For Immediate Release: June 13, 2023
Contact: Olivia Hall, media@endthebacklog.org
NEW YORK – This month, the Joyful Heart Foundation celebrates the signing of HB169 in Louisiana, a law that will mandate the creation of a statewide rape kit tracking system. This system will also include a portal that allows survivors to access important information about their kits.
Tracking rape kits is crucial to holding hospitals, law enforcement, and crime labs accountable. It ensures they are following the laws dictating processing timelines for rape kits. Tracking systems provide for a comprehensive analysis of total rape kits in a state, showing how many are in possession of the hospital, in law enforcement custody, and sitting at crime labs either awaiting testing or that have been tested.
“Tracking systems are one of the most critical tools in the pursuit of ending the backlog,” says Ilse Knecht, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Joyful Heart Foundation. “Accountability can only occur when transparent systems are in place. Transparency helps sexual assault survivors heal. Joyful Heart’s research found that survivors want and need information about their rape kit, and not having access to it is detrimental to their wellbeing. We want to thank Senator Beth Mizell for her hard work sponsoring this bill, and local advocates, like StarAdvocates, who helped this bill become law.”
Currently, Louisiana has fulfilled one of Joyful Heart’s six pillars of rape kit reform. This bill will bring that number up to two, satisfying our criteria for the tracking pillar.
Learn more about reform in Louisiana at Endthebacklog.org/Louisiana. If you have any questions or need more information, do not hesitate to contact our media department at Media@EndtheBacklog.org to connect with our director of Policy and Advocacy, Ilse Knecht.
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End the Backlog is a program of the Joyful Heart Foundation, a national nonprofit organization founded by producer, director, actress, and advocate Mariska Hargitay with the mission to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, and support survivors’ healing.