Johnson City to open Family Justice Center

When it opens in July, the center will act as a “one stop shop” for resources to help those affected by domestic violence.

There are many different services for victims of domestic violence in the Johnson City area. There’s a Legal Aid office on West Walnut Street, which provides civil legal services and special programs for victims of domestic violence. If you need the district attorney, who has a special prosecutor for domestic violence cases, their office is on West Jackson Boulevard in Jonesborough. The Johnson City Police Department is on East Main Street.

These services can be miles apart and difficult to reach in times of crisis.

Therefore, in order to better help victims of domestic violence, a Family Justice Center will be opening in the downtown Johnson City area. A final location has yet to be secured, but it will be near lines of public transportation.

The center, with a projected opening date of July 1, is the latest in a series of Family Justice Centers opening across the state. Tennessee is the second state in the U.S. to approve a Family Justice Center initiative statewide, after California.

“The statistic I always throw out there, more when I talk to the government, about the prevalence of domestic violence is that there were 3,322 calls [reported by Washington County 911] in 2015 that were domestic violence related. You’re going to imagine that’s the very small tip of the iceberg.”

Tennessee, through Governor Bill Haslam’s public safety action plan, also offers grant money to organizations wanting to start a Family Justice Center through the state’s Office of Criminal Justice Programs. This makes Tennessee the first state to fund Family Justice Centers with this type of grant.

The concept gained national attention in 2003, following President George W. Bush’s Family Justice Center Initiative, which set aside $20 million in federal money to create “one stop shops” for victims of family violence and their children. The centers, inspired by the model set by the San Diego Family Justice Center that opened in 2002, house resources such as legal aid, special prosecutors, medical professionals, and victim’s advocates under one roof.

According to the United States Office on Violence Against Women, the San Diego Family Justice Center reduced the rate of domestic violence homicides by 95 percent from 2002 to 2007. This precedent was recognized as part of 2005’s Violence Against Women Act, which promoted Family Justice Centers as a type of organization that is eligible to receive federal funding.

The first Tennessee Family Justice Center was opened in 2006 in Knoxville, as one of the first 15 Family Justice Centers funded by the federal government’s Office on Violence Against Women. In its first year of operation the Knoxville Family Justice Center served over 1,200 victims of domestic violence, and collaborates with over 60 different agencies to provide various services to victims. Since then, additional centers have opened in Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga and Cookeville through grants from the state of Tennessee.

Johnson City was awarded a state grant for a Family Justice Center to be developed in the Washington County area in 2014. The grant was obtained to begin a three-year plan to develop the program, begin coordinating the services needed and find a location near lines of public transportation. These are all requirements to be affiliated with the Family Justice Center Alliance, a national organization that provides research and additional funding for centers across the country. Additional funding was secured by instituting a $45 court cost on all non-traffic or class A misdemeanor cases in Washington County.

Heather Brack, from the Johnson City Police Department, has been the full-time site coordinator for the Johnson City Family Justice Center since the grant was awarded.

“The statistic I always throw out there, more when I talk to the government, about the prevalence of domestic violence is that there were 3,322 calls [reported by Washington County 911] in 2015 that were domestic violence related.” said Brack. “You’re going to imagine that’s the very small tip of the iceberg.”

Even only looking at northeast Tennessee, the numbers of domestic violence cases are high. In Washington and Johnson county in 2014 there were an average of 104 reported cases of domestic violence per month, according to TBI data. In the counties of Cumberland, Putnam, and Fentress, neighboring counties in Middle Tennessee with a similar population size as Washington and Johnson, there were only 89 average cases of domestic violence per month in 2014, using the same TBI data.

The district attorney in Alameda County tracked the percentage of cases dismissed before and after the opening of the Family Justice Center, and found that what once was a dismissal rate of 31 percent for felony domestic violence in 2006 dropped to 18.68 percent in 2009.

Assistant District Attorney and special domestic violence prosecutor Leon Marshall said that he receives, on average, 70–75 new domestic violence cases per month in the same counties, with 50–55 of those coming from Washington County alone.

Family Justice Centers all across the country have a proven track record of reducing domestic violence. When one opened in Alameda County, California, the number of domestic violence homicides dropped from 30 in 2001 to only seven in 2007, according to a study by the Family Justice Center Alliance. New York City saw a 21 percent drop in family violence related crimes and a 51 percent decrease in intimate partner homicides after the opening of a Family Justice Center there.

A problem often repeated by both Brack and Assistant District Attorney Marshall was the fact that victims often change their mind or fail to appear in court to press charges, resulting in the case being dismissed. The resources in Family Justice Centers have shown that they decrease the amount of cases being dismissed due to a victim’s refusal to participate. The district attorney in Alameda County tracked the percentage of cases dismissed before and after the opening of the Family Justice Center, and found that what once was a dismissal rate of 31 percent for felony domestic violence in 2006 dropped to 18.68 percent in 2009.

When the Johnson City Family Justice Center opens in July, the system brings with it a track record of reducing domestic violence and offers counseling and support for past victims all under one roof. It provides a hub for services all under one roof in an easy-to-access location.

If you are in crisis and need assistance before the Family Justice Center opens on July 1, please call the Safe Passage domestic violence shelter at 423–926–7233. Heather Brack’s office is currently located at Memorial Park Community Center, 510 Bert St., Johnson City, but will be relocated to the site of the Johnson City Family Justice Center after it opens.