Raped and Dunned: Texas Victims Must Pay for Evidence Gathering

Rape victims in Texas are getting past due notices and nasty phone calls from bill collectors while a state crime victims' fund sits stuffed with cash.  From Click2 Houston:  Attorney General's spokesman Jerry Strickland said the crime victim fund is enforcing strict guidelines imposed by the legislature as to which bills are paid and which victims are sent a denial notice.  Otherwise, he said that fund could become "insolvent."  He said state law is clear that crime victims must exhaust all other potential funding sources, such as local police or their own health insurance.  "The legislature set it up that way," said Strickland.  When asked for a number of how many denial letters had been sent out to Texas rape victims in the past, Strickland did not have an answer after checking with his crime victims' compensation office workers.

So victims are not only traumatized by the original assault, they're then expected to help finance the police investigation.  From Raw Story:  The Texas State Comptroller’s Office, which holds financial data on state agencies, revealed that the TVCF has around $60 million of usable funds... An article in the Raleigh News & Observer last February detailed the same thing happening in another state; the majority of rape victims were being billed by hospitals for the rape kits needed as evidence in court, and at least some victims were paying them in silence. Bloggers at Feministe and Think Progress are irate over the revelation that some states aren’t paying the rape kit bill, even though it violates the conditions of receiving grants under the Violence Against Women Act.

That $60 million is lying around in a bank somewhere raking up interest for the State of Texas.  Meanwhile, women who have already endured the horrors of sexual assault are getting harassed by collection agencies.  This is wrong wrong wrong wrong WRONG.

If the Lone Star State is too chickenshit to cover these costs, then the rapists should be footing the bill.

Comments

[Gaina]

'If the Lone Star State is too chickenshit to cover these costs, then the rapists should be footing the bill.'

Here, here.