OKPOLICY.ORG
Three separate interim studies last week highlighted cultural violence or the way we deal with it. The House Criminal Judiciary Committee conducted an interim study on “child-sensitive arrest policies and practices in Oklahoma,” requested by Rep. Tim Turner, R-Kinta. Turner, a former Sheriff of Haskell County, was asked by the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth (OCCY) to request the study.
The purpose was to study current law enforcement policies, practices, and training related to arrests involving children, to identify promising practices, and to strengthen training and resource availability for law enforcement agencies.
Dr. David McLeod, chair of OCCY’s Children of Incarcerated Parents Advisory Committee and a director at the Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work at the University of Oklahoma, spoke about what children often experience when witnessing the arrest of a parent or caregiver.
McLeod said children may feel their safety is threatened or have caregiver separation anxiety and likely will be confused about what happens next. This can create acute or toxic stress and trauma responses, and later, potentially result in emotional and behavioral difficulty, negative family and police perceptions, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and physiological stress.
Shannon Luper, program director of Girl Scouts Beyond Bars and Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma, said that for many children, a parent’s arrest is their first interaction with the justice system. She pointed out that “parental arrest is not a single event for the child. It’s a journey.”
McLeod offered recommendations for helpful policies and practices, including having a trusted adult in place to give clear information about what is happening in the moment and what will happen next, and having a safe caregiver in place to provide follow-up support to help the child maintain school attendance and other activities.
A second study in the House Criminal Judiciary Committee was presented by Rep. Sam Wargin Grimaldo, D-Oklahoma City, and focused on combatting community violence through intervention programs. Grimaldo said community violence intervention is something that is very much needed in communities like his in central Oklahoma City.
Several speakers related how such intervention programs directly impacted them and diverted them away from committing crimes. David Medina, a former gang member and co-founder of an Oklahoma City-based outreach ministry, related his transition from a life of crime and prison time to his current ministry and community violence intervention work. While in Oklahoma County Jail, a chaplain helped Medina toward faith and healing. After being released from prison, he began helping those like him, who deserved a second chance and the same peace he felt.
Jess Eddy, co-founder of Peace City in Oklahoma City, described the organization’s community-based violence intervention efforts. “PeaceMakers,” who are specially trained in violence intervention, engage young people and redirect harmful behavior toward constructive outcomes.
Mike McLively, policy director at the Giffords Center for Violence Intervention, named for former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, provided lawmakers with six broad solutions to consider placing in legislation: 1. The creation of a Community Violence Review Board; 2. A statewide needs and gap assessment to assess where community violence intervention is working and where there may be gaps; 3. Establishing a community violence intervention grant program for community-based organizations and their partners; 4. Creating a violence-prevention coordinating office; 5. Establishing hospital-based violence intervention pilot programs in both Oklahoma City and Tulsa; and 6. Using Medicaid to reimburse violence prevention professionals.
A study in the Senate Judiciary Committee requested by Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, examined current “supervised visitation” practices in Oklahoma with an eye toward improved child safety, consistent standards, strengthened accountability, and expanded access to supervised visitation resources and services.
Supervised visitation can be implemented by the Department of Human Services (DHS) and ordered by a court where a child has been removed from the home, followed by a juvenile court filing as a deprived child. It can also be ordered in divorce cases.
In juvenile court, an investigation of the facts — either by law enforcement, DHS, or both — helps the court decide the necessity and type of supervised visitation. It can range from constant physical presence of a certified visitation supervisor during visitation to lesser degrees of supervision. The process in divorce court relies primarily on allegations by the parties in the divorce proceedings and the results of any DHS or law enforcement investigation.
The committee heard testimony from judges; DHS; the Attorney General’s Office, which certifies domestic violence and batterers intervention programs; YWCA in Oklahoma City, which works with survivors of domestic violence; and the Office of Family Representation, which provides high-quality legal representation with interdisciplinary teams in deprived cases.
The final witness was a grandmother whose grandchild died during a supervised visit with the child’s abusive parent. The person designated to supervise the visit was the abusive parent’s mother — the child’s other grandmother.
Several of the witnesses were asked for recommendations to improve the system and promised to collaborate to make recommendations to the Legislature.
Child safety and community violence remain persistent problems that can cause devastating, generational harm. Here’s thanks to the legislators and state agencies working to strengthen our child protection and public safety systems.
