Safe Haven’s Domestic Abuse Intervention Program is ready to go. Now it needs judges to refer abusers to the program.
“We’ve got our place where we’re going to meet, the time and all that,” Joyce Tucker, executive director of Safe Haven, told The Dispatch. “We just need some support now.”
Safe Haven’s DAIR program is designed to work with people convicted of domestic violence over a period of 24 weeks, helping them change their violent behavior and attitudes about women.
Tucker secured funding for the program via a $2,550 grant from United Way of Lowndes County. Two program facilitators — one from Lowndes County, one from Oktibbeha County — have been trained and are ready to run the program. Tucker has secured a time and place for the classes — Tuesdays at 6 p.m. at the Lowndes County Justice Court Building — and arranged for security to be present.
Though people can self-refer themselves for the program, Tucker expects the majority to be sent by justice court and municipal court judges.
Former Columbus Municipal Court Judges Marc Amos and Nicole Clinkscales both indicated that they were willing to refer domestic violence offenders to the program. Amos and Clinkscales have since left the bench, however, and the DAIR program appears to be back at square one.
Tucker said she has not yet spoken to the two new municipal judges — Gary Goodwin and Rhonda Hayes Ellis — but she intends to.
Goodwin and Ellis have not responded to messages from The Dispatch.
Lowndes County Justice Court Judge Peggy Phillips told The Dispatch that after discussing the program with Tucker, she is not interested in referring people to the program.
“As far as my particular court, I’m just satisfied with what we have right now without adding anything else,” Phillips said.
Phillips currently refers abusers to anger management programs through the Justice Court’s probation system. If abusers don’t complete the program, Phillips said, she sends them to jail.
“In all the years I’ve been on the bench,” she said, “I’ve sentenced two people to jail for six months for contempt for not following the direct order on a domestic violence case. And our program works real well with our probation and intervention program. Anger management program works real well with us.”
Justice Court Judge Chris Hemphill said he would consider referring some abusers if the need arose, but he also is satisfied with the anger management program currently used through the court system. He added that in recent months, he hasn’t even used that program much.
“I just have not had that many domestic violence cases come before me,” he said. “Several years ago we were having an awful lot of them … but I just have not had many where I’ve involved counseling services.”
Justice Court Judge Ron Cooke indicated that he wanted to meet with Tucker to discuss the program. They had spoken back when Tucker was still trying to secure the grant.
“Of course I told her, ‘If you get everything up and running…I’d like to look at the program,” Cooke said.
Tucker previously told The Dispatch that anger management programs do not work as well as DAIR programs. Those classes tend to be shorter and not address underlying issues that cause batterers to abuse their victims.
“It’s a power and control issue,” Tucker said. “It’s not about managing anger.”
Cooke agreed, and said he’s likely in support of the Safe Haven program, and would like Tucker to come and show him what steps an individual would have to go through to enroll.
“(Anger management’s) not the answer,” he said. “You have to change a person’s behavior.”
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