Hampden County District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni announced last week that, thanks to grants won by his office, he is able to create a new initiative in partnership with the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department and area women’s shelters, to address the issue of domestic violence in the county more effectively.
At a press conference Wednesday he announced the formation of the Stop Domestic Violence Team which will work to identify, track and prosecute domestic violence offenders, improve services for victims and their families, and work with pretrial detainees and incarcerated felons to help them change their behavior.
He said that by a team approach “chronic and violent domestic offenders will be identified for priority prosecution” and victims and their families will get “enhanced services provided through the victim witness staff here at the district attorney’s office and also now in combination with their partnership with the women’s shelter organizations outside the office.”
Donna Suckau, the domestic violence advocate for the Westfield Police Department, said “I think it’s going to be a phenomenal thing” and added “we’re going to try to get myself on the team.”
She said that the team members will identify and monitor high risk offenders in their areas and will be able to work together to keep track of offenders and their victims, so that advocates and law enforcement officers can protect victims and prosecute offenders promptly and aggressively.
She pointed to two recent cases in Westfield which illustrate the need for improved efforts to address domestic violence offenses.
Suckau said that the recent shooting of a man who was engaged in an attempt to get at his former wife is the type of thing which might be prevented with better sharing of information.
Although she said she does not know the background of the involved parties, she said “we didn’t know she was here.” She said that, if the woman and her former husband had been involved in previous incidents in other jurisdictions and a domestic violence professional had been tracking the man and coordinating with a colleague such as herself, the violence which led to his death might have been forestalled.
Suckau also cited a recent incident which resulted in an attempted murder charge, even though the victim refused to point a finger at her batterer and the suspect was arrested only because an independent witness who reported the event to police witnessed his actions.
“Thank God for the independent witness because otherwise who knows what would have happened” Suckau said.
She said that tracking high risk offenders will do much to combat the problem and working with others so that information can be shared will help.
“We do a lot of those things already but we’ve never been part of the bigger picture” she said. “I think its time this (police) department gets involved with the Hampden County District Attorney.”
Mastroianni said that the two grants won by his office total $220,000 and were awarded by the Commonwealth’s Executive Office of Public Safety.
He said that the money will be shared with the sheriff’s department, as well as local women’s shelters including The YWCA of Western Massachusetts and Womanshelter/Companeras in Holyoke.
The YWCA offers a variety of programs for women in the western Massachusetts area, including New Beginnings, a shelter in Westfield for battered women and their children.
Mary Reardon Johnson, the executive director of the YWCA, said that the problem of domestic violence is a “community issue” which is not limited to any specific city or town.
Johnson said “We are really going to have an impact if all of us work together.” She said the “exciting thing” about the DA’s new team is “some sharing of resources and some sharing of expertise.”
The grant funds which are made available to the sheriff will allow for counseling programs in the county jail both for pretrial detainees as well as offenders who have been convicted of domestic violence.
Additional information about help available from the D.A.’s office is available on the Internet at http://www.hampdenda.com/domestic_violence_unit.html.
