Working to Fill in the Gaps : Groups Float Creative Ideas to Save Cash-Strapped Family Violence Unit

Swamped by a threefold increase in reported spousal abuse and lacking new funding, the city attorney’s nationally praised domestic violence unit has been forced to stop taking new cases for at least the next four months.

But thanks to an extraordinary effort by a coalition of concerned community agencies--ranging from the San Diego County Bar Assn. to the YWCA--new and creative ideas are emerging that could ensure that this civic asset is once again fully utilized.

Certainly, the domestic violence unit, founded in 1986 by Deputy City Atty. Casey Gwinn, is an investment San Diego can ill afford to squander. It prosecutes more abuse cases than any other prosecuting office in the nation. And it has been sanctioned as the model prosecution unit by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

In a county where domestic violence is the No. 1 cause of injury to women, every effort must be made to ensure that this unit not only survives but grows--just as the problem is growing.

From 1986 to 1991, reports of domestic violence jumped from 5,000 a year to 11,700. When the San Diego Police Department recently formed a special unit to investigate family violence, the number of cases referred to Gwinn’s office almost tripled. That gridlocked the prosecution unit and forced it to stop processing cases unless the abuser was already in custody or under arrest.

Given the city’s lingering budget woes, it’s unlikely that Gwinn’s unit can expect a new infusion of funds anytime soon. And Gwinn acknowledges that even if the city could afford to double the size of his eight-attorney staff, other parts of the system would simply be overloaded by the cases it generated.

That’s what makes the suggestions that emerged from this week’s meeting between Gwinn and the community groups so intriguing. Their cooperative, creative brainstorming could prove a model for getting things done in an era of cash-short governments.

Short-term proposals include having Family Court order abusers into treatment programs as a requirement for continued custody or visitation rights. Juvenile Court could also refer more abusers to treatment when it uncovers domestic violence while investigating suspected child abuse. And a work-furlough program, financed largely by payments from the abusers themselves, could be established where treatment would be available in a highly structured environment.

In the long term, of course, more funding will be necessary. Voters could be asked to approve a modest sales-tax increase to fund domestic violence programs. Such a measure passed in Washington’s King County last year. In Detroit, officials are considering placing a bond measure on the ballot to raise $2.5 million to shelter victims and prosecute their abusers.

Those fiscal measures aren’t going to win approval here anytime soon. Just last week recession-weary local voters’ defeated a proposed sales tax increase to fund the criminal justice system. But the other ideas have merit--and the potential to lessen the load on Gwinn’s overburdened unit.