Nessel: Pandemic created a perfect storm for domestic violence

Nov. 9—TRAVERSE CITY — Attorney General Dana Nessel said there has been an exponential rise in domestic violence across the state in the last year.

Nessel visited the Women's Resource Center on Monday, meeting with staff and taking a tour of the Helen's House, the WRC emergency shelter. She also talked about legislation her office is working on to protect the addresses of survivors.

Called the Ricky Jack Legislation after a man who was arrested Friday on charges of homicide and first degree child abuse in the July multiple blunt force trauma death of his 4-month-old son, it aims to protect the privacy of victims and witnesses.

The Michigan Court of Appeals in March issued a decision in People of the State of Michigan v. Ricky Dale Jack, which says a prosecutor must provide the addresses and telephone numbers of victims and witnesses when turning over discovery under the Michigan Court Rules. The bills aim to reverse that opinion.

In addition, the AG's office just received $500,000 in funding to set up the Address Confidentiality Program that allows for victims of domestic violence to register their address so their personal information is not out there for the public to find, Nessel said.

There are also two sentencing bills Nessel opposes that provide prisoners with credits under which they could get out early and would leave victims unable to tell when their abuser is getting out of prison, Nessel said.

Juliette Schultz, executive director of the Women's Resource Center, said legislation that keeps a survivor's name and address confidential are important to keeping them safe. The No. 1 thing when a woman visits the WRC is creating a safety plan for her, Schultz said.

"Abusers are relentless," Schultz said, and will go to great lengths to find out where their victim is living.

Calls from women in crisis to the WRC increased by 40 percent in the Grand Traverse region in 2020, she said.

"I've never seen the number of crisis calls that we've had in the last year," she said.

Calls were down while the state was shut down, with many survivors trapped in homes with their abusers. As soon as the state reopened, WRC saw a surge.

Nessel said COVID presented the perfect storm for domestic violence.

"When things got difficult normally you'd go out, you'd be at work, you'd be at your family member's house, you'd go to your neighbor's house," Nessel said.

Then there was the pandemic.

"So everyone was told to remain with their households, and for households experiencing domestic violence it's a horribly dangerous and difficult space to be in," Nessel said.

That's why places like the WRC, which never closed during the pandemic, are so important, she said.

"It's so incredibly important to have safe spaces for domestic violence survivors and their family members, critically important," Nessel said.

Stress also contributed to the rise in domestic violence cases, Nessel said.

"When people are under pressure and are under stress they take it out on their own family members, unfortunately," Nessel said. "They're the ones closest to them. They're the ones that suffer the brunt."

Schultz said that while the pandemic with its job losses, unpaid bills and unmet needs may have contributed to domestic violence, she stressed that those are not the reasons a person abuses. A person abuses for power and control, she said.

During the pandemic, jails and prisons were incubators for the COVID virus and presented a danger to staff and to inmates, Nessel said. It also put jails in a bind, opening them up for liability, she said.

Because of that people were let out on bond who in the past would have been held without bond. Prisons also let people out at their earliest release date because of the virus, she said.

Nessel said that as the assistant prosecuting attorney in Wayne County she prosecuted hundreds of domestic violence cases. After leaving the office in 2005 to go into private practice she defended some who were accused of domestic violence. Working with both victims, witnesses and defendants gave her a unique perspective, she said.

"It's important to look at this issue from every angle so you can figure out how do we best address this epidemic in our state," Nessel said.

Nessel also visited The Rock in Kingsley's Senior Center Outreach to talk about consumer protection and scams.