House lawmakers voted this week toward ending abuse of children in residential care facilities managed by religious organizations – abuse that lawmakers called “horrific,” and amounting to “torture.”
Representative Rudy Veit (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bills 557 & 560 would eliminate the exemption from state supervision for such homes.
Lee’s Summit representative Keri Ingle (D), who filed an identical bill, said Missouri is one of the only states that doesn’t oversee religious-based youth homes. Because of that, bad actors have been coming here and then seeking out children with behavioral issues, mental issues, or whose needs weren’t being met.
The legislation would require those homes to provide background checks for all employees; notify the state of their location; and allow Social Services to see children when abuse is suspected.
It would not allow the state to change a home’s religious teachings or foundation. Viet said he believes that religious-based youth homes, when run properly and honestly, can benefit children.
The Missouri Legislature this session passed three provisions aimed at addressing the thousands of untested rape kits in the state.
The Missouri legislature passed some measures that would address how forensic examination kits, or “rape kits,” are handled in Missouri. Advocates say the changes will likely result in more prosecutions and cases being closed, and better resolutions for victims. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Those kits include DNA samples and other evidence collected in medical examinations conducted after sex crimes. The Attorney General’s Office has learned of more than 5,000 forensic evidence kits that have gone untested in Missouri. The exact number remains unclear as not all agencies in the state responded to that office’s inquiries.
Public Policy Director with the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, Jennifer Carter Dochler, said for a kit to be sitting on a shelf when a victim wants it to be tested is, “incredibly traumatizing.”
The Attorney General’s report suggested among other things that the state secure funding for testing kits; create a statewide tracking system for kits; and create standards for the handling of kits. Those recommendations were addressed by the legislature in its session that ended in May.
House Bill 1355 includes language that requires the Attorney General’s Office to create a statewide tracking system for forensic evidence from sexual assaults.
The budget approved by the legislature also gives the Attorney General’s Office authority to apply for a federal grant to fund a statewide tracking system. The office should learn in September whether it will receive that grant money.
HB 1355 also requires that hospitals and other medical providers should notify law enforcement when they have a forensic evidence kit; that law enforcement shall take possession of a kit within 14 days of that notification; law enforcement shall take it to a laboratory for testing within 14 days of taking possession of it; and that law enforcement will hold on to a kit for 30 years if the related crime has not been prosecuted.
Carter Dochler says this will bring statewide continuity to how evidence kits are treated.
She said some issues that still must be addressed concern how a kit will be handled when the victims in the associated case has not made a decision whether to report the crime to law enforcement. She said many of these “unreported” kits remain in hospitals.
She said some of those issues could be addressed in departmental rules and regulations, and might not require future legislative action. HB 1355 does define “reported” and “unreported” kits, and she said those definitions are a first step toward consistency.
Even with such areas still requiring attention, Carter Dochler said from the Coalition’s point of view, the 2018 legislative session saw the passage of many important laws.