As the globe shouldered another COVID year in 2021, the shadow pandemic of the increased number of sexual assault, child abuse, and domestic violence cases created major safety concerns for many people, including women, children, LGBTQ+ individuals, and communities of color. Through it all, our commitment at Joyful Heart to support and advocate for survivors remained our first priority. Despite the capacity challenges and increasing number of sexual assault cases, legislators introduced 56 bills in 33 states to achieve one or more of Joyful Heart’s six pillars of legislative reform to count, test, and track rape kits, and grant rights to survivors.
With years of experience and persistent advocacy under our belt, we helped pass 24 laws in 19 states in 2021. These bills ensured more access to justice and healing for more than 79,000 survivors of reported sexual assault and 187 million Americans. In addition, Hawaii, Idaho, and Kansas ended their backlog through non-legislative efforts. To achieve this impact, we sent letters of support for 16 bills and provided written and oral testimony via phone or video conference for nine bills. Our supporters contacted their legislators hundreds of times, and used social media to engage the general public on the rape kit backlog. We are grateful to our community for being such active actors in our advocacy work.
Three states passed first legislative reform law
Alabama legislators passed a survivors’ rights bill in its fourth year in the making. The bill ensures that survivors have the right to be informed of the test results and intended destruction 60 days in advance; to have their kits preserved for 20 years, or until the age of 40 if the survivor was a child; and to preserve the kit for an additional 20 years. North Dakota enacted a bill requiring the state crime lab to develop a tracking system with an anonymous victim portal, where all relevant entities have to participate within one-year of implementation. The bill also requires annual reports on tested and untested kits, and the tracking system. Wisconsin enacted two bills after both failed in the Assembly in 2019. The bills establish kit handling timelines, require a tracking system, and provide funds to enact these reforms.
With these three states, there are only four states that have not adopted any rape kit reform through legislative means: Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, and Rhode Island. We continue our efforts to ensure survivors in these states have access to justice and healing.
Three more states reached full-reform
- On December 29, 2021 Idaho State Police Forensic Services announced the state has eliminated the untested rape kit backlog in the state, granting Idaho the backlog pillar.
- Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt put out a press release which informed that the state had appropriated roughly $2.6 million in public funds to test backlogged kits, granting the state the funding pillar.
- In Montana, legislators passed bills to require a statewide inventory of untested kits and to grant victims the right to know the status of their kits.
These joined Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, making the number of states with full rape kit reform 15.
Fourteen states expanded rape kit reform
In addition to the states above, 14 states enacted legislation to adopt more pillars of reform: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Overall, states improved their legislation in all six pillars of rape kit reform:
- First time or additional inventory laws passed in Georgia, Massachusetts, Montana, North Dakota, and Washington
- Backlog law improved in Massachusetts, requiring all untested kits, including those at the lab, to be tested
- Kit handling timelines for newly collected kits were established or improved in Washington and Tennessee
- Tracking systems are now required in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, while California added an anonymous victim portal to its rape kit tracking system
- Victims are granted the right to know the status of their kits, or have extended rights in Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Washington
- First time or additional funding for rape kit reform was allocated in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, and Washington.
We are energized by the level of reform in 2021. With the continued support of our partners and community, we are looking forward to the 2022 legislative session and to continue our work to achieve full reform in all 50 states.