Program areas at JHF
Our work in the 2022 legislative session created meaningful change for more than 40,000 survivors of reported sexual assault annually. We successfully supported legislation for the first time in Kansas and rhode island. In 2022, 17 states introduced 29 bills related to Joyful Heart's six pillars of legislative reform. Of these, Alaska passed a law to improve testing timelines; California and Missouri passed laws granting victims access to tracking systems; Kansas established testing timelines; new york passed a tracking system law; rhode island required an annual inventory, backlogged kit testing, testing timelines, and granted victims' rights. Connecticut, Illinois, and Michigan provided additional funding for rape kit reform, while Florida passed a statute of limitations bill in child sexual assault cases. Cont'd on sched. O. In 2022, we rebuilt our website www.endthebacklog.org to allow easier access to our resources with a more interactive interphase. The new website more clearly lays out our progress over the years and has better user experience design. As the leading organization in the country in backlog reform, we have the expertise, research and advocacy outcomes, databases, charts, trackers, and advocacy materials to inform and guide the public on the issue. With our new website, survivors, advocates, journalists, elected officials, and the public have easier access to our resources to mobilize and advocate for comprehensive rape kit laws. In december we released a 10-year report titled "the state of the backlog". This report provides a birds-eye view of the rape kit reform movement, focusing on what Joyful Heart and out partners have accomplished and what more needs to be done to eliminate the backlog once and for all. The report provides lessons learned, and what is missing to continue to make progress in eliminating the backlog of untested rape kits nationwide. It also explores some new areas of work for us, including victim compensation and statutes of limitations reform. A large part of the policy team's efforts is to monitor the implementation of current laws and inform future legislative proposals, potential enhancements to current laws, and ways to hold governments accountable to their rape kit reform commitments. This year, we carried out a lengthy implementation audit and received backlog, funding, and tracking system updates for Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, new hampshire, new jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. Through these efforts we confirmed that Idaho, Michigan, and west Virginia ended their backlog. We worked with the Delaware state auditor's office on a project to examine their backlog and rape kit handling procedures. We also collaborated with Washington state's auditor's office on a forward testing compliance project they were carrying out. We met with them on several occasions and provided technical support, and helped them make connections to other stakeholders in the field. As part of our ongoing accountability work, Joyful Heart issued public records requests to the 21 of largest cities in California. This was in response to an incomplete and non compliant inventory in that state, established by ab3118. Of the jurisdictions we sent foias to, twelve provided sufficient data, and nine provided partial data: 19,946 kits were collected from the late 1980s to 2022, 11,543 of which were submitted for testing, 1,714 were destroyed, and 4,376 were not tested. We also submitted public records requests to nassau county, new york and nine of Texas' largest cities that failed to participate in the inventory: 11,926 kits were collected from 1996 to 2021, 8346 of which were submitted for testing, three were destroyed, 1826 were not tested, and 1510 were partially tested (screened for dna). We continue our efforts to uncover the true extent of the backlog. Sexual assault kits and reforming the response to rape, a book by prof. rachel e. lovell and prof. jennifer langhinrichsen-rohling, was published on november 11, 2022. Our chapter, called eliminating the rape kit backlog: federal and state legislative responses, focuses on the history of rape kit reform, the origin of the six pillar approach, legislative trends, and the future of rape kit reform. This was a great opportunity to display all of our unique data we have collected over the years, and contribute what we know to the rest of the criminal justice field. At the federal level, we continued to urge congress to appropriate funds for the sexual assault kit initiative (saki). Our bill, fairness for survivors of the backlog act, passed as part of vawa 2022. We supported another bill that is now law - the ending forced arbitration of sexual assault and sexual harassment act. On december 5, rep. joyce (r-oh) introduced a congressional resolution encouraging states to adopt our six pillars of reform.