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Friday, December 04, 2009

Gov. Parnell Commits to Seriously Fighting Domestic Violence

Here's a press release and photo from the Governor's office. He's even putting resources into prevention.  He announced this initiative at Bartlett High School, Thursday, Dec. 3.

News and Announcements
spacerState of Alaska > Governor > News  > News Details Parnell Leads Effort to End Domestic Violence  Print Now Printer Friendly

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 09-092
December 3, 2009, Anchorage Alaska – With a goal of ending the epidemic of sexual assault and domestic violence within a decade, Governor Sean Parnell today unveiled a comprehensive initiative to fight the cycle of abuse. The package of proposed legislation, budget requests, and administrative actions will comprehensively address domestic violence and sexual assault.
Domestic Violence Prevention

“Today we’re putting domestic violence and sexual assault at the forefront,” Governor Parnell said. “We’ll make it intolerable, unacceptable and the ramifications for those committing these crimes against Alaskans, unbearable.”

The governor’s 10-year plan to stop the epidemic of violence in Alaska’s homes and communities focuses on putting abusers behind bars, protecting victims, and helping them heal, and preventing abuse.

Among the initiative’s highlights:
• In partnership with the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault and the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, production and promotion of extensive public education campaign encouraging Alaskans to “Choose Respect”;

• Provide a more meaningful law enforcement presence for every community that desires it; notably by hiring 15 Village Public Safety Officers (VPSO) every year for the next ten years, as well as more troopers;
• Toughen guidelines for prosecutors in handling sexual assault cases, including limits on plea deals;
• Lead the charge to dramatically increase pro bono legal services available to victims;
Increase funding for shelters to continue providing victims with the means to break free from abusive situations; and
• Coordination of state, federal, tribal and non-profit programs addressing domestic violence and sexual assault through the hiring of a domestic violence and sexual assault prevention coordinator at the Department of Law.
“Domestic violence and sexual assault must be prevented and stigmatized so pervasively that offenders know that they will face irreparable social, as well as legal, consequences,” Attorney General Dan Sullivan said.
Sullivan noted that the governor’s initiative differs from past efforts to address the problem because of its comprehensive approach, broad-based public education campaign, and guaranteed follow-through with the creation of a coordinator for domestic violence and sexual assault prevention and response.

In his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2011, Governor Parnell has allocated funds for positions and programs to end what he describes as “this blight on our state.” This includes $75 million for the state’s new crime lab, $1.6 million for 15 VPSOs, and $1 million for VPSO housing.

Meanwhile, the Department of Law is moving ahead with updated guidelines for prosecutors “to ensure that sex offenders are dealt with harshly and shown no leniency,” Sullivan said.

Under the guidelines, when accepting plea deals these perpetrators will be required to plead guilty to sex crimes so that they do not avoid being registered as sex offenders.
Audio from today’s press conference is available at: http://gov.state.ak.us/audio/DomesticViolenceRollout_Dec3-2009.mp3.
More information on the governor’s initiative is available at: http://gov.state.ak.us/pdf/DVSA%20Fact%20Sheet%20final.pdf.
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In the audio tape, Gov. Parnell sounds serious. He lists statistics:

  • Over 50% of Alaska's homicides involve domestic violence.

  • The reported rate of sexual assault is two and a half times, at least, of the national average.

  • The estimated rate of child sexual abuse in our state is six times the national average.
I am concerned with the emphasis on punishment and making life 'unbearable.'  That sounds more like torture.  Most abusers, research suggests, were abused themselves.  They need to be isolated so they cannot continue the cycle of violence, but we, as a society, must recognize how such violence gets learned and how to heal the pain. 

How is he going to handle the evangelical churches that advocate corporal punishment? Henkima had a long post about this in September. In addition to quoting from James Dobson's book (via Max Blumenthal's book),  Dare to Discipline,  which advocates corporal violence, she also cites a 1985 Anchorage Daily News article:
Prevo, whose Anchorage Baptist Temple runs the school, said corporal punishment will no longer be used on the pre-schoolers, “based on the fact it’s hard to spank and not take a chance of accidentally bruising.”

“When that happens, it puts our employees in an awkward position, and it’s not worth the hassle,” Prevo said. . .
He said corporal punishment will continue to be used at the grade school, junior and senior high school levels. [Ref #7]

Is this why Prevo's most visible public stands are against gays and not against domestic violence?   Or is it because he can get his congregants to rally and donate to fight homosexuality, but if he acted as vigorously against domestic violence, he'd be acting against quite a few of his congregants?  There really are victims of domestic violence who need our help and the State's help. 

7 comments:

  1. Jerry Prevo went back a long way with Jerry Falwell, in fact Prevo is currently the Chairman of the Board of Liberty University.

    Jerry Falwell also knew Sun Myung Moon well enough to have gone fishing with him once down at Moon's pad on Kodiak.

    Falwell was also associated with a cat named Wally Hilliard, google him and see what comes up.

    I won't even bring up Franklin Graham's long and deep ties to Alaska, going all the way back into the 70's.

    It's all right here.


    œßç©¥

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  2. I guess he's figured out that charging 1200 bucks for those rape kits will drop the reporting of sexual assault dramatically. Thankfully we will be rid of this fraud in 2010

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  3. Question: why does he start a 10 year long prgram if his term is shorter? It is not logical to me. It has been a problem in Hungary that changing governments didn' finish the programs of the previous governments.

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  4. œßç©¥ - Thanks for all that info. You can also Email Me

    Barb, I understand the cynicism, but operant conditioning teaches us to reward every step in the right direction. If we blast him no matter what he does, then he is justified in ignoring us because nothing will please us. That doesn't mean we should blindly believe everything.
    Certainly you agree that speaking out on this is good, even if we don't agree 100% on his methods. When we have some common ground like this, we need to be supportive. Otherwise we are like the Republicans on health care. Any imperfection is reason to vote no.

    We have to build relationships based on common interests to get past the manufactured differences some are using to polarize the population for their own personal gain. At least that's how I see it.

    Ropi, I thought the same thing when I read that in the news release.

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  5. And for doubters out there: A friend who grew up in Louisiana in the 1950s told me how his uncle, as a boy, had been taken out in the back yard and shot in the leg by his father because he had been disobedient. Thing is, it wasn't reported as it was seen as within the scope of parental discipline at the time--the boy survived, after all.

    So PLEASE don't tell me we can't improve on the expectations around domestic violence and human nature. We have and we can do more.

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  6. I agree with jay in uk. Just because performance on domestic violence has been dismal in the past, doesn't mean that we can't move forward. For example, there's this lady I read about on Oprah named Marala Scott who is talking about things I've never heard before - namely, preventing domestic violence by teaching men and women to recognize what she calls the 'Indicators of an Abuser.'

    Maybe if we start showing some creativity of thought like Marala, instead of assuming things will never change, things actually will (change, that is. Sorry for the strangely-worded sentence).

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  7. I agree with the last two comments. Politics shouldn't play into how we look at domestic violence & child abuse. We need to start educating our children at a very young age that it is not okay to hit & what to look out for when they are developing relationships. How many bullies on the schoolyard ended up being abusive as adults? I've read Marala Scott's book, In Our House, Perception vs Reality. In sharing her story with others and with her creation of the 'Indicators of an Abuser', she has made it her mission to prevent domestic violence and child abuse. We have to keep talking about abuse so that it's not the family secret anymore. Knowledge is power.

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