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6 ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO
7 ADDRESS TO FIRST NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
8 ON VICTIMS OF FEDERAL CRIME
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10 Monday, February 10, 1997
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18 Omni Shoreham Hotel
19 2500 Calvert Street, N.W.
20 Washington, D.C.
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: Thank you,
3 Kathryn. But I am the one to thank you and
4 your colleagues across the country. You do so
5 much for so many, and make such a great
6 difference for us all.
7 This is a particularly poignant
8 moment for me to be addressing you, because I
9 arrived a little bit late, having come from the
10 funeral of Master Patrol Officer Brian Gibson,
11 who was shot as he waited at a light in his
12 patrol car this past week.
13 I was reminded in the church, and
14 afterwards in the most poignant terms possible,
15 how important your work is to help people begin
16 to understand, to help them come together, to
17 help them begin to heal. And that's the reason
18 this conference is so important.
19 It's truly a pioneering conference.
20 I'd like to thank the people who have made it
21 possible. Marlene, thank you not only for this
22 conference, but for all you do for us, to help
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1 us to know the way to really reach out to
2 victims and to make a difference.
3 And to John Stein and the staff of
4 the National Organization for Victim
5 Assistance, thank you for your hard work in
6 creating a week filled with the voices of
7 experts, leaders in their field. But, also,
8 and more importantly, the voices of victims who
9 remind us why we work so hard at what we do.
10 I thank Eileen Adams and her
11 wonderful staff at the Office for Victims of
12 Crime for their vision in convening this
13 symposium for victim witness coordinators in
14 the Federal system.
15 I'd like to talk to you about the
16 themes that you will hear echoed over the days
17 of this symposium, and touch upon a few that
18 are very close to my heart: What we and the
19 justice system do for victims, how we do it,
20 and how we can do our work even better than we
21 are.
22 Many who think about justice think
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1 only of the dramatic events of the criminal
2 justice system: The siren of the police car
3 that passes, or a police officer making an
4 arrest, or the conviction of someone in court.
5 But justice has a far broader meaning
6 for us all. It encompasses healing. Everyone
7 here represents both aspects of justice. You
8 are healers and you are the center of the
9 criminal justice system. You humanize for many
10 victims the terribly confusing, and the very
11 difficult process of seeking justice.
12 And you are the critical link to
13 victims' services without which many victims
14 would have no opportunity to heal whatsoever.
15 As you will learn over the next five days,
16 federal laws and the Attorney General's
17 guidelines for victim and witness assistance
18 hold all of federal law enforcement, each
19 federal victim witness coordinator, and federal
20 prosecutors to a very high standard in our
21 treatment of victims.
22 But beyond the requirements set forth
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1 in the law, beyond the guidelines, I look to
2 something more important. The standard I use
3 is a personal one, and based on deep conviction
4 that each victim of crime deserves to be
5 treated with the utmost respect and the utmost
6 dignity.
7 I put it this way, let us treat every
8 victim of crime as we would want our child, our
9 mother, or even ourselves to be treated. When
10 it is a particularly frustrating time, and they
11 are not understanding, just imagine what it
12 would be like if your mother sat in that chair
13 and didn't understand what was going on.
14 When the processes seem so long and
15 involved and complicated, remember what it
16 would be like for your child at age four to be
17 sitting there waiting to be deposed, and do
18 everything you can to reach out and make what
19 we do personal and human in every respect.
20 Work hard to understand what it is
21 like to be a victim, and see the criminal
22 justice system through their eyes.
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1 I understand that tomorrow morning
2 you will hear from a panel of remarkable
3 victims, victims who have courage: A woman
4 whose husband was murdered in the Oklahoma City
5 bombing, a bank teller who was the victim of
6 numerous bank robberies, and a minister whose
7 church and congregation were the victims of
8 racially motivated arson.
9 Listen to these victims, and to all
10 victims with an eye toward how you can be even
11 more responsive to their concerns. In the 15
12 years I was a prosecutor in Dade County, I
13 learned so much from all those who walked
14 through my door.
15 I learned to ask them questions, and
16 to find out how I could have done a better job,
17 even after the fact. Don't be afraid to ask
18 questions, both at this symposium and in your
19 work with victims for the years to come.
20 I believe that all of us share the
21 same goal in our work within the criminal
22 justice system. We want to create a seamless
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1 web of services to help victims heal from the
2 very moment the crime is committed throughout
3 the criminal justice process and beyond.
4 That police officer who responds, the
5 first responder can so often be the magic that
6 makes the difference in the person's ability to
7 cope with the trauma of the crime and to deal
8 with all that comes after.
9 Key strands of that web must include
10 access to immediate trauma and emergency
11 response, short- and long-term psychological
12 counselling, and shelter as well as advocacy
13 throughout the criminal, tribal, military and
14 juvenile justice systems.
15 Don't discount that short-term
16 counselling. I have been told again and again
17 by so many that that short-term support, that
18 short-term help made all the difference.
19 Crime victims should be safe
20 throughout the process and should have access
21 to diverse sources of financial recovery,
22 including emergency financial assistance, crime
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1 victim compensation, restitution and civil
2 legal remedies.
3 In addition to the victims
4 themselves, we must recognize that each person,
5 each victim, has a parent, a child, a community
6 that shares in the victimization. We must
7 learn to help all of them heal.
8 Our own Department of Justice is
9 working to study and develop community justice
10 models that will integrate the victim,
11 sometimes the offender, and the community in
12 our response to crime and in our effort to heal
13 the harm that affects us all when violent crime
14 strikes.
15 As with so many other important work,
16 and so much other important work in this field,
17 victims themselves are helping to lead the way.
18 When I was in San Diego two weeks
19 ago, speaking at the Indian Nation's
20 Conference, I had the special privilege of
21 meeting two very extraordinary individuals,
22 Azeem Kamezia (phonetic) and Place Felix
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1 (phonetic).
2 These men have turned a devastating
3 personal tragedy into a positive force for
4 change in their community. Both are victims in
5 a way of a gang-slaying, but each was on the
6 opposite side of the gun.
7 Azeem's son was murdered while
8 delivering pizzas by Place's 14-year-old
9 grandson, a gang member. The grandson was
10 convicted, and he was sentenced to 25 years to
11 life.
12 In a truly rare event, the caretakers
13 of a murder victim and the offender recognize
14 that their whole community was victimized by
15 the violence that had shattered their lives.
16 They founded the Teric Kamezia
17 Foundation, dedicated to preventing similar
18 crimes through educational programs in the
19 schools. In these victim-impact forums,
20 students interact with Mr. Kamezia and Mr.
21 Felix and ex-gang members who can talk frankly
22 about the choices they made, and their
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1 experiences in jail.
2 These panels have made a lasting
3 impact on the lives of children who have seen
4 them, and have helped provide guidance to
5 youths on how to avoid the violence that
6 surrounds them so tragically every day.
7 One elementary school student wrote,
8 after listening to Azeem and Place, "When you
9 guys came to our school, it made me think a
10 lot, like about peer pressure. Some of my
11 friends try to pressure me into doing things I
12 don't want to do.
13 "Now I'm going to make sure I know
14 who I can turn to for help. I'm going to make
15 the right choices for my future. I will not
16 try to use violence for anything."
17 But one session will not be enough.
18 We must all participate in helping a community
19 heal from the violence that riddles it too
20 often. Prevention programs such as
21 school-based victim-impact classes and after
22 school programs that give kids something to say
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1 yes to, are a critical part of the Justice
2 Department's program to assist communities to
3 overcome the violence that victimizes us all.
4 You know from your experiences that
5 many victims tell us that, if they could have
6 one wish it would have been to have prevented
7 the crime in the first place. That is why we
8 have so strongly supported the use of federal
9 funds for prevention programs.
10 What many parents who have lost their
11 children to gang violence recognize is that for
12 the safety, the health and the education of
13 each child we must be concerned about the
14 safety, health and education of all children.
15 Across America and many different
16 communities, parents like Azeem who have lost
17 their kids to gang violence are devoting their
18 lives to helping other children. They deserve
19 our highest respect and support.
20 Just a little over an hour ago I
21 heard the Chief of Police of the District of
22 Columbia talk about what Brian Gibson had meant
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1 to that force, what a splendid police officer
2 he was, and how important it was that we reach
3 out to his family and help them begin to heal.
4 But he also brought that church to a
5 real emotional feeling when he said, "but we
6 have got to make sure that we look to the
7 future, and now reach out and establish youth
8 centers in every sector of this community so
9 that we can give our children a strong and
10 positive future, and keep them from being the
11 ones five and ten years from now who will pull
12 the trigger again."
13 In addition to these remarkable
14 individuals who have worked so hard, we see all
15 around us communities working in partnerships
16 to help heal the wounds of crime.
17 A good example is the wonderful work
18 being done by the National Council of Black
19 Churches to respond to the wave of hate and
20 bias crimes that we have seen in our country,
21 from the plague of African-American church
22 burnings to the sobering figures on reported
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1 incidents of hate crime throughout our
2 nation -- close to 8,000 in 1995 alone.
3 We have developed a curriculum to
4 reach our young people, a guide for teachers to
5 engage school-aged children in important
6 discussions about tolerance, tolerance for each
7 of the unique, and valuable pieces of the quilt
8 of races, sexual orientations and cultures that
9 make up this wonderful nation.
10 Our own Office for Victims of Crime
11 is working to train law enforcement agencies to
12 identify and respond effectively to victims of
13 hate and bias crimes. Together we can make a
14 difference. Haters are cowards. They
15 oftentimes back down when confronted.
16 We must come together and speak out
17 against that which sometimes attempts to divide
18 us. We have also seen other wonderful examples
19 of community partnerships working to curb gang
20 violence. One is Teens On Target in Los
21 Angeles and Oakland, California.
22 Public and private agencies are
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1 working together to organize gunshot survivors,
2 victims of gang violence to promote public
3 awareness and violence prevention.
4 These teenage victims, many of whom
5 are in wheelchairs, speak to thousands of
6 school children every year, encouraging them
7 not to seek revenge, but rather to find
8 nonviolent alternatives to conflict.
9 They also intervene with hospitalized
10 gang members, urging them not to retaliate.
11 Every action such as these young people follow
12 can make a difference. Each of us can make a
13 difference if we reach out to victims and help
14 them begin to heal and help the community heal
15 as well.
16 It has been a great privilege for me
17 to work on victim issues. But it is a labor of
18 love. We are all part of an exciting time.
19 And we have seen some important accomplishments
20 that benefit crime victims in many significant
21 ways. Many, I am proud to say, have come
22 during the last four years.
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1 The core of the criminal justice
2 system, the laws that regulate it, have
3 provided new rights for victims of crime.
4 President Clinton has been at the forefront of
5 this work. He has been consistent and
6 absolutely unwavering in his efforts to fight
7 violent crime and to focus on the needs of
8 victims.
9 From the time I first met with him,
10 which would have been four years ago yesterday
11 in the oval office, when he talked to me about
12 whether I should be Attorney General, he spoke
13 then about victims and what work we had done in
14 Dade County.
15 He spoke of his commitment to
16 ensuring victim's rights, and he asked me what
17 we could do to do it better. From the Crime
18 Bill to the Brady Bill to the Antiterrorism
19 Bill, he has constantly strived to make sure
20 that the voices of victims are heard in real
21 and solid legislation.
22 With the strong support of the
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1 Administration, and the power voices of crime
2 victims such as Jim and Sarah Brady, the Brady
3 Bill was passed requiring a waiting period for
4 the purchase of handguns.
5 In the first year of its existence,
6 the Brady Bill helped to deter more than 60,000
7 convicted felons from having a handgun.
8 The President also strongly supported
9 passage of the Loutenberg Amendment, which for
10 the first time took guns out of the hands of
11 people convicted of domestic violence
12 misdemeanors.
13 Countless survivors of domestic
14 violence created coalitions across the nation
15 and worked with the Administration to secure
16 passage of the landmark Violence Against Women
17 Act.
18 Part of the 1994 Crime Act, VAWA,
19 authorized $1.6 billion to support a national
20 domestic violence hot line, police prosecution
21 and victim services initiatives at the local
22 level, and important research in this vital and
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1 critical area.
2 The 1994 Crime Act also expands the
3 rights of and protections for victims in our
4 criminal justice system by providing sexual
5 assault victims with counselling and payment
6 for testing for sexually transmitted diseases,
7 including HIV, by requiring interstate
8 enforcement of protection orders and, through
9 the Jacob Weaterling Act, by encouraging state
10 establishment of sex offender registers.
11 The Voice of Megan Conca, a
12 7-year-old victim who was sexually assaulted
13 and murdered in 1994 by a twice-convicted sex
14 offender, and the voice of a staunch victim
15 advocate from Texas, Pam Lynchner, who perished
16 in the TWA flight 800 disaster, are
17 memorialized in 1996 Amendments to the sex
18 offender registry law.
19 Megan's law, which bears the name of
20 one child but was passed to protect every child
21 in this country, encourages states to notify
22 communities when convicted sexual offenders are
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1 released into their midst.
2 Under the Pam Lynchner Act, I will be
3 establishing, through the FBI, a nationwide
4 database to track registered sex offenders
5 wherever they may move in our country. And in
6 states that do not have sufficient registration
7 systems, the FBI will be responsible for sexual
8 offender registration and community
9 notification.
10 In 1996 we also obtained passage of
11 the Antiterrorism Act which provided $1 million
12 in funding to strengthen antiterrorism efforts,
13 made restitution mandatory in violent crime
14 cases, and expanded the compensation and
15 assistance services for victims of terrorism,
16 both home and abroad, including victims in the
17 military.
18 As a result of this act, the Office
19 for Victims of Crime has been able to provide
20 substantial assistance to the victims of the
21 tragic bombing on Oklahoma City, providing
22 funds for additional victim witness staff in
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1 U.S. Attorney Offices, safe havens for victims
2 in both Denver, where the trials where will be
3 held, and in Oklahoma City, where many victims
4 will review the trial over closed-circuit
5 television, and crisis counselling for victims
6 in both cities throughout the trial.
7 In addition to working hard for these
8 legislative changes, this administration has
9 seen unparalleled growth in the crime victim's
10 fund, which is administered by the Office for
11 Victims of Crime.
12 This fund supports state compensation
13 programs and about 2,500 victim services
14 programs, such as battered women shelters, rape
15 treatment centers, children's advocacy centers,
16 and services to victims based in police and
17 prosecutor's offices.
18 These are among the more than 10,000
19 victim services programs nationwide to which
20 you can refer victims for crucial services. In
21 the first four years of this administration,
22 deposits in the fund exceeded $1 billion, more
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1 than was deposited in the preceding 8-year life
2 of the fund.
3 Over $500 million was deposited last
4 year alone. Since over 90 percent of these
5 funds are distributed to states, this means
6 that local victim assistance agencies will
7 receive three times the amount of funds
8 distributed previously.
9 With this additional money, states
10 have an unprecedented opportunity to expand
11 programs into many of the underserved areas of
12 our country, such as rural areas and Indian
13 country, as well as to underserved victims,
14 including victims of gang violence and hate and
15 bias crimes.
16 As you know, deposits to the fund are
17 the product of the hard work of many of your
18 colleagues. They are the results of criminal
19 fines, penalty assessments and forfeited bail
20 bonds paid by federal criminal defendants, and
21 collected by the U.S. Attorneys, the U.S.
22 Courts, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
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1 And without victims actively
2 participating in the trial process, we could
3 not have the convictions that result in these
4 fines. We have made great strides in improving
5 the criminal justice system's treatment of
6 crime victims.
7 But we have an awful lot more to do
8 because, even in some of the major cities of
9 this country, there are small children who do
10 not have a rape treatment center that knows how
11 to work with children in a sensitive,
12 thoughtful manner.
13 We still do not have people trained
14 in how to explain the criminal justice system
15 in ways that people can understand and
16 appreciate. We have so very much more to do.
17 One of the keys to what we have to
18 do, though, is to get a victims' rights
19 amendment to the Constitution of the United
20 States passed. There is now strong bipartisan
21 support for this effort.
22 A victim's bill of rights, once a
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1 novel idea, is now a reality in most every
2 state.
3 In over half of our states, my own
4 state of Florida included, have amended their
5 state constitutions to ensure these crucial
6 rights. But as I and the President recognized
7 when he stated his strong support for this
8 amendment last year, and in last week's State
9 of the Union Address, there is still no
10 consistency in the implementation of victims'
11 rights nationwide, and no guarantee of crucial
12 services for every crime victim.
13 Some have questioned the need for a
14 victims' rights constitutional amendment. And
15 I, like the President, certainly do not support
16 amending the Constitution lightly. But I have
17 long been an advocate for treating victims with
18 dignity and with respect.
19 After carefully reviewing the issue
20 of a federal constitutional amendment with
21 lawyers in the Department of Justice, it is
22 clear to me that victims' rights should be
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1 secured by the United States Constitution.
2 The amendment should address crime
3 victims rights to be informed of, and to be not
4 excluded from public court proceedings; the
5 right to be notified of major case events and
6 the status of the offender; the right to be
7 heard and present at the Court about release
8 from custody, sentencing and pleas; the right
9 to be heard by the Parole Board when it
10 considers an offender's release; and the right
11 to appropriate restitution.
12 What victims want is a voice, not a
13 veto in our criminal justice system. For too
14 long, victims have watched a court process
15 unfold. They have watched meticulous attention
16 given to the rights of defendants. They have
17 asked for a voice, an opportunity to be heard,
18 to know what was going on that could give real
19 meaning to their participation.
20 We must ensure that.
21 Today victims' rights vary
22 significantly from state to state. The federal
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1 adult and juvenile justice systems in the
2 military all provide different rights for
3 victims. Fundamental rights for victims should
4 apply in every form.
5 The Department of Justice is working
6 with all involved to craft suitable language
7 for such an amendment. We want to develop the
8 most effective language possible to secure the
9 rights of victims, while being careful, as the
10 President cautioned, not to hamper the ability
11 of criminal investigators and prosecutors to do
12 their job, or to inadvertently provide
13 defendants and convicted offenders ways to
14 cripple the criminal justice process.
15 Even if we succeed in securing a
16 constitutional amendment, we have to do more.
17 I feel very strongly about this, because I
18 participated in the passage of the
19 Constitutional amendment in Florida. But then
20 I saw, as I have on other occasions, that we
21 must make the words on that paper real.
22 We will have to continue our efforts
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1 in Congress and in our state legislatures to
2 ensure funding to guarantee that those rights
3 are enforced and that services are provided.
4 That is our work, your work and my work, to
5 ensure the laws we enact have life and meaning
6 for victims of crime.
7 And we have seen such great
8 creativity in the work that you all do to make
9 sure that our laws are a reality.
10 Across America police and prosecutors
11 are building partnerships, and taking policing,
12 prosecution and corrections out in the
13 community to hear and respond to the voices of
14 victims and other representatives of the
15 community.
16 In the District of Columbia, for
17 example, United States Attorney Eric Holder has
18 set up the first community prosecution unit.
19 Prosecutors are working out of the local
20 precinct. They attend neighborhood meetings.
21 They get to know the people in their community.
22 Community prosecution and policing,
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1 which put criminal justice officials in
2 constant touch with the people they serve, help
3 prosecutors and police respond to the major
4 concerns in the community about crime, and the
5 major concerns of victims who now have an
6 opportunity to see the people who represent
7 them in their own community.
8 And these programs increase the
9 community's trust and cooperation with criminal
10 justice officials. Partnerships like these
11 draw on our nation's strong sense of community.
12 We have seen how the country responds in times
13 of great crisis. The tragic bombing in
14 Oklahoma City illustrated this response with
15 pictures of horror, but of magnificent heroism.
16 The Office for Victims of Crime
17 immediately funded three crisis response teams,
18 which were organized by the National
19 Organization for Victim Assistance, to debrief
20 hundreds of school children, teachers and
21 emergency workers.
22 State and federal resources came
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1 together as never before, and to set up a
2 standard of coordination, cooperation and
3 partnership that we must strive to emulate in
4 all that we do. Foreign governments
5 participated. Turkey and Japan each donated
6 $10,000.
7 Oklahoma school children received
8 over 400,000 letters from around the world.
9 When the case proceedings were moved to
10 Colorado, hundreds of citizens there offered
11 their homes, food and transportation to victims
12 who wanted to attend the trial.
13 But that wouldn't have been possible
14 if it had not been for some very caring people
15 on the ground in Oklahoma who had been touched
16 by the tragedy. But people in the United
17 States Attorney's office, law enforcement
18 agencies, rallied round, worked countless hours
19 into the night, seven days a week, never giving
20 up, trying to find family members, trying to
21 keep people informed.
22 So much of the response in Oklahoma
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1 City was due to some very dedicated, wonderful
2 people who worked for the Federal Government
3 and who deserve the highest accolades that we
4 can possibly give to public servants. Their
5 example is an example for us all.
6 We can be the catalyst for these
7 partnerships. You are the fulcrum of the
8 victim-centered justice system. We know that
9 we're doing something right when you hear
10 victims write a thank you letter like that and
11 we see tangible changes in the crime rate. We
12 think we must be doing something right.
13 We watch crime go down. We can take
14 pride in our work. But we cannot become
15 complacent. It is never a good idea to rest
16 simply on one's laurels. They get rather dry
17 and scratchy after awhile anyway.
18 Rather, we must look for new
19 opportunities, better ways to serve, how we can
20 do more with less, how we can make sure that
21 last victim, or that last survivor, is
22 contacted.
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1 Whether we can have that last bit of
2 energy at 8:00 at night after we've been unable
3 to reach a victim for three days running, to
4 make that last call to make sure that they are
5 okay and that they have been able to find
6 transportation to get them to the service that
7 we provided, that last extra step makes all the
8 difference in the world.
9 The President has directed me to take
10 all necessary steps to provide full victim
11 participation in federal criminal proceedings,
12 to hold the federal system to a higher standard
13 of victim's rights than ever before.
14 An important part of his directive is
15 taking place here.
16 All federal agencies whose missions
17 involve them with crime victims must work
18 together to ensure that a common and
19 comprehensive baseline of participation of
20 victims can be achieved. This is part of what
21 our future work entails.
22 We must enhance federal services to
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1 victims. Working closely with the Office of
2 Victims of Crime in the Office of Policy
3 Development, we have expanded victim services
4 and trainees, revised victim-witness brochures,
5 and established emergency funds that can be
6 used to assist victims for whom crucial
7 services are unavailable.
8 For example, it can help to fund
9 their travel to counselling and to pay for that
10 counselling. The Office for Victims of Crime
11 has just produced a training film on victims'
12 issues for all employees of the Justice
13 Department. You will be the first to see this
14 film later this week, and should think how you
15 can use it within your own agency.
16 It highlights the laws about victims'
17 rights and the importance of linking victims to
18 the services they need to heal. It also
19 emphasizes the importance of your work, each
20 and every day.
21 We must also enhance our victims'
22 services through technology. Technology can
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1 never take the place of a human arm of comfort
2 and support, but it can help us reach more
3 victims than ever before. It cannot take the
4 place of a human voice on the telephone, but at
5 least it can be the effort made to ensure that
6 victims are informed.
7 One example is the National Domestic
8 Hot Line. This hot line funded by (inaudible)
9 links individuals in English or in Spanish, and
10 with technology for the deaf, to help in their
11 area by using a nationwide database that
12 includes detailed information on domestic
13 violence shelters, other emergency shelters and
14 legal advocacy assistance and social service
15 programs.
16 It operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a
17 week, and is a toll-free call from anywhere in
18 our country. Opened last February, the hot
19 line averages over 200 calls per day. What
20 better example of bringing together federal,
21 state, and local resources to reach victims
22 when and where they need help.
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1 We must also make sure that,
2 throughout our work, we keep victims at the
3 center of the process. I have had this single
4 opportunity of learning from the many
5 remarkable people I meet each year during
6 National Crime Victims' Rights Weekend in
7 April.
8 People who are truly, truly making a
9 difference for service to crime victims. They
10 received the Crime Victims' Service Award, the
11 highest federal honor for victims' advocacy.
12 Let me tell you about just one.
13 Marilyn Smith, deaf since the age of six, was
14 brutally raped when young. At the time of her
15 rape, there were no victim services for the
16 deaf, which made her recovery needlessly long
17 and lonely.
18 In 1986, Marilyn founded Washington
19 State's Abused Deaf Women Advocacy Service,
20 which now offers a 24-hour crisis line,
21 counselling and legal advocacy for deaf and
22 deaf/blind victims of sexual assault and
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1 domestic violence.
2 She is a tangible, inspiring example
3 of what we can all do to reach victims who are
4 still on the outside of the criminal justice
5 process. If you ever have the opportunity to
6 meet her, take full advantage of her. You will
7 be able to go on doing better, more vigorous
8 work the next year just by having listened to
9 her and having felt the power of what she has
10 done.
11 And we will need the support. There
12 is so much more work to do. You will hear and
13 learn so much about victims at this conference,
14 about how to best meet their needs. You will
15 leave with long lists of work you want to do
16 when you return, to put into action so many of
17 the wonderful ideas you will hear and share
18 here.
19 I'm going to ask you to put one more
20 item on that list. I hope you will be an
21 extension of my eyes and ears. Some of the
22 best policy comes from victims. I do not see,
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1 on a daily basis, as many victims as you do.
2 So as you listen to, learn from and work with
3 victims, let me know what you find.
4 Talk to your supervisors, get in
5 touch with the Office for Victims of Crime.
6 Let us know of any gaps you find in the safety
7 net that we are weaving together. Let us know
8 what you think we can do better and what can be
9 done differently to help victims achieve
10 justice and to achieve healing.
11 We will share your successes and your
12 lessons with your colleagues. For you are the
13 healers. It is a vitally important job. You
14 are the lifeline for so many victims across
15 America. And often, with your help, despite a
16 devastating experience, victims heal and become
17 even stronger human beings and greater
18 contributors in so many important ways to their
19 community.
20 Helping with this healing process is
21 a most extraordinary privilege and an honor.
22 Thank you for the depth of your commitment, for
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1 the crucial work you do each and every day.
2 From my point of view, you are but little lower
3 than the angels.
4 (End of Attorney General's
5 Address.)
6 * * * * *
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