New Program to Help Protect Domestic Violence Victims

California is embarking on an innovative program to protect victims of domestic violence, mostly women and children, from being tracked down by their attackers and harmed again.

Starting July 1 under a little-noticed new law, survivors fleeing domestic abuse will be offered a free post office box for mail forwarding by Secretary of State Bill Jones.

For an extra measure of security, certain records that are normally public--such as voter registration information--will be made confidential, although they can be opened by court order.

“So many of these women just wind up going underground, running, trying to keep themselves one step ahead of a former spouse or boyfriend,” said state Sen. Dede Alpert (D-Coronado), author of the law that was passed last summer.

Supporters agree that the law will not guarantee total safety, but Jones said it will give victims an “additional layer of security they need to protect themselves and safeguard against further attacks.”

Modeled on a pioneering effort by Washington state, the California confidential address program will begin enrolling an expected 4,000 participants this summer. During its first year, the program will cost an estimated $519,000.

Program participants will be provided a post office box, which will be emptied daily by employees of the secretary of state. Participants’ mail will be forwarded to their confidential addresses.

At the outset, said project manager Shirley Washington, the post office box will be used for correspondence from schools, courts and state and local government agencies. Later, businesses and other private organizations will be encouraged to recognize it as a participant’s official address.

Under the program, domestic violence will be defined as “the willful infliction of corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition perpetrated against a spouse, cohabitant or person with whom the perpetrator has a child.”

Participants must be able to document that they have been victims of domestic violence and sign a statement declaring that they fear for their safety or their children’s.

However, the law prohibits victims from using the confidential address as a shield to avoid court orders relating to child custody, visitation, support or other issues.

Domestic abuse survivors typically dread leaving a trail of paper or computerized information that could identify their new locations, victim advocates say. As a result, many victims do not enroll their children in school, register to vote, open bank accounts, order telephone service or obtain credit cards.

“They have to continue to live in fear, literally dropping out of sight and starting all over again,” said Leah Aldridge of the Los Angeles Commission on Assault Against Women, a private victim support organization. “They cannot talk to their families or friends. They cannot go to the grocery store and use an ATM card. They’re not able to have a phone. They cannot go back to where they worshiped.”

The era of hacking electronic databases further compounds the difficulties of victims.

“With the advent of computer technology, it is even harder for women to hide,” said Jacqueline Keller of the California Alliance Against Domestic Violence, a statewide association of women’s shelters and legal aid programs.

In 1991, Washington state started its program, the first in the nation, in part because legislators feared that the state might be liable in cases of abusers tracking down victims through public records.

The Washington participants, who also include victims of sex crimes, receive a fictitious street address and a post office box operated by the secretary of state.

Several other states, including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Florida and Nevada, have developed similar programs.

The Washington program has 1,147 participants, at an annual cost of $200,000, said program manager Margaret McKinney. Children are 53% of the participants, women 45% and men 2%, she said.

McKinney said that in most cases the victim has moved and must start from scratch, getting a new driver’s license, initiating child support actions and applying for food stamps. All require the applicant to list a name, address and telephone number.

In Washington, the personal information is suppressed and the participants’ mail is forwarded.

Alpert, whose bill (SB489) passed the Legislature unanimously, said the program represents an “honest-to-goodness effort by government to try to assure that these women who have been victimized are not victimized again.”