For Immediate Release: May 6, 2021
Contact: Olivia Hall, media@endthebacklog.org
NEW YORK — Today, Georgia became the 31st state to enact a rape kit tracking law, bringing transparency to the rape kit handling process and giving survivors important information.
Due in great part by the bill’s champion, Representative Scott Holcomb, HB255 has been signed into law.
HB255 bill would require the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) to create and operate a state-wide sexual assault kit tracking system with a victim portal allowing them to receive updates about their kits. The online system will track the location and status of each kit from initial collection to final disposition. HB255 would also require the CJCC to do an annual inventory of sexual assault evidence collection kits collected, submitted, tested, unreported, and unsubmitted.
Existing Georgia law requires the testing of all reported rape kits. Establising a rape kit tracking system can monitor stakeholders’ compliance with the law and esure that a backlog never happens again. Ensuring all stakeholders in the criminal justice process can know the location and status of all newly collected sexual assault evidence kits will bring clarity to evidence kit processing and identify trouble spots.
Rape kit tracking systems with a victim portal also enable survivors to have timely access to information about their kits. Every single rape kit represents a survivor who underwent the evidence collection process because they believed it would bring them justice and healing. However, losing track of their own rape kits can increase the feelings of loss of self-determination and control that is often at the core of a sexual assault experience. In fact, Joyful Heart’s 2016 research Navigating Notification, found access to information about the status of their cases can promote healing for survivors of sexual assault, and that the lack of knowledge can be harmful to their wellbeing.
Through its End the Backlog initiative, Joyful Heart is implementing a national campaign to pass comprehensive rape kit reform legislation in all 50 states framed around six pillars for reform. This new law represent important final steps in rape kit reform in Georgia. Learn more about activity in Georgia at: http://www.endthebacklog.org/Georgia.
Joyful Heart has created the premier national resource about the rape kit backlog, which includes an interactive map and resources for survivors, legislators, and the media. Learn more at: ENDTHEBACKLOG.org.