Pubdate: Sun, 07 May 2006
Source: Island Gazette (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Island Gazette
Contact:   http://islandgazette.net
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3887

COOPER AND OTHER STATE AGS URGE CONGRESS TO PROTECT FUNDS TO FIGHT 
CRIME, HELP VICTIMS

Fund Assists Nearly Four Million Crime Victims Nationwide

RALEIGH -- Attorney General Roy Cooper joined fellow attorneys 
general from 51 other states and territories April 28, to urge 
Congress not to slash more than $1.4 billion from programs that fight 
crime and help crime victims.

"Law enforcement battling crime and drugs in communities across our 
state and country need more help, not less," said Cooper. "And crime 
victims and their families will suffer again if these cuts go 
through, cuts to programs that require criminals to pay to alleviate 
some of the hurt they've caused."

Cooper and other Attorneys General wrote to Congress to express 
concerns about cuts to grants that help state and local law 
enforcement fight drugs and violence.

The Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, which helped fund law 
enforcement efforts to seize more than 54,000 weapons from criminals 
and shut down more than 5,600 methamphetamine labs in 2004, would be 
elminated under current budget proposals.

The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, which helps 
put officers on the street in communities across the country, would 
be slashed by 74 percent. "These law enforcement cuts could not have 
come at a worse time,"  the letter says, pointing out that "estates 
and territories are reeling from the explosion in heroin, 
prescription narcotic, and methamphetamine abuse."

The proposed cuts to the Federal Crime Victims Fund "would have a 
devastating impact on our ability to support victims of crime,"  the 
Attorneys Generals said in their letter. The Federal Crime Victims 
Fund was created by the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (VOCA). VOCA 
funds come entirely from wrongdoers through federal criminal fines, 
forfeitures and special assessments a€" not from taxpayers.

Through grants to state victim compensation programs, victims of 
violent crimes throughout the country have been able to get help for 
medical care, mental health counseling, funeral and burial expenses, 
and other vital services.

In North Carolina, these funds help support domestic violence 
shelters, rape crisis centers, counseling for victims, assistance for 
crime victims who must testify in court, and many other programs that 
advocate for victims. "Some 4,400 local programs depend on VOCA 
assistance grants to provide necessary services to nearly 4 million 
victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, drunk 
driving, elder abuse and robberies, as well as families of homicide 
victims and other victims of crime,"  said the Attorneys' General 
letter to Congress. "No victim of crime should be left without the 
means to overcome the horrific acts committed against them."

The appeal to Congress comes during National Crime Victims' Rights Month.

A copy of the letter is available at www.ncdoj.com .
Source: NC Department of Justice.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman