A woman who filed charges against her abuser. A parent whose child has been arrested for drug crimes. A person who has been robbed at gunpoint.
All are victims, and all are likely unfamiliar with the turns of the criminal justice system.
“After the incident is over, many times they’re left on their own,” Concord City Manager Tom Aspell said. “I and the legal department and the city council don’t think that’s appropriate.”
Enter the victim witness advocate, who helps an affected person navigate criminal proceedings and find other services. For a victim of domestic violence, that could mean helping the person become financially stable after leaving a relationship. In a drug case, that could mean explaining the legal process or outlining treatment options. In other crimes, that could mean working with a victim to write an impact statement and even reading it in court.
Concord has long hosted an AmeriCorps volunteer who acts as a victim witness advocate for domestic violence cases; that full-time person is paid $14,000 a year through federal and private funding.
In the fiscal year 2016 budget, the legal department added $10,000 for a second part-time advocate, who is paid by the city of Concord. In the proposal for 2017, Aspell has asked to increase the hours for that second person from 10 to 15 per week.
“If I knew what I knew now, I would have put more money into it last year,” Aspell said.
The added cost would be less than $5,000, but city officials said the payout is much greater.
“They’re going to be times when (the advocate) is on the phone with that victim for an hour, because the victim needs to talk to someone,” Concord prosecutor Tracy Connolly said.
Drug-related crimes, in particular, have added to the demand for advocates.
“I worked for the (Drug Enforcement Agency) for five years, so I was well aware of the drug issues,” Connolly said. “People have always called it a victimless crime, and I never understood that. There are families of drug addicts. They weren’t the one who was assaulted, but their life is being affected by the drugs.”
“I regularly get parents in the courtroom, and I like to spend a lot of time explaining what’s going on, but the prosecutor can’t be that involved,” she added.
AmeriCorps has placed a victim witness advocate in Concord for at least 20 years. Connolly said the city’s experience with those volunteers helped create the additional position.
“But for them, we probably wouldn’t realize how much we needed the victim advocate in these offices,” she said.
Marie Linebaugh, program director for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, has worked closely with the AmeriCorps advocate.
“It’s really important, because when a survivor is introduced to the court system, most often it’s not a familiar territory for the individual,” she said. “An advocate can really make the process much more bearable.”
She described that person as a “liaison between the victim and the prosecutor.”
“While prosecutors are certainly victim-centered and victim-driven, they may not necessarily have the time to support the victim at the level the victim needs,” Linebaugh said.
Connolly said she hopes adding hours for the current city employee will allow her to increase responsibilities as well, such as delivering subpoenas and coordinating witnesses. And she suggested even more hours could be needed in the future.
“Looking ahead, if things keep going the way they do, I would say yes,” Connolly said. “The need is going to increase dramatically.”
For more information about Aspell’s budget proposal and a schedule of public hearings, visit concordnh.gov. A final public hearing and vote will take place June 6 at 7 p.m. in council chambers.
(Megan Doyle can be reached at 369-3321, mdoyle@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @megan_e_doyle.)