Justice and Courage Committee - October 2, 2020 - Minutes

Meeting Date: 
October 2, 2020 - 9:30am
Location: 

Family Violence Council: Justice and Courage Committee Meeting

October 2, 2020, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Online Meeting

  1. Welcome, Introductions/Check-in

 

  1. Update from Sentencing Commission ‘no cash bail’ program
    • Beverly Upton provided an update to the committee.
    • Discussion around what is the right way forward and what is likely to happen with cash bail policy in the state of California.

 

  1. Bridging Pretrial Communication Gap
    • Bay Area Legal Aid representative not available to present.
    • Beverly Upton and Brad Allred gave brief updates to committee; work still needs to be done to ensure no survivor arrests are taking place, but these arrest numbers are down.

 

  1. Treatment of Charges During Pandemic
    • Bay Area Legal Aid representative not available to present.

 

  1. Arrests of Domestic Violence Survivors
    • Bay Area Legal Aid representative not available to present.

 

  1. Electronic Monitoring in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Cases
    • Brad Allred gave an update; lawyers are providing the necessary victim information to the Judge, but work needs to be done for non-domestic violence cases.
    • No update on sexual assault cases.

 

  1. Update on DGO 6.09/Domestic Violence Manual and Training Plan for SFPD
    • Elise Hansell gave an update after meeting with SFPD.
    • Concerns around post screening form questions differing from Dr. Campbell’s research. Elise will reach out to SVU and DA offices and attach screening tools to discuss and give the opportunity to jointly provide suggestions.
    • Put on next meeting agenda for another update.

 

  1. Deferred Action on Domestic Violence Cases
    • Beverly Upton gave update.
    • Discussion around complexity of deferred action during COVID-19 pandemic and in amidst criminal justice reform efforts.
    • Concerns raised that pretrial diversion and deferred action is happening in domestic violence cases especially given lack of supervision of perpetrators.
    • Concerns raised about domestic violence cases receiving anger management as deferred action plan rather than batterer’s intervention programs.

 

  1. Planning agenda for 12/4/2020 meeting
    • Beverly to start a pre-trial conversation with David Mayoff in the new year.
    • Discuss prospect of Family Violence Council sub-committees reporting out to FVC more often; figure out how, what, and who will report out from Justice & Courage committee.
    • Have another update on DGO 6.09/Domestic Violence Manual and Training plan for SFPD.