WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley today said that the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women has awarded a $1,110,000 to the Iowa State Judicial Branch in Des Moines through the Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders Program.
“The funds will help Iowa better enforce the Violence Against Women Act and will improve victim safety and hold the offenders accountable,” Grassley said.
The funds will help the Iowa State Judicial Branch implement certain provisions of the Violence Against Women Act.
Those provisions include improving the judicial handling of domestic violence cases by providing educational domestic violence courses for judges, prosecutors and police; encouraging judicial leadership to focus attention and resources on issues related to the administration of justice involving domestic violence cases with African American victims; involving faith-based and community-based initiatives within the African American community to improve safety of African American domestic violence victims which includes a community-driven extended accountability pilot project for African American offenders who have successfully completed the batterer’s intervention program; providing education programs, leadership training, and cross-training with traditional domestic violence service providers; enhancing the batterer’s intervention program to ensure it is culturally competent so more African American offenders successfully complete the program and the likelihood of protecting African American victims is increased; and implementing the safety and accountability audit recommendations.
The Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders Program provides grants to encourage state, local, and tribal governments and state, local and tribal courts to challenge the entire community to listen, communicate, identify problems and share ideas that will result in new responses to ensure victims safety and offender accountability in instances of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.