DA pushes for victim witness advocate

BANGOR – Advocates say the victims of crimes they serve in Penobscot County are being revictimized by a system that is underfunded and can’t meet the needs of those harmed in crimes.

Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy on Tuesday approached the Penobscot County commissioners and appealed for another full-time victim witness advocate.

The commissioners said that the county’s budget committee could take up the matter later this fall but expressed doubt that there was room for additional positions in the budget.

The county has three such positions, and through a grant and assistance from Piscataquis County, where Almy also services as district attorney, a part-time position helps to fill in some of the gaps. Last fall, a Penobscot County budget committee added $15,000 to try out a part-time position.

That’s not enough, according to Almy who said that for three years, he’s tried to increase his victim advocate staff by a full-time position.

Victim witness advocates form a liaison between the victims of crimes and the court system and provide notification of court dates, plea offers, sentence recommendations and sentencing dates and other information. They are supposed to help notify witnesses of court dates.

Last year, the advocates in Penobscot County oversaw restitution payments of about $171,000 to victims in 921 court cases, Almy said.

Providing information to victims is a legal obligation established by the state and it’s not being fully met, he said.

“I’m still concerned we have these legal obligations that the state imposed on us and we are not meeting the requirements that have been outlined for us,” Almy said after the meeting.

Marcy Ouellette, victim witness advocate coordinator for Penobscot County, worked with victims in many of the nearly 1,500 domestic assault cases last year. She said, however, there are many more victims with whom she and other advocates couldn’t work sufficiently or at all.

“The problem is that there’s way too many crimes and not enough of us,” Ouellette said after the meeting. Without more staff, victims may miss their chance to speak at a sentencing or provide input into a sentencing plea.

“It’s not fair to these people; they’re being revictimized by our system,” she said.

Funding is tight, however, and Penobscot County Commissioner Tom Davis predicted tough times for municipalities and said that the county was doing its part to keep the costs down.

“Hard times could well be upon the municipalities, and the county commissioners aren’t going to add to their grief,” Davis said during the commissioners’ meeting.

Davis pointedly remarked that Almy hadn’t filled the part-time position the budget committee approved last fall and predicted commissioners wouldn’t be supporting adding a full-time position.

“You better spend it, because we’re not going to make it a full-time position,” Davis said.

The part-time position was intended to help in assessing the office’s needs, Commissioner Peter Baldacci said. Almy said a full-time position would attract better candidates and that the position wasn’t immediately filled so that more hours would be available during the second half of the year.

Part of the commissioners’ concern is that funding for the part-time position was based on projected fee revenues from the Registry of Deeds being up. So far revenues are below what they were the same time last year, county officials said. Meanwhile, the number of jail inmates is up, as is the cost of boarding them in other jails.

Penobscot County Administrator Bill Collins said the county budgeted $150,000 for the outside boarding of jail inmates and that through the end of April, $123,495 has been spent. If it continues in the same fashion, $370,000 will be spent by year end.