Batterers program shuts down in Framingham
By Emelie Rutherford/Daily News Staff
Sunday, December 24, 2006

A counseling program in Framingham for batterers recently shut down because of a dearth of clients, which some domestic violence advocates believe is a symptom of judges shying away from sending abusers to the program.
The ``Respect'' batterer intervention program for more than a decade has held group sessions for domestic abusers referred by the courts for 40 weeks of treatment that examines their violent and controlling behavior.
The vast majority of referrals to the Wayside Youth and Family Support Network program comes from judges. Yet after court referrals plummeted, ``Respect'' in October stopped holding sessions for batterers at Wayside MetroWest Counseling Center on Lincoln Street in Framingham. Now it only does in-depth counseling of batterers at a second site in Milford.
``When are we ever going to take a long hard look at domestic violence?,'' said Jack Hagenbuch, who started the ``Respect'' program in the early 1990s.
Annual referrals to the Framingham site dropped from as many as 100 down to approximately 25 in recent years, Hagenbuch said. Court referrals to certified batterer programs across the state dipped 43 percent over the past three years, he said.
Domestic violence isn't only about out-of-control physical abuse, he said.
``It has to do with social and psychological and economic and possessiveness and it sometimes escalates into physical violence,'' he said. The people who have been referred to his program, he said, ranged from company CEOs to ``scums of the earth.''
MetroWest officials and advocates said losing the Framingham ``Respect'' program is a blow to efforts to thwart domestic violence.
``It is crucial that we take a holistic approach to ending domestic violence, and that has to involve services for batterers,'' said Mary Gianakis, director of Voices Against Violence, a Framingham program that offers services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. ``We just can't keep hiding victims away. We can't just keep patching victims up in the hospitals.''
Framingham Police Lt. Paul Shastany said ``Respect'' forces batterers to address the cause of domestic violence.
``Are we going to treat a symptom or cause? We need to treat the cause,'' he said.
Just why court referrals to the ``Respect'' program have dropped is not clear. Many anti-violence advocates, though, said it is not because of a decline in domestic violence.
Several social service workers said they believe judges prefer to send batterers to anger management classes that are less-involved, cheaper and carry less of a stigma than batterer intervention programs like ``Respect.''
Hagenbuch said more people arrested for domestic assault and battery do not go all the way through the legal system to prosecution because of changes to how some verbal statements can be used as evidence.
When such criminal charges are dismissed or continued without a finding, the opportunity never arises to send batterers to the ``Respect'' program as part of probation.
Framingham District Court Judge Robert Greco said it may be true domestic violence prosecutions are down because of such recent legal changes, yet he said he has never seen a comprehensive study done on the matter.
Greco said he ``didn't get the sense that (judges) are shying away from the batterers program.''
``I think it's a case by case call, but I think batterers programs are used in a domestic context,'' Greco said, when asked if judges have a preference for sending domestic abusers to anger management classes. ``I don't have the impression that in cases calling for batterers programs judges are not giving it just because it costs more or whatever.''
Wayside, in a statement, said it is ``extraordinarily committed to providing services for men struggling with domestic violence issues. `Respect' has improved the lives of countless families, and will continue to do so in the future.''
If court referrals to batterer programs increase ``we'll explore the need for additional services,'' said Donna Rheaume, spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health, which certifies and monitors programs like ``Respect'' through its Batterer Intervention Program Services office.
 

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