Sen. Rafferty introduces legislation to implement sexual assault kit tracking system in Maine
AUGUSTA – On Thursday, Sen. Joe Rafferty, D-Kennebunk, introduced a bill that stands up for sexual assault survivors by implementing a statewide sexual assault tracking kit system, representing a crucial first step to achieve comprehensive sexual assault reform in Maine. The bill LD 1484, “An Act to Improve Sexual Assault Kit Tracking,” was the subject of a public hearing before the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety.
“The idea for this bill came about after having conversations with my youngest daughter, Danielle, this past summer. She’s always paid attention to issues, and we’ve had great discussions over the years. At some point, she brought it to my attention that Maine’s rape response didn’t fare well by comparison to other states,” said Sen. Rafferty. “Knowing this, I knew we had to improve our approach. With the help of folks from Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MECASA), we developed a response. I am positive that this legislation will make a difference to survivors of sexual assault here in Maine.”
Each year, about 14,000 Mainers experience sexual violence. A small number of those who experience sexual violence access the criminal justice system. This bill makes an important improvement to how the criminal justice system responds to survivors of sexual violence on an individual basis and allows us to gather more information systemically.
Currently in Maine, when a survivor of sexual violence gets a sexual assault forensic examination, they have two choices: complete their kit anonymously without making a report to law enforcement, or complete their kit and report their sexual assault to law enforcement. Maintaining the anonymous option is important, because it allows survivors to access essential medical care in the form of treatment for injuries and for pregnancy and HIV prevention, without needing to make a police report if they do not feel they can safely do so. Survivors can, and often do, choose to report their sexual assault and provide their sexual assault forensic examination as evidence for a law enforcement investigation. No matter which option a survivor chooses, their kit is stored for at least eight years. If they initially chose to make an anonymous report, they can later change their mind during this time.
Pursuant to Maine law, if a person reports a sexual assault, law enforcement has 60 days to investigate the assault before being required to pass the case along to the local district attorney’s office.
LD 1484 would help improve Maine’s current processes and systems by creating a position within the Department of Public Safety to begin the process of taking the next two steps of creating a kit tracking system that allows survivors access to information about the current status of their kit and creating an inventory of currently stored sexual assault kits.
These two steps are important for a variety of reasons. Having a kit tracking system allows survivors direct access to information about their kit without having to make phone calls to law enforcement and prosecutor’s offices, who are often very busy, to access information about their kits. In some cases, survivors may not feel safe to make such a call in the middle of their day. This system would allow survivors to access the information when and where they want to. In addition, it allows the State of Maine to better track and access data about kits generally. Creating an inventory of existing kits allows officials to better understand if there are reported kits that are not being tested, and, if so, the reasons why those kits are not being tested.
“We need to build a system that supports survivors in the long term. This inventory system would improve accessibility for survivors to keep track of the status of their own kits. Having access to this knowledge can be vital in their own process of healing and allows survivors to choose what actions they wish to pursue. Moving through the legal system is a traumatic experience. We need to ensure that we are working toward building a framework that supports survivors unconditionally,” said Sen. Jill Duson, in testimony supporting the bill. “It is time for us to reform our systems to better support survivors statewide. This bill is an incremental and critical step forward in the right direction.”
End the Backlog is a national nonprofit organization with the mission to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse; support survivors’ healing; and end this kind of violence forever. They advocate for rape kit reform legislation and policies based on their six pillars of reform. Maine is the only state in the country that has not passed any of these six pillars of reform.
Melissa Martin, Public Policy and Legal Director of MECASA, testified in support of LD 1484:
“Over the last few years, we have been grappling with what reforms make sense in Maine. Three have risen to the top – how to give survivors easy access to real-time data about the status of their kits, how to get a better statewide handle on the status of kits from hospital to the emergency to crime lab, and which kits, beyond those which are headed to prosecution, should be processed,” said Martin. “This bill is the critical next step in addressing these issues. It would help us get a kit tracking system up and running in Maine, which will provide desperately needed data about where kits are in the process and, we hope, give us a better sense of the myriad of reasons why kits are not making it to the lab.”
The bill faces further action in committee.
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