Kits, you test all you can actually find out whether or not someone has been falsely accused, and that has played very well in certain parts of the country. It is something that will be explored. These issues have been with us since the early 1990s when it was first being formulated. You do it on convictions . Felonies or violent felonies, you also include Sexual Assaults do you also include Sexual Assaults and it has expanded over the period of 25 years. I would expect that will continue to expand. Thank you. Patrick, do you have a question . Thank you, mr. Chairman. This has been an emotional week on capitol hill. I have to tell you, this hearing is about as effective in here and ive attended in quite some time and i thank you for the depth of exploration of some of these things, and i know what leaves you frustrated is that we are touching things that we could take any part of and spend the whole hearing in the categorizing it but we dont have that luxury in the moment. I just want to ask a couple followup questions. Let me start with you. I think you articulated this progress that weve made and you have this plan that will get us to 2020 where we might see this to an end. Could you just take a moment and let us know where we are and what the rest of that plan would consider. Im going to lay these out and you can be responsive. Da omalley or mr. Bell, your statistics are overwhelming. Im not just trying to say this is interesting. 670 serial cases out of your backlog. You are kyl. Com cayoga, ohio. We have cities of your size all across america. How much are we going to find if we take the same model and replicate it . What is being done . We concede some things here with funding, but we see it in all kinds of things wed like to fund. The question is, you have such a compelling case, how are your colleagues demonstrating the impact that you are having an d compelling those who are responsible for funding to say we have to make this a priority back in your areas. And lastly, i have such respect for the work that you are doing in this space and the ability, again, were talking about evidence and you really seem to be so critically focused on the treatment of the victim. You spent time talking and we always talk about the treatment of the victim with respect to okay, lets make sure we get her or him, because they are male victims as well, lets make sure we can get the evidence and we dont forget about them. Can you talk about the part of the program that is been there to help this victim reconnect in some ways with other services or other kinds of things that will allow other parts of them to both feel, up to and including the other kinds of inclusive medical issues that can arise because of the trauma for the other things associated with it. I know its a lot, but if those were here could touch on those issues, i would be grateful. I will make this quick. Obviously the goal is to pass reform in all 50 states. By 2020. I think you mentioned the four pillars and the joyful heart is sort of the sixth pillar to comprehensive reform. That would be to start with auditing. To simply audit and know exactly how many kids only have. We need to kit every test in the backlog and test all new kits. Obviously we are working on tracking. If we can track our childrens christmas presents, why cant we track a rape kit. Its like a disgrace and its like were saying its not important. The tracking is so key. The other thing is the victims rights to know. At truthful heart, weve invested in two years of research and how the victim wants to be notified and that is so important to speak to, what the victim needs and again keep the survivor at the center. And funding, those are sort of our six pillars to reform and again, i just wanted to go back to what you asked about the testing and what people believe. There are five reasons to test every single kit and to test assailants there that we know because the first is to identify an unknown suspect. If we put someones dna in the database, then all of a sudden we can get a hit on that. Then it can match a known suspect, someone we are ready know and say put those two together. Corroborate the victims account. The victim said he did this and he said no i didnt and we find dna. Eiscredit the p accountrps and exonerate the innocent. Every kid needs to be tested every time and we need to get a swab because then we are preventing so many rapes from happening. In the film that i made, we see how many women wouldnt have been raped if one kit was tested. One. I want to throw in a brief it would be nice if you could get that appear so we could screen it. We will. Thank you. I think within ohio, we have formed such a Great Partnership amongst lawenforcement agencies and the public is well aware of this horrible situation where these cases and kits had sat on shelves. I think the light of scrutiny has been shown upon these kids and so we have a collaborative effort in ohio that i think other states can certainly follow. But one of the things, in my five months in office that i have now learned that may be a pattern for other states is ensuring that when an individual is arrested and fits within the parameters of the law of an individual who needs to be swabbed is making certain that lawenforcement is taking the swab and sending it down to enter into a system because i have found within our own county, since 2011 when our law was passed in the state of ohio, we have thousands of individuals who shouldve been swabbed that have not been swabbed. As rick talked earlier about another branch the same tree, we need to make sure this branch is developed completely. It has now come to our attention, we have sat down with her partners in the criminal Justice System and our law said they shall be arrested and swabbed upon arrest. Theres not a lot of wiggle room there. Its sitting down with our Law Enforcement partners, our local sheriff and saying this needs to happen. As we all know, those who do not want to swab often have a reason to not want to be swabbed and its incumbent upon us and lawenforcement to make sure we receive it. I will try to briefly identify or answer the question youve asked me. I think we are so used to thinking about our role as collectors of the Sexual Assault evidence collection kit, but what we recognize is that for a lot of our patients, they have limited interaction with the Healthcare System and so during the exam we have the ability to identify healthcare issues that they may not have even been aware of. We certainly have the ability to attend to some of the preventative aspects like immunizations while they are with us. We also have the ability to connect them with Critical Resources both within the medical community and within the Larger Community as well, including Mental Health and physical healthcare resources. I think the ability to be able to address all of the healthcare issues that individuals come in with is an important part of what were able to do. Whether we can attend to all of it at once or at least begin the process of connecting patients with the ability to receive the care they may need. I think the other thing to recognize is that there are not only positives for our Patient Population when we address the Health Care Needs, but as research is beginning to tell us, there are real criminal justice impacts for our patients when we treat them as more than simply crime scenes. Im so sorry for your experience with the Healthcare System. That should never ever happen. Patients should not walk into a Healthcare System and feel as though they are insensitive and theyre only concerned about collecting the evidence and not really dealing with the whole individual. Which is what happens when we treat patients solely as crime scenes. What weve discovered in the research which is really promising is that when patients are provided options when they come in for healthcare, when they are connected to Critical Resources and given choices, we see that those patients are more likely to engage with the criminal Justice System. They are more likely to work with investigators and willing to move forward in the criminal Justice System. I think theres a real benefit to be able to deal with patients healthcare issues. I appreciate very much your comments about that. With me coming from a victim perspective, my perpetrator, me findinged me and out that my cat went on the shelf, he went on to carjack and rape another young lady. Had my evidence been processed , they could have caught him then. He did another rape, he went to prison for ten years because this time he raped somebodys grandmother. Same mo, went into her window and beater at knife. All this time my kit was still on the shelf. All of this couldve been prevented. That hurt me because i felt part of it was my responsibility. Again, had they investigated my kit and solved my crime, he could not be out damaging other victims lives. That is part of the devastation for me to know this happened and then when my case finally was olved in 2006, kevin turner was coming up for parole most likely because how the laws were in texas with the statute of limitations, i couldnt prosecute, but the governor at that time which i think was rick perry and the chief of police and other staffers helped protests his parole. He was able to stay in. The state of texas told me they are going to be the laughing stock of the country if we let him out knowing that we have all this evidence against him, but you cant prosecute. That was very devastating to know that you have evidence, you have dna which ive always call ed the footprint from god. Theres a reason its there and we dont take advantage of the blessing that we have to used to to stop these criminals in their tracks. Then what you were saying, doctor jennifer, in regards to the health issue, me as a child, growing up and not getting the proper care, being stressed, it caused of Health Issues for all kinds me and i didnt realize that. It wasnt until i got into my 30s and i had a doctor that was concerned about so many issues with me and he began to probe and he got out of me about my Sexual Assault. He said it promise you the over eating, i stressed eat and the grinding of my teeth, so many other Health Issues just from that Sexual Assault not being addressed and so im thankful that im in a better place now and i have begun my healing process. But these are things that happen to victims every single day because we look over them. We expect them to just get by, you will be ok. But its damaging. Its not just the rape itself. It is a lifelong effect. It happens. I just want to add last night , at the screening, someone who was a nurse raised her hand and said she had seen some things about health care and hospital and she specifically asked, i need to know. I need training, how do i deal with survivors. She said ive seen some things , that people are not treating people the way they should be treated and that was a young nurses question for us about how she could learn and how she could further her training. This is a wonderful place to this is the beginning of the say that this is the beginning of the conversation. We do have a hard stop, people do have to get to their planes. I want to thank my colleagues for being with us. This is beyond my wildest dreams and pulling together this bipartisan coalition. It also ties in, and we wont have time for my questions, but the idea of both directions, not only do we have cereal predators serial not being caught, but predators the downs downstream impact on the health and wellbeing, we have a Bipartisan Task force on the Opioid Epidemic that many of us are involved with. Many of the victims, because they are swept into this we are findings are survivals of Sexual Assault and trauma from the military, in their personal lives. So much more to talk about. We appreciate you being with us. Thank you to my colleagues. Say, we will continue. Thank you all for being here. Eating is adjourned. Meeting is adjourned. [applause] i just want to say i am very honored. [indiscernible] the first spending bill for 2018 for military construction and Veterans Affairs past committee on thursday with out approval of a topline budget in helping guide lawmakers for spending levels. For details, we speak with a capitol hill reporter. Congress is facing a september 30 deadline to fund thete money to federal government. We are joined by reporter on capitol hill. What are some of the biggest fights we will see when it comes to the budget . The biggest thing we will see is what truck trump proposed in his budget, cutting nondiscretionary funding and putting it into defense. That includes things that congress does not like to