Page 12-Sunday, October 16, 1977-The Michigan Daily abuse (Continued from Page 11) - alcoholism, work or counseling programs available to felony convicts on probation, according to Detroit Recorders Court Judge Patricia Boyle. The misdemeanor conviction thus becomes somewhat ineffective. "Still," says Bannon, "judges are not going to send that violent male to jail. Their logic is that that man is not a total criminal. And they are afraid of the economic hardship it would impose on his family." * * * "Aside' from being battered, a woman's biggest single problem is not being able to find a place to stay. If you have a fat bank account or a mother who'll take you in then you're lucky but many women just don't have those resources. "-Sue Wallendorf, Washtenaw County Domestic Violence Task Force. IF THE legal maze presents the vic- tim of a spouse assault with an un- wieldly and uncertain avenue of complaint, the necessary social and emotional resources available are scat- tered at best, and in many places across the state, simply non-existent. During a question and answer period at last week's conference, a gesture made by two women summed up the dearth of services. Standing up they announced simply, "We're from the Macomb County YMCA and we don't have anything out here." A counselor from a fledgling crisis in- tervention program in Muskegon poured out her frustrations to a con- ference discussion group. "I don't know how to deal with this. I am being swami- ed with women who have fled, taking nothing with them. They need food, they need shelter, they need clothing, money and they need protection. Some need to get out of town quickly with their children and I am tempted to help them-even tempted to do something illegal to get them out quick. Others return to their homes to find their possessions ruined, their refrigerators smashed. We need more money resources but I don't have time to sit down and document it. I don't have time to fill, out your fucking forms. What I need are answers, quick." In Washtenaw County, the newly- christened Assault Crisis Center has initiated a counseling and referral program for the victims of spouse abuse and domestic assault, which has been hailed as one of the best in the state. Of the 555 clients who have con- tacted the clinic during its first ten months of operation, 423 of them have called in regard to a domestic assault. Although a large percentage of the women are seeking shelter, according to director Bisdee, the Center has been able to house only a select group in a network of volunteer homes, or in motels for three days at most. whereabouts. He can obtain informa- tion from the welfare office regard- ing his wife's whereabouts by merely problems of battered women. During Even the most recently devised welfare programs reflect a high level of ignorance or insensitivity to the problems of battered women.During debate on a victim recompensation act which took effect October 1, the State House of Representatives voted specifically to reject an amendment that would have made indigent victims of, spouse assault eligible for compen- sation for medical expense. S* * * "I am tired of going to men and having to count up how many bruises, how many broken bones, how many black eyes in order to demonstrate the need for services. The time for that is past"-Director of a shelter for battered women. N AN ATTEMPT to document, con- clusively, the need for attending to the problem of domestic assault, the Michigan Women's Commission published last month a report based on public testimony from experts and vic- tims. Meanwhile, the push for social services, police reform and legislative change seems to be r:Aing some momentum across the :date in connec- tion with a number of recent develop- ments: " In Lansing, a package of eight bills submitted last month by Represen- tative Connie Binsfeld (R-Maple City) in the state House, represents the most far ranging attempt as yet to legislate changes in the treatment of abused women. " In a separate move, Rep. Barbara Rose Collins, chairwoman of a joint state House and Senate committee on spouse abuse formed last spring, said last week that she hopes to have recommendations ready for the legislature when it reconvenes after Christmas. However, that timetable could be unrealistic as the committee has not yet convened due to scheduling conflicts. " Also last month, Detroit Metro NOW, in conjunction with the Detroit Police Department, presented a report to the Detroit Police Board of Com- missioners which outlined a plan for reform of the handling of spouse assault cases. The Department has made the reforms a priority item, according to Bannon. He hopes to move soon to eliminate call screening, upgrade data collection on domestic cases and begin some -sort of "conflict intervention" training for police officers. " Locally, members of the Domestic Violence Project announced last week that they hope to establish a shelter in Washtenaw County by January 1978. " In Detroit, the two-day Cobo con- ference on battered women concluded last weekend with resolutions which, while not always realistic in goal, sym- bolized a state-wide call for change. Although over a dozen bills dealing with the subject of wife abuse have been introduced into the state House of Representatives, not one has made it out of committee chambers for a floor vote. The legislation proposed by House members has taken two different forms. Bills sponsored by Rep. Daisy Elliott (D-Detroit) would set up pilot shelters, counseling and job training programs for displaced and battered ,women. Binsfed's.bills focus more on 'police,, prcedural and penal code changes. But bne iihportant provision goes a step further than Elliott's bills, in providing for a statewide system of shelters as well. "I am hoping that the pilot programs would demonstrate the need for per- manent shelters throughout the state," says Elliott. However, the $200,000 requested in the job training bill and the $500,000 request for three pilot shelters failed to be appropriated for the '77-78 fiscal year, which began October 1. Says Elliott, "We hope to have the money before the 1978 session ends." Although the funds Elliott's bills would require are not substantial, some legislators are questioning what it would cost if the pilot programs were to be implemented state-wide. -Says Rep. Raymond Cehres (D- Monroe), whose Social Welfare Sub- committee of the House Appropriations Committee will make recommen- dations on the bills, "My eyes are not completely shut. I know these needs exist but it's a question of where your're going to put your priorities. You're setting up a whole separate bureaucracy to deal with a very small target area relative to the rest of society. What I'm looking at is what such a project would cost if you were to implement it throughout the state." Cehres later acknowledged that the prograi would be administered under already existing bureaucracies such as the labor and welfare departments. But he voiced further reservations, saying, "you already have private sector agen- cies dealing with this problem-the police department, the Department of Social Services, churches, and there are places for them (battered women) to go in their own neighborhoods. We have job training now, I'm not so sure we need another program." THOUGH HE conceded the inci- dence of spouse abuse is high, he added "There's an awful lot more of this problem with people who are living together than with people who are married." He indicated, finally, that he might be more inclined to favor some sort of state support to already existing shelters in the private sector, than initiate a welfare administered state program. The shelter bill in the package in- troduced by Binsfeld, takes that kind of approach. It would authorize the Department of Social Services to con- tract with private agencies for the provision of shelter and related support services. Other bills proposed by Binsfeld would: " give police the power to make an arrest without a warrant in cases where there is probably cause that a domestic assault has occurred, even if it is only a misdemeanor * Give police the same power to arrest if there is probably cause to believe that a restraining order issued during a divorce has been violated " Improve record keeping and statistical reporting for both domestic assault cases and restraining orders w Require police training for the han- dling of domestic assault cases Establish counseling programs in misdemeanor assault cases " A bill still being drafted would mandate a jail sentence with an op- tional fine for the violation of a restraining order, issued during divorce proceedings. Rep. Paul Rosenbaum (D-Battle ,.Creek),. hairman of te. House Judiciary Committee where the bills rare now under rev-iew, forsees op- position to the arrest clause crucial to Binsfeld's penal code revisions. "There may be a number of representatives whowould oppose that arrest power as a violation of civil liber- ties. That brings up a practical question in terms of votes." But at least one civil libertarian, Howard Simon, state executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, had no negative reaction to the proposal when contacted last week. Though he condeded that he was not completely familiar with domestic assault arrest procedures, he said, "If there's probably cause of a crime having been committed, that's a justifiable in- trusion of privacy." Whatever opposition may develop to Binsfeld's legislation-both over her proposals for penal code changes and for a statewide shelter network-some Democratic House members are ap- parently not yet ready to accept her proposals as a definitive package. . Rosenbaum has said the judiciary committee "won't move" on the. Bins- feld bills until it has also reviewed the yet-to-bedeveloped recommendations of the joint House-Senate committee headed by Collins. Meanwhile, accor- ding to another member of the Collins committee, those recommendations could come in the form of a "completely new set of bills." The fate of any spouse assault legislation, noted Lee Kefauver, former NOW legislative liaison in Wayne Coun- ty, could be decided by nature of the 1978 House election campaigns. "No bills will get through unless women running opposite some of the in- cumbents are able, with some success, to make it an election issue. The House Judiciary Committee, for example, is packed' against women by the previous voting records of its members. But if a woman, say, runs opposite Rep. Rosenbaum with domestic assault as her issue and makes good headway, Rep. Rosenbaum will make sure the issue moves very quickly through the legislature. "He is, after all, an expedient liberal." film- (Continued from Page 4) ering circumference of an automo- bile. Rudolph does wondrous things with his camera, bathing his subjects in dark purples or blistering gold sun- light, often spotlighting them in soft, center-lit cameos, enshrouded on all sides by darkness. . The film returns again and again to the setting of a recording studio, where Baskin's lvely, haunting song score serves as the thematic corner- stone for the picture. While the same technique failed in 0 Lucky Man! due to Alan Price's turgidly monotonous songs, Baskin gives L.A.'s people the tragic deep-focus to 'justify their night wanderings. A social critic whose name escapes me commented recently on the state of literature and film and how we fool ourselves with one-dimensional ster- eotypes; There are no heroes and no villains - there are only victims, and all the artist can do is forgive. While Robert Altman may never under- standthis truth, it is encouraging to . both art ad -life to discover that, some of his -pupils,,,gently and passionately, do understand.. N l4 U This system is inadequate, says Sue Wallendorf of the separately-run Domestic Violence Project, a group trying to gather funds for a formal shelter. She points out -that the nearest Michigan shelter is in Kalamazoo. At the Assault Crisis Center, Bisdee outlines a plethora of other problems._ Women can not go to school even for job training and remain on public assist- ance. The welfare office does not classify domestic disputes as "emergencies.' For this reason abused women who are: not on public assistance cannot be housed in the shelter system main- tained by that department. Meanwlile, an application forwlfaremayprovide a tipoff. to the husbhand of*,hts wi 'g inside:- Wife-beating: The neglected epidemic Books: More wackiness from DeVries I- Film: and h protel ;1n - Supplem-ent to ThaMichigin Daily I' -I- prote~ -Ilr- Ann Arbor,l Michigan-Sunday, October 16, 1977 F.