Monroe County forms domestic violence study committee

Monroe County officials recently formed a study committee in an effort to better understand and respond more effectively to domestic violence in the area.

The committee is being referred to simply as the domestic violence study
committee.

“The question always is, can we do better?” said Charlotte Zietlow, chair of the newly formed committee.

Zietlow has been heavily involved as a social servant for years in the area. The Monroe County Zietlow Justice Building was named after her in honor of her work.   

The committee was set up to study the current state of the community’s response to domestic violence, Zietlow said.

The domestic violence case load has been consistent with about 200 cases per year in Monroe Country for the last several years, Monroe County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Gaal said.

Gaal initiated the committee, sending out invitations to key stakeholders to participate.

“The committee was formed to explore additional ways to improve services and implement the best practices regarding domestic violence in the community,” Gaal said in an email. “Our hope is that the committee will gather information and then evaluate the current community response to domestic violence, identify any potential areas for improvement and make the recommendations for any additional resources or public education and prevention efforts.”

Monroe County already has a Domestic Violence Task Force which meets regularly, Zietlow said.

But the new committee is designed for more in-depth research and bring a variety of perspectives together to address domestic violence, Zietlow said.

Gaal said about 20 community stakeholders have been invited to participate.
Zietlow and Gaal worked to come up with a broad list of key stakeholders, representing various sectors of the community involved in the local response to domestic violence.

Stakeholders include representatives from law enforcement, the justice system, the healthcare sector, victim advocates, relevant government agencies and commissions and other service providers, Gaal said.

Meetings first convened in December and have included presentations by representatives from Middle Way House, local Department of Child Services representatives, a sexual assault nurse examiner, a retired social worker from IU Health Bloomington Hospital, Southern Indiana Pediatrics and Court Appointed Special Advocates, according to a news release.

“There are a large spectrum of people (who) because of the nature of domestic violence, don’t seek help,” Zietlow said. “We want to be part of the effort as a community to help reach out to people, not necessarily just through the law, so they don’t have to suffer.”

The prosecutor’s office has sought continuous improvements in the handling of domestic violence cases in Monroe County since 2007, Gaal said.

The office publicly releases detailed monthly data on all domestic violence cases handled by the office. Additionally, since 2008, the prosecutor’s office has assigned a full-time victim assistant to work exclusively with victims of domestic violence.

The creation of the domestic violence study committee is an added action of these overall initiatives from the prosecutor’s office.

“We have never asked what happens to the survivors and what happens to the victims,” Zietlow said. “We have to keep talking about this, and we have never taken this sort of in-depth look at domestic violence in our community.”