Blueprint for Safety — a collaboration of Rice County agencies led by the HOPE Center — released a new report with recommendations aiming to improve outcomes for victims of domestic violence.
The report, which was based on focus groups and case studies in 2023 and 2033, is critical of Rice County judges and the Rice County Attorney’s Office under former leadership for being too soft on offenders.
But some of the report’s recommendations have already been implemented and the new Rice County attorney said his office has become more victim-centered, including having two attorneys who specialize in domestic, sexual and child violence cases, which have led to an increase in felony-level domestic violence convictions.
The report was released at a press conference Thursday, the day after all law enforcement agencies in the county completed a domestic violence victim training session.
Blueprint for Safety was launched in 2014, modeled after an initiative in St. Paul. The collaboration brings together social service, law enforcement and justice system agencies with an objective to “prevent and interrupt domestic abuse incidents and patterns.”
“We know the key to keeping victims safe and holding offenders accountable is by working together,” HOPE Center Executive Director Erica Staab-Absher said Thursday. “Time and time again we have found that the most success happens when we work together towards a collective goal of victim safety and offender accountability.”
But the initiative lost some steam after a few years, the new report acknowledges, after the coordinator left and other partners experienced staff turnover, and the pandemic.
The report also faults lack of participation from judges and the County Attorney’s Office, even describing the latter as taking “what could best be described as an adversarial role.”
On Tuesday leaders said Blueprint for Safety is gaining new momentum.
“What makes the Rice County Blueprint team so special is that every partner organization is committed to working together,” Martha Brown, a consultant who worked on the report, said after the press conference. “It wasn’t always this way, and the Blueprint 2.0 Report documented those problems. But we’ve implemented so many recommendations in a short time because now everyone is on board.
“We still have more work to do, but with the law enforcement training we’ve just completed and the unwavering support of the County Attorney’s Office, we can better support victims of domestic violence while sending a clear message to perpetrators that they are no longer going to get a slap on the write for abusing their partners.”
Brian Mortenson, who took the helm as county attorney last year, said he immediately began working to address the concerns that are noted in the report.
“My office has become more victim centered, more trauma informed,” he said. “We’re committed to making the necessary reforms in order to better support our victims.“
Mortenson noted the rehire of Wendy Murphy as chief assistant county attorney. She had previously worked in the County Attorney’s Office and helped establish Blueprint for Safety in the county. She’s now one of two attorneys who specialize in prosecuting ‘special victims’ cases.
Murphy admitted that before she became involved in Blueprint for Safety she wrongly believed she “knew everything there needed to be known about domestic violence and that I just needed to prosecute better so that I could get all the victims to respond how I felt they should have.” Staab-Absher gently helped her realize she had much more to learn, she said.
Mortenson said his office also has refocused the duties of the crime victim coordinator to “more effectively communicate with victims and connect them with services and advocates.”
“We’re not just giving victims a voice. We’re listening to them and making sure that they’re being heard,” he said.
Report recommendations
The recommendations in the report include lists of training topics for prosecutors, judges, law enforcement, and all Blueprint for Safety partners, as well as public education.
As of Wednesday, all law enforcement agencies in the county had completed a four-hour training. Faribault Police Chief John Sherwin and Northfield Police Chief Mark Elliott said the course concentrated on victim-centered responses to and investigations of domestic violence incidents.
For years officers have been asking victims three questions to assess the victim’s risk level and have been connecting victims with HOPE Center advocates. The training reinforced and provided some new best practices, the chiefs said. One of the trainings was recorded to be viewed by new officers as they come on board.
Another theme among the report recommendations was to hold offenders more accountable.
There was concern that cases were too often being not prosecuted or pled down to a lesser charge, that repeat offenders were too quickly and often being let out of jail before trial, restraining orders and other conditions of release are not being enforced and that prior history is not adequately taken into account when offenders are charged and sentenced.
Mortenson said his two dedicated prosecutors already are addressing the concerns in their purview.
“This change has resulted in an increase in the number of felony-level domestic violence convictions,” he said. “It has resulted in a decrease in the number of felony domestic cases being reduced to misdemeanors or dismissed overall. And we no longer shy away from trying special victims cases when we have the evidence to prove it without the victim. Because even when the victim is too afraid to testify, they deserve justice.”
Other recommendations in the report include reviving the Blueprint for Safety coordinator position, adding night staffing at the HOPE Center because most domestic violence calls occur overnight, offering more treatment opportunities to offenders and engaging more diverse voices in the collaborative.
Staab-Absher said the efforts require state and federal financial support, but the HOPE Center has not received an increase in state funding since 2016 and that one source of federal funding is being reduced.
“Our services are underfunded and the demand is outpacing our capacity,” she said.
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