- West Michigan plays hosts to beautiful families and homes.

But behind closed doors can lay a darker reality, as rates of domestic violence continue to rise.

I'm Kylie Ambu, and on today's "Mutually Inclusive", we're chatting with folks in our prevention sphere about ways to keep neighbors safe and hold perpetrators accountable.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that's used by one partner to gain, or maintain power and control over another intimate partner.

Now, domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, or any other threat or action of coercive behavior.

That includes things like intimidation, isolation, or manipulation.

And the statistics around domestic violence in the United States are staggering.

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence says, "On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner.

During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men.

This is often seen as a women's issue, as numbers show one in four experience domestic violence.

But men are affected, too, with one in nine experiencing it."

And transgender individuals face unique vulnerabilities.

A study by the American Public Health Association found trans people were 1.7 times more likely to experience intimate partner violence than cisgendered people.

All this to say, domestic violence is a huge issue in our society.

And in our Kent County community, it's reaching new heights.

Between 2021 and 2022, the number of domestic violence homicides in the county nearly doubled.

And prevention leaders say the overall severeness of domestic violence incidents are getting worse.

Now there is hope that the justice system can change this by somewhat changing the justice system itself.

Let's take a look at these efforts.

(gentle music) (workers chattering and phones ringing) On a typical day, more than 20,000 calls are placed to domestic violence hotlines nationwide.

But not all days are typical, especially during a global pandemic, when billions are shuttered inside their homes.

And according to the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice, the United States saw just over an eight percent increase in domestic violence cases following the 2020 lockdown.

One year later, the state of Michigan reported more than 70,500 incidents.

And in areas like Kent County, rates and severity of abuse continue to spike.

- We are finding these alarming data points.

It feels almost to cheapen it sometimes to talk about human life in the terms of data, but the reality is that more and more people are being killed by their intimate partner.

And it's not a trend that we wanted to sit back passively and hope that things would look different.

- [Kylie] Tara Aday serves as the co-chair of Kent County's Domestic Violence Community Coordinated Response Team, or DVCCRT.

Comprised of more than 20 organizations, the collaboration has worked for decades to prevent and respond to intimate partner violence.

- One of the things that I can recall in the DVCCRT'S history, is helping to streamline and quicken the personal protection order process here in Kent County.

That was well before my time, but I know the work that was done there was largely a response to how long it was taking victims of domestic violence to have their PPO heard by a judge.

I think, in large part, because of how much control abusers can have over the lives of victims, having a community-based response is quite literally life-saving for victims and survivors of abuse.

- [Kylie] Last year, the DVCCRT partnered with the Kent County prosecutor's office to track domestic violence homicides within the region, something the state of Michigan doesn't have a consistent system for.

- It's extremely difficult to do, and because we have a homicide code.

So I have to go through by hand to say, "Okay, was this a domestic?"

- [Kylie] The study found homicide rates nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022.

And when asked in early months of this year, prosecutor Christopher Becker said, numbers still weren't showing improvement.

- It was 2021.

I think the last four homicides were all domestic violence-related.

And last year, we had a number once again.

And it wasn't just the man killing the woman.

It was ex-boyfriend killing current boyfriend, or boyfriend killing ex-boyfriend, stuff like that, that's still domestic violence, and the woman's in the middle of this, that impacts them.

- [Kylie] But even these staggering statistics don't account for all domestic homicides in the county.

Aday and Becker say, gaps within the justice system can make these cases difficult to track.

- Those often don't get counted in domestic violence numbers because if the abuser also kills themselves, there isn't a case to be brought before a judge.

- Because it was a murder-suicide, he killed his child, and then he killed himself, and that was, we don't see it, because there's nobody to prosecute.

And there's nothing for us to review, so it doesn't go into any of our stats, and that's pretty much true across the state.

- [Kylie] Local prevention and response tactics are well and alive in West Michigan.

And, nationally, advocates have seen movement.

With some of the most sweeping gun legislation in decades passing last year, targeting domestic violence.

But the funds to do this work have been fairly low.

That's why today, the DVCCRT says, it's in a life-changing position.

- The DVCCRT met two weeks ago, and just as a standing agenda item, we do a budget update.

And it was this really neat experience to be able to say, "Yep, our current balance of our budget is just over $1,000.

And now having received ARPA funding, it's a lot more zeros.

- [Kylie] The group took a unique approach last year, applying for American Rescue Plan Act dollars to bring a court specializing in domestic violence cases to the area.

While the group didn't receive the $10 million they requested, the project was greenlit for $4 million.

- It's cool.

All of a sudden, nobody's ever said, "Oh wow, $4 million, that's bad to see $4 million in your bank account."

But yeah, there is some pressure.

I mean, we don't wanna whittle it away.

- [Kylie] The court would bring additional support to survivors, breaking down the barriers to justice many face.

- For example, if somebody doesn't have a lot of economic mobility, meaning access to resources, a well-paying job, a strong community support system, a strong family or friend support system, all of those things kind of can start to pile up on one another and create barriers and challenges that a lot of times, results in victims literally not being able to leave or they take that risk in leaving and unfortunately experience severe violence, up to unfortunately even sometimes homicide.

- I think that's the biggest problem we have as law enforcement is that when a woman, generally, it's a woman that is abused, they call the police, they're very on board the night of.

They've just gotten beat up, they got a black eye, they got injuries, they're very emotional.

He gets shipped off to jail, but all of a sudden, the next day, they're trying to deal with, "Okay, what do I do with the kids?

I gotta go to work.

He was my daycare provider.

Or he was the financial and now he can't work, and now how are they gonna pay the bills?"

Whatever it may be.

So it's a support to the victim and trying to get to them early.

The quicker we can get those supports to the victim and say, "Hey, we've got ways to help."

And that's part of what this court will do.

- [Kylie] The court aims to center the victim or survivor, creating a sphere of protection within the justice arena, an area that doesn't always feel safe to step into.

But simultaneously, it's also about holding perpetrators accountable.

- And hopefully, get the abuser engaged in their own intervention services, like a batterer intervention program to support them in, if they're willing to do that hard work, change their behaviors and change the way that they treat people they're in relationships with.

- [Kylie] While excitement around the project is high, Becker says there's still a lot of work to do before it can become a reality.

Like staffing and budgeting.

Though he is hopeful the court will sprout up by the end of this year.

- We do two judges.

I mean there's a lot of treatment courts that have, you got Grand Rapids has got a lot of cases and then we have another judge that takes the cases that aren't in Grand Rapids.

Can we do something like that with the money we have?

I would hope we could.

- [Kylie] The team is committed to discussions with the community to find out what support services will be most impactful for survivors in the future.

They say it's not a project that will be built in a day.

But once up and running, the court has a potential to save lives.

- We knew we needed to do something different.

We needed to do something transformational.

And so this ARPA funding quite literally is this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, not just to be able to dream about what could be, but actually say, "Okay, now we have the means and the mechanisms to actually bring it to fruition," which is really exciting.

I don't know if the timing could be more perfect, given what we're experiencing as a community.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - While domestic violence court sounds impactful, a lot of us don't really know what it all entails.

Well, what better way to learn than by talking with the judge who's overseeing it?

Mutually Inclusive's Jennifer Moss is in the studio now, with the honorable Amanda Sterkenburg.

(gentle music) - We are so happy to welcome Judge Amanda Sterkenburg at City of Kentwood 62B District Court to Mutually Inclusive today, as we continue to talk about domestic violence.

We welcome you, Judge.

- Thank you!

It is my pleasure to be here.

- So we just saw a piece where Kylie Ambu was talking with Tara Aday with Safe Haven Ministries and she also talked with Kent County prosecutor, Chris Becker.

Talking about an increase in domestic violence in Kent County.

I'm hoping that a new Domestic Violence Court will offer some hope and perhaps a better process for domestic violence survivors, as well as abusers.

Judge Sterkenburg, you are part of DVAN, which is the Domestic Violence Action Network.

And you've received American Rescue Plan Act dollars for that court, about $4 million or so.

And you're still in those active stages of planning.

I know you would like to have started yesterday, but where are you at with the court and it actually becoming a tool in the process to fight domestic violence?

- Well, I think active planning stage is probably the right phrase to describe where we are right now.

What we have done is identified stakeholders and really the different voices that need to be heard in this project.

And we've created a way to bring them together so we can plan the specifics of operation for the court that are going to be most effective to both restore and rehabilitate the offender, as well as give support to the voices of the victims in those cases.

We are meeting here in the very near future to talk about entry criteria, and exactly what might prohibit a particular offender from being accepted into the program.

And then what the timeline looks like for their duration in the court and whether it will be a phased approach with certain goals, or it will be a longer, more streamlined process.

Those are the types of conversations that we're having right now.

- Absolutely.

And we'll talk about in a moment, who will be eligible for the court at what stage.

But what is it that prompted the need for the court?

Like a specific case.

We know there's domestic violence on the rise, but was there something that occurred where you said, "Okay, we really need to take this outside of the general court system and create a specific court for domestic violence."

Is there a specific case in point that you use to kind of develop a process and a plan?

- Well, to talk about one case would really potentially minimize others.

So what I'll say is we've been watching this very disturbing trend.

An increase in domestic violence cases, and an increase specifically, in intimate partner homicides.

And so several years ago, the DVAN was called something different.

It was called the Domestic Violence Community Coordinated Response Team.

It was a little bit longer name, but they saw this need and trend, and were prompted to do a study.

So they actually did a study.

It was a homicide review on a case that occurred in Kent County, where they identified lethality factors, and some breakdowns in the system.

And then they were able to use that to give some different points of focus for the actors within the system to try to make sure those breakdowns and gaps in communication weren't happening.

So having that review, which isn't necessary or required by statute, but which was very helpful for the actors who are involved in processing domestic violence cases, and that spans everything, really.

I mean we're talking about not just the criminal justice system, but we're talking about the family court and civil systems as well.

So it was very helpful in taking those pieces, putting them together and saying, "Hey, here are the places where we can have an impact."

And by bringing a Domestic Violence Court, we really turn the focus onto, "Hey, how do we stop this cycle?"

- And as you look at the cycle, it's not going to necessarily be first-time offenders that you're looking at.

It's going to be those, as you mentioned, with more of a process of a more serious or heinous crime.

- Well, I will say, that often we see domestic violence being generational.

And also cyclical.

And then you have children being brought up in household situations where they see this type of conduct and it is repeated.

So that is a little bit different than what I'm talking about in terms of the criteria for somebody to be admitted into the court.

Because those are places where we have seen an individual and they may or may not have had that historical upbringing in a setting, or they may or may not have certain factors that led them to be more inclined towards conduct that is described as domestic violence.

But we've seen them before in the criminal justice system.

It's those people that we see coming in that we are able to identify as already having had a brush, maybe one, maybe more, times with the criminal justice system, with some type of assaultive behavior that was displayed.

So then we can say, "Okay, this person is showing what appears to be a pattern of conduct."

So this court is not necessarily going to be for a first-time domestic violence offender.

It's gonna be for somebody that we have identified and said, "Hey, okay, you've been here before.

This is happening more than once in your life.

And maybe you didn't get what you needed the first go round in terms of coping mechanisms, or rehabilitation, or even education.

You didn't get that.

And so it's occurring again.

So now we need to do something that's a little bit more intensive.

We need to put you into a program where you can be connected to treatment, you can be connected to services and you can have more oversight and accountability in this court format."

We called it a problem solving court.

- [Jennifer] Mm hmm.

- So in this problem solving court, where we can stave off the rest of that conduct and hopefully shut down that pattern of behavior, which might lead to a third offense or a more egregious events, where we're looking at lethality, potentially.

- And so the goal again is to perhaps rehabilitate and would that then be to possibly hold families together?

Would they be, the idea would be to rehabilitate, so that person can stay within whomever they are with?

Or are we just rehabilitating them to be in society per se?

- Ultimately, I think it is for them to be functional in society, because again, we're talking about a court that will operate within the criminal justice system.

And there are separate courts for families.

And people who are involved in custody disputes or divorces, they may have a different goal than this court.

Unification of the family will not necessarily be the end goal of this court.

What will be the end goal is seeing a whole and productive member of society restored to a place where they can operate within societal norms, because they have gotten the education and the access to opportunities to grow, learn, and develop coping skills so that they do not resort to violence as a first response.

- And is the goal also to have them perhaps with one judge throughout the process of this rehabilitative system?

Or whatever it is, the program that they must go through, so that maybe they're held more accountable or feel themselves that they need to be more accountable versus like, a parole officer or something.

If they know they have to come see a judge each time it's time for them to report, or however the program works, they might be held a little bit to a higher accountability.

- That's a really great question and I'm not going to say for each individual offender, they may only have contact with one judge.

Because a lot of times we do see individuals who are in the criminal justice system who have different experiences with different jurisdictions.

But if you are brought into, we envision, if you are brought into this problem solving court, the Domestic Violence Court, you will be with one judge for that duration.

And it could be a 14-month, an 18-month, a 24-month period of time, where you are having regular meetings with the judge.

I've been involved with a sobriety court which is also a problem solving court for several years now.

And going through the training and education I have, for that, statistics show that face-to-face interaction with the judge is one of the single biggest indicators of success for participants in these problem solving courts.

And that is because they feel seen and they feel as though their participation matters and they are held accountable at, I think you're right, maybe a different level.

- [Jennifer] Mm hmm.

- They know they're going to have to report regularly to the judge who is wearing a robe, who has the authority to say in that moment, without having been taken down the hall and going through paperwork and whatever, but in that moment, "This is good or no.

You need to correct this behavior."

- Absolutely.

One quick question too, before we wrap up.

What role are the survivors playing in this as you develop the court and its process?

- Well, the voices of survivors is so important.

And we do have several who are part of the DVAN, and who are part of the work group for developing the Domestic Violence Court.

So we are listening to those voices and that was part of our early planning.

We're actually using a model called Collective Impact, where we have identified stakeholders across the community and brought them together in a very clearly defined way so that each of their roles are defined and their voices are heard.

And the survivors are part of that.

They're a piece that come in, we'll be actively listening to their lived experience, so that we can utilize what we've learned from them in understanding behaviors that we are seeing.

And really, if they choose, in our particular case, a survivor chooses to be involved, I've every reason to believe that we'll allow them throughout the court process to be safely integrated into decision-making and give the court insight about those particular instances.

- I imagine that will be very impactful.

And finally, what is your ultimate hope for the Domestic Violence Court?

I know the ARPA fund win was pretty big, $4 million.

- [Judge Sterkenburg] It was.

- But what's your ultimate hope there?

- Well, the ARPA fund win was huge.

And getting that $4 million will put us in a place where we can operate this court for a couple of years.

Ultimately, our goal is to see a reduction in repeat domestic violence offenders.

We wanna reduce recidivism.

And the way we do that is by getting this court up and running, seeing success stories, and then being able to share that so that we are able to secure additional funding as we go down the road and keep this momentum for a long-term piece of rehabilitative processing for offenders who are in the criminal justice system with domestic violence convictions.

- Judge Sterkenburg, we wish you the best with all of that.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

- All right, it was my pleasure!

Thank you for having me.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - Kylie, it's really interesting talking with Judge Sterkenburg about these issues of domestic violence and what the court is hopefully going to do.

They're very excited about the prospects of it.

They've been working on it for a very long time.

And I know they're anxious to get it started, which should be coming soon.

Those ARPA funds were incredibly important.

And then looking at what they can do to help those who are the offenders, but also those who are the survivors.

And it seems like they're really creating a good picture of how that will help Kent County.

- Absolutely.

And I, like you, I love that it's happening on both ends because this is kind of a humanity issue.

And when it comes to those funds, I was talking with Prosecutor Becker in our interview, I'd asked, "You asked for $10 million.

What was it like to get four?"

And he was saying four is never something they're going to scoff at, but they really are hoping they can push that forward as they continue and really make a big difference, not just in Kent County, but they hope it can spread to other counties as well.

- And they may actually maybe look for other funding sources as well.

But the $4 million should at least get them through two to three years, I think, which is good with the establishment of the court when that actually does happen.

But again, we're looking at hoping to help domestic violence and the cycle of it kind of come to an end, or at least help those involved get help - - [Kylie] Absolutely.

- In the areas that they need.

- Absolutely.

These are not just statistics.

They're not numbers.

They're people.

I think it just shows the importance of this issue, the prevalence of this issue.

And really that it will take a community.

It'll take systemic change to make a difference.

- And that's the actual truth.

And that is that the absolute truth there is that people need to look beyond the numbers.

People need to look at beyond the statistics and understand that these are real people, these things are happening every day.

Statistics show however many are happening per hour, per minute.

It's astounding sometimes and to look at those numbers.

But connecting the dots with the survivors is key, And making sure that the court will help all of those involved.

- [Kylie] Absolutely.

And we know that in order to do that, we need resources.

That's the whole point of the court coming in.

- [Jennifer] Absolutely.

- [Kylie] And we know resources carry so much power in this conversation.

If you are in an unsafe situation, we want you to know that there are people out there who can help.

- [Jennifer] That's right.

And we will have these resources both on the screen and on our website.

- We wanna thank everyone who lent us their time and their insight on today's episode.

And of course, you for watching.

- We hope to see you next week, right here, on "Mutually Inclusive."

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