Letters
National Crime Victims’ Right Week is a time for all Americans to learn about the dynamics of victimization, reflect on the cost of crime on their community and our society, and vigorously support and promote the enactment and application of laws, policies and programs to help victims of crime rebuild shattered lives.
Only a few decades ago, unfairness, indignities, and disrespect confronted many victims of crime. As of 2010, every state has passed victims rights laws, and 32 states have constitution victims’ rights amendments. There are more than 10,000 victim assistance programs throughout the country, and every state has a crime victim compensation fund.
Such changes have made victims participants, rather than bystanders, in the criminal justice system.
Despite all of the programs and all of the progress in supporting victims and their rights, much work remains. Victim rights are meaningless unless they are enforced. Some victims never learn about victim compensation or receive victim services. Some surviving family members of crime death cases are forced to suffer an overwhelming victimization without assistance, because victim rights were not enacted.
Some courts deny victims the right to be heard at sentencing or receive no notice when an offender is released. Some courts fail to issue protection orders to keep victims safe or they fail to order restitution. For victims that receive court orders for restitution, all too often offenders are released from probation without having met their obligations of restitution, leaving the victims with another act of betrayal. Such failures block victim’s access to their rights.
When a victim reports a crime because an officer treats him/her fairly, it enhances the safety of the entire community. When a court hears an impact statement or issues an order of restitution which is enforced by conditions of probation, victims learn the power of fairness, dignity and respect. Yet, when our nation falls short on these ideals, we fail victims and dishonor the progress we mark this week.
Lake County is fortunate that we have the Lake County District Attorney’s Victim/Witness Assistance Program, which excels in their on-going support and advocacy, assisting victims and survivors of crime. These victim advocates work tirelessly to give victims a voice and to help crime victims and their families understand the rights they are guaranteed under the California criminal justice system.
Knowing first hand the indignities and lack of enforcement victims suffer from some agencies outside of Lake County that fall short of enacting objectives, I commend the Lake County District Attorney’s Victim/Witness Assistance Program as their guidance, dedication and commitment of services embody the ideals of Crime Victims Right Week: Fairness, dignity and respect.
Judy Thein is founder of Team DUI and the mayor of the city of Clearlake.
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- Written by: Judy Thein
I’m writing this letter as both a concerned citizen of Lake County, and a concerned care provider.
Recently our wonderful state of California has made precedence with new requirements for caregivers within the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program. These requirements are for fingerprint and subsequent background checks on all IHSS caregivers.
The idea of this is certainly considered a good idea, however, something has come to my attention, that the criteria that is set for these providers hasn’t been made very clear to everyone involved, both providers and recipients alike.
I’m hoping, through this letter, to assist with sharing this information with the help of our local media.
The state sent a letter to all providers and recipients with a vague idea of what the criteria is for screening all providers. What the letter succeeded in accomplishing was scaring the living daylights out of everyone involved.
What the letter failed to do was explain the exact criteria for what would keep a provider from being able to do this critical job of keeping someone safe in their home and, thusly, keeping our taxes from going up, because these individuals will be staying out of institutions that are paid with those very same taxes.
The scary part of this situation is that the state has made it clear that they want to reduce this critical workforce by attempting to “weed out” people that “they” feel are undesirable.
The fact is: Regardless if someone had a conviction many years ago that had nothing to do with hurting any individual (such as possession of a controlled substance felony), and this person served their time after that conviction, and this was done well over 10 years ago, they should be allowed to find employment, even if it is taking care of a disabled person, who may really need and want this particular person.
We as a society should be asking ourselves two big questions about this subject: “Who are we to judge another human being, especially someone who has paid the price for their indiscretion?” and “Should we continue punishing those individuals even after they served the time for that crime?”
Another fact: On Nov. 24, 2009, the Supreme Court of California, in the county of Alameda in the Case of Ellis vs. Wagner; a decision was handed down with exactly what was needed to stop all this confusion surrounding the criteria for these requirements intended for the IHSS providers. The “ONLY” felony convictions that can stop someone from being an IHSS caregiver are: (1) felony child/adult/elder abuse and (2) felony medical fraud.
What has truly worried and concerns me is that many people are not aware of this decision and some are even considering giving up on working with IHSS and accepting that they cannot be paid for doing this critical service, because they feel that they may not pass the background check; all because of something stupid that they did when they were a young, cocky 18-year-old.
Not only will this type of decision affect the provider by not working anymore, it will affect the unemployment numbers, and the benefits of unemployment (all paid for with tax dollars).
This will also affect the individual recipients who stand to lose their lifeline to the outside world, especially from a job that barely pays minimum wage in Lake County.
Not many people are willing to do this type of work because it can be a very stressful job and especially when the wonderful people already doing this job have been with these recipients (in some cases) many years.
For those of you reading this, please help in passing this information along. It is very important for the sake of all those involved.
David W. Smith is an IHSS caregiver. He lives in Nice.
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- Written by: David W. Smith
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