SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 1318
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JUNE 17, 2019
The Senate Judiciary Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 1318.
This bill, as amended, would permit counties and non-governmental, community-based agencies, in partnership with the county and municipal governments therein, to establish family justice centers which provide coordinated, multi-agency governmental and non-governmental assistance to victims of certain crimes and offenses, as well as their family members. The crimes and offenses for which victims and their family members could request and access assistance, including legal, law enforcement, social services, and health care assistance, would include: domestic violence; sexual assault; human trafficking; and elder abuse or abuse of a disabled adult.
A family justice center would operate under a director, who would have expertise in victim advocacy based upon education, training, or experience. The center would be additionally staffed by a privacy officer, who would be responsible for overseeing the center’s privacy policies and procedures concerning the maintenance of confidential records on victims and their family members, and the limited sharing of information from those records and other sources amongst the providers of assistance at the center, as well as third-party service providers, when consented to by the victim. The county or non-governmental, community-based agency operating the center could also provide for any additional administrative and other personnel which it deemed necessary for the center’s proper operation.
The center, with the cooperation of the State’s Judiciary, municipalities, and non-governmental entities, would make available multi-agency assistance that is provided by, but not limited to, the following professionals and volunteers: law enforcement officers; county or municipal prosecutors; representatives from the Judiciary’s Domestic Violence Hearing Officer Program; the county’s victim-witness coordinator (or a designee); health care professionals; victim counselors, such as certified domestic violence specialists and rape care advocates; domestic violence shelter staff; staff from governmental and non-governmental, community-based social and human services agencies; and attorneys from Legal Services of New Jersey, its affiliates, or other legal service providers which assist low-income persons in civil matters. All of the providers of assistance at the center would complete a training program, consisting of eight or more hours of instruction annually, covering topics which include victim’s rights, risk assessments and case responses, and confidentiality issues associated with the treatment and protection of victims and their family members.
The director of the family justice center would consult, and develop policies and procedures in collaboration with non-governmental organizations involved in victim advocacy and services, as well as former victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and elder abuse or abuse of a disabled adult, concerning the center’s intake process for victims and family members, the forms of multi-agency assistance available at the center and the coordination thereof, and victim safety. The director could also collaborate with those organizations and former victims on any other aspect of the center’s operations.
The center would develop and maintain, under the immediate supervision of the center’s privacy officer, policies and procedures which comply with all applicable federal and State privacy laws pertaining to the confidentiality of records to be maintained on victims and their family members who request and access assistance through the center. All of the providers of assistance at the center would comply with the applicable laws on confidentiality and privileged communications concerning their respective professions. Nothing contained in the bill would be deemed to abrogate or modify any existing handling of confidential records or information, or privileged communications, as set forth and recognized under State or federal constitutional, statutory, or common law, or court rule, including any legal obligation by a provider of assistance to report or disclose to other parties specific information or incidents when the disclosure is mandated under State or federal law or required by court order.
The center would also develop and maintain (again under the supervision of the privacy officer) a procedure to seek and obtain the informed, voluntary, written consent from each victim at the time the victim initially requests to access assistance through the center. This consent would permit the collection and subsequent, limited sharing of the victim’s and family members’ confidential records and information, and the content of otherwise privileged communications, amongst some or all of the center’s personnel, some or all of the providers of assistance at the center, and third-party service providers not providing assistance at the center, as agreed to by the victim. A victim would not be required to provide written consent to the family justice center in order for the victim or any family member to access services at the center.
At the time of seeking the victim’s written consent for the collection and limited sharing of confidential and privileged records, information, and communications, the victim would also be informed that the limitations of any written consent, if given, would not prevent the sharing of any records, information, and communications offered by the victim or victim’s family members when there is a mandatory, lawful duty to report to other governmental officers or officials based upon information provided by the victim or a family member, the type of incident involved, or if the victim or family member is a danger to himself, herself, or others, or disclosure is required by a court order. The center would obtain a written acknowledgment from the victim regarding this duty to report or disclose.
In addition to this duty to report or disclose, the bill would authorize any family justice center to share information, as well as recommendations, concerning the center’s operations and its utilization by victims and their family members, which does not include any personal identifiers of those victims and family members, with Alliance for HOPE International, which is the national, nonprofit organization that assists with the development and operation of new and existing family justice centers and serves as a national membership organization for all centers. Among the information which could be shared would include, but would not be limited to, the number of victims and their family members who received assistance, the reasons assistance was sought, information on the disposition of criminal, disorderly persons, and petty disorderly persons cases handled at the center, and actual or perceived barriers to receiving available services. Alliance for HOPE International could file a report based upon the information it gathers with the Governor and the Legislature on an annual basis or as requested by the Attorney General, and this report could include recommendations for expanding or improving the Statewide operation of family justice centers.
The committee amendments to the bill:
- include provisions to prohibit the denial of family justice center services to victim’s or their family members’ solely on the basis of citizenship or immigration status.