APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Wisconsin’s attorney general and other community leaders are calling for additional support from the state budget to fund crime victim services.
The roundtable discussion in Appleton Wednesday comes during National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, which highlights the importance of supporting survivors and strengthening victim services.
“It’s a time to honor and support victims of crime, to identify barriers to justice and work to eliminate them and to recognize the critical services that crime victims rely on,” said Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul. “And there’s good news here in Wisconsin, which is that we have made real progress in supporting victims of crime in recent decades. We have added constitutional protections and statutory protections to our law, new programs have been developed that support crime victims.”
But after significant reductions in funding under the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), many programs have been forced to cut services and staff and scale back operations, leaving crime victims with fewer resources.
“For about a five-year period in Wisconsin, we were able to provide about $44 million [each year] in either VOCA funding, or a combination of VOCA and ARPA [American Rescue Plan Act] COVID relief funding to victim service providers around Wisconsin,” Kaul said. That number has now dropped to $13 million this year.
As a result, Wisconsin DOJ has requested a substantial state investment in the upcoming biennial budget to help address the funding gap and support critical victim services. With the decline in VOCA funding, the DOJ’s proposed budget request includes approximately $67.8 million in state funding over two years to support community victim service providers and maintain 17 victim service positions at DOJ.
“Victim service programs are stretched to the breaking point right now, and they need the influx of funds that we are requesting in the state budget, to continue not just surviving and getting by, but to getting back to really serving victims as effectively as possible in Wisconsin,” Kaul said.
Current victim services provided by DOJ include the services available through the Safe at Home program and the Victim Resource Center.
Kaul was joined at the news conference by Outagamie County District Attorney Mindy Tempelis, as well as Robin Scott, executive director of We All Rise, and Reiko Ramos, anti-violence program director of Diverse & Resilient.
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