Georgia
‘Great results’ from Georgia’s new sex assault kit tracking system
On-line portal now open for sexual assault survivors to trace proof
Survivors of sexual assault now have a solution to observe the proof of their instances. Georgia has launched a brand new proof equipment monitoring system. IT is after 1000’s of rape kits turned up untested in proof rooms and hospitals throughout the state simply six years in the past.
ATLANTA – Tuesday marks two months since Georgia launched a brand new on-line monitoring system for sexual assault proof kits.
State legislators handed The Sexual Assault Reform Act of 2021 in March of final yr. The legislation required the Prison Justice Coordinating Council to arrange the monitoring system in order that victims, advocates, and legislation enforcement can log in and verify the standing of proof in intercourse assault instances.
“We have seen some nice outcomes thus far,” defined Amy Hutsell, program director for the CJCC’s Sexual Assault, Little one Abuse and Human Trafficking Unit. “Our largest influence, I feel is that we now have despatched a extremely robust message to victims and survivors on this state that we care about them.”
The web portal formally launched on June 30. Now, each sexual assault proof equipment within the state comes with a monitoring quantity and victims are assigned a PIN in order that they will log into the web site.
“The sexual assault equipment monitoring system actually builds on the work that the state has carried out in a bipartisan method since 2016,” mentioned state Rep. Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta, the primary sponsor of the laws. “What was critically vital was to make the method as clear as potential for victims. For all too lengthy it wasn’t. In actual fact, they had been actually left behind. You had kits simply sitting on cabinets with out being examined.”
Again in 2016, state lawmakers permitted one other invoice by Rep. Holcomb to require legislation enforcement to show over any beforehand untested rape kits after the invention that 1000’s had by no means been taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for evaluation.
That legislation additionally required officers to choose up proof kits from hospitals or different suppliers inside 3 days and submit them to the GBI for testing inside 30 days.
State officers introduced in November 2018 that the greater than 3,500 “warehoused” kits had been processed.
Rep. Holcomb mentioned the brand new monitoring system is designed to forestall proof from languishing sooner or later.
“The objective was actually twofold. We wished one, to extend transparency after which two, we wished a system the place we may really observe what was occurring to verify there’s by no means a backlog once more and to verify the proof is examined in a well timed method,” Rep. Holcomb defined.
The brand new legislation additionally requires the CJCC to draft a report for the governor and state lawmakers by December 31 annually detailing the variety of sexual assault kits used, the common time it takes legislation enforcement companies to choose them up from healthcare suppliers and what number of the GBI lab has processed.
“It is a fantastic first begin to have the accountability within the system and for victims to consider it is really value reporting,” mentioned Marina Sampanes Peed, govt director and CEO of Mosaic Georgia.
Mosaic is a sexual assault heart and youngsters’s advocacy heart in Gwinnett County that gives forensic medical exams for sufferers who’ve been assaulted. Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, or SANEs, accumulate hair, DNA and different proof to then flip over to the crime lab for testing.
Peed’s group was one among six throughout the state to participate in a pilot program starting in October 2021 to check the state’s proof monitoring portal. She mentioned thus far, they’ve about 180 within the system.
“We are able to observe each equipment and the place it’s. If it is nonetheless with the legislation enforcement, if it has been despatched to the GBI, if the GBI has carried out the evaluation,” mentioned Peed. “So, it would not give the outcomes of any of it, however it actually helps to see the place that’s going and that is so vital as a result of if somebody has the braveness to truly disclose what occurred, and normally it is by anyone they know, then to have the system begin to assist that’s big.”
The brand new web site additionally contains details about assets for survivors of sexual assault. You may study extra at svrga.org.