Many crime victims unaware of financial assistance available to them

Yahoo

a day ago

A police car behind crime scene tape. While federal and state aid is available for crime victims, many say that they struggle to access it. (Getty Images)
Aieda Harris knows the pain of gun violence.
Her son Edward Reeves, an entertainer, a rapper whose stage name was 'Bambino Gold' based out of Atlanta, was shot and killed with a companion in 2017. His body was found in Macon County.
Three years later, her son Christopher Noel Brown, was shot in June 2020. He died three months later.
'They said he didn't die of the gunshot wound, he had other health issues, issues with his heart and his kidney,' she said. 'But I am sure having two bullet holes in him didn't help at all.'
She attempted to claim compensation for Edward's death under a state program allowing crime victims and their families to apply for help. But the process, she said, was difficult.
'The ABI (Alabama State Bureau of Investigation) agent, he put on the paperwork that my son was in the process of committing a crime when he died,' Harris said. 'He didn't have any proof of that at all. And so, since he put that on the paperwork, they denied my son's case. And they also said that we did not cooperate with them, which is crazy, I did everything that they asked us to do.'
A spokesperson for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, responsible for overseeing the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation, said its purpose is to be an independent fact-finding agency.
'When an individual is involved with a claim that is associated with the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission (ACVCC), law enforcement officers are required to provide information concerning the case and list that information on the ACVCC application,' the agency said in its statement. 'Certain eligibility requirements must be met as determined by the Commission such as the claimant or victim must fully cooperate with law enforcement and the victim must not have contributed to the offense.'
Harris was one of more than two dozen people that included activists and caregivers, along with other victims of violent crime who attended the 'Right to Heal: Access to Victim Compensation' hosted by the Alliance for Safety and Justice, a criminal justice reform organization based in Oakland, California, the first week of April.
The event was organized by Aswad Thomas, vice president of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, the flagship project of the Alliance for Safety and Justice, who is a victim of gun violence himself. Thomas was shot by two attempted robbers while leaving a convenience store in Hartford, Connecticut in 2009.
'I think they fired eight or nine times, and I was shot twice in my back close to my spinal cord,' Thomas said.
The physician told Thomas that the bullets were so close to his spinal cord that it wasn't clear whether he would walk again.
'That was when it hit me that I was a victim of gun violence,' Thomas said. 'My first, immediate thought, was 'Will I ever play basketball again?' My second thought — would I ever walk again?'
Thomas did manage to walk again, but the injuries ended any hope of a professional basketball career.
'Like so many victims across the country, I never received any support or services after that incident, and law enforcement, who came to visit me several times during my recovery process to see how I was doing, never mentioned anything about victim services or where I could go to get help,' he said.
Both Thomas and Harris are but two examples of people who were not able to receive assistance pertaining to instances of violent crime.
Several who attended the April event praised victim assistance organizations for offering aid. But organizers of the event highlighted how many victims do not receive any support as they endured their painful experiences.
Some, like Thomas, were unaware that support was available. But for others, such as Harris, highlight how the rules create barriers for people seeking assistance.
Victims of violent crimes are entitled to compensation from money offered by the Office for Victims of Crime, a department within the U.S. Department of Justice.
That agency manages the Crime Victims Fund that was established by the Victims of Crime Act of 1984, which is funded from fines and penalties from convictions in federal cases and not tax dollars, according to the agency's website.
That money is then allocated to states, as well as federal and tribal victim assistance programs, in the form of grants.
Typically, that money is distributed to victims through the state's crime victim's compensation program which can help defray costs such as medical care, counseling and lost wages, as well as funeral expenses for those who died because of an incident involving violent crime.
States can operate their own programs to assist crime victims and outline how to fund such assistance they make available to crime victims.
In Alabama, the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission reviews applications submitted by victims and their families seeking financial assistance for funeral expenses, medical bills, as well as counseling services and wage compensation.
But the commission, funded for decades by fines and fees from those convicted of crimes, struggled for years to collect the revenues it needed for crime victims.
'People who are assessed fines and fees generally don't pay them,' said Leah Nelson, formerly the research director at Alabama Appleseed who studies fines and fees in Alabama. 'So there isn't a lot of money to go around.'
The Alabama Legislature in 2023 made a direct appropriation to the commission for the first time in history. It also received a second tranche of money totaling $1 million from the Governor's supplemental appropriation to help with paying claims to victims.
Organizers of the Right to Heal event said few victims realize they have access to support. If they do reach out, it is difficult for them to obtain compensation because of the layers of rules and regulations pertaining to eligibility and the process.
According to a report published in 2022 by the Alliance for Safety and Justice, only 4% of victims stemming from violent crime received any compensation to help with recovering from the incident. Of those who did not receive any aid, almost half would have wanted some type of assistance.
Only 8% of victims of violent crimes surveyed as part of the report indicated that the criminal justice system provided sufficient support related to the violent crime incident.
About 29% reported they were unaware that support was available. Another 28% stated that the criminal justice system was 'very unhelpful' while another 15% reported the system was 'somewhat unhelpful.'
The report also indicates the criminal justice system offered little financial support because 87% of victims surveyed did not receive any financial assistance or economic support, while another 74% did not obtain any counseling or mental health assistance related to the violent crime incident.
Much of the support that victims receive comes from sources that are not part of the criminal justice system. More than half, 52%, received help from family or friends. Another 28% got assistance from medical providers while 16% received assistance from a community-based program.
Without adequate funding and having to navigate multiple obstacles, victims and their loved ones have little hope of receiving the resources they need to cope with the trauma of what they experienced.
'It would have been great to be educated about the psychological effects that I would be experiencing, and how to deal and cope with the PTSD, how to deal with the panic and anxiety attacks,' Thomas said. 'Learn to deal with the anger and the deep stage of depression I was in.'
Thomas also wanted pain management education. He said he was discharged from the hospital with a set of pain medications but received little training on how they worked. He would have sought financial support to be placed in a different neighborhood instead of returning to the area where he was shot, staying in the living room in his mother's house.
It would have been great to be educated about the psychological effects that I would be experiencing, and how to deal and cope with the PTSD, how to deal with the panic and anxiety attacks. Learn to deal with the anger and the deep stage of depression I was in.
– Aswad Thomas, vice president, Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice
Thomas would have also wanted the counselor or therapist to visit him at his mother's house.
'My car was impounded at the time of the shooting,' Thomas said. 'If a counselor or therapist was able to actually come to my home to provide those services, that would have helped.'
Thomas and the Alliance for Safety and Justice, recognizing that victims are not receiving the support they need, established a model to allow more victims to receive compensation.
The authors of the report suggested states remove the restrictions for victims who do not report the crime to law enforcement.
'But less than half — only 40% — of violent crimes are reported to the police at all. The victim may be too traumatized to go through the reporting process, may fear being revictimized, or may have reasons to distrust the justice system,' the report states.
They also suggest expanding the eligibility for receiving aid to those on probation and parole, or those with a criminal record, as well as ending the eligibility exclusions to receive funding, as in the case of Harris and her son.
'When a violent crime occurs, the nature of the activities the victim may or may not have been involved in at the time of the incident should not bear on compensation decisions,' the report states.
The Texas Legislature passed legislation in 2021 that allows a crime victim to claim compensation even if they are not ready to cooperate with law enforcement. Another bill that passed in Ohio, also in 2021, removed some eligibility restrictions for victims.
Other states, including Florida, Pennsylvania, California and Michigan, have extended the deadline for people to submit a claim with their respective crime victim's compensation commissions.
In California, the law more than doubled the limit from three years to seven years, according to the report.
The Alabama Crime Victims Compensation has worked to make changes, such as shortening the application and making it available for victims and their families to complete online.
They also continue to solicit funding to pay for operating expenses. However, commissioners are seeking more changes. In keeping with the actions of the other states, the commission seeks to extend the filing deadline for Alabama.
'How I was able to fill out the forms and get that done within the first year I just don't know,' said Darlene Hutchinson, one of the commissioners of the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission who was a victim of violent crime herself.
She said that the commission encountered many cases in which the application was filed after the one-year deadline for victims to file for claims, and that they are urging lawmakers to change that requirement.
'I think that is going to be huge for victims,' she said. 'A couple of my close victim-advocate friends who have been doing this work for 20-plus years, when I sent them a text message and told them that we are going to pursue this, they were just so excited.'
HB 355, sponsored by Rep. Russell Bedsole, R-Alabaster, would have increased the deadline for ACVCC claims from one to two years after the original crime.
'I think this is one that all members, regardless of what side of the political aisle you are on, we can all agree this is something that we want to do to support the victims in our state,' Bedsole said.
The bill passed the House but did not come to a vote in the Senate before the end of the 2025 legislative session.
'We were disappointed this bill did not get on the Senate calendar/agenda the final days of the session,' Hutchinson said after the session ended.
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