BILL WOULD AID ABUSED KIDS

Children's Centers Need More Funds, Sponsor Says

More young children are being exposed to dangerous drugs, being victimized
by Internet predators and watching domestic violence unfold in their homes,
which means Utah's Children's Justice Centers are straining under increased
caseloads that are also reshaping their original mission.

Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, wants to provide some relief to the 15
centers by proposing a $200,000 incremental increase in funding and by
officially "expanding" services to all children who have been victimized by
a crime.

Buttars' bill, SB15, will be introduced in the 2005 legislative session,
which begins Jan. 17.

"I will be pushing for it very hard," he said.

Set up more than a decade ago, Children's Justice Centers provide a cozy
homelike atmosphere for police to question children who have been
physically or sexually abused. Previously, interviews often took place in
the often-stark environments of a police station or a patrol car.

Beyond interviews, the centers link victims to a variety of social services
and in some instances provide medical exams.

While established specifically to provide services for victims of physical
and sexual abuse, the centers have seen more and more traumatized children
coming through their doors as the result of methamphetamine use.

"These children are being served already at the centers, but they don't
have the funding to handle it," Buttars said. "They can't turn a child
away, but they don't have the resources to properly deal with the effects
of this ugly crime."

Susanne Mitchell, director of Salt Lake County's Children's Justice Center,
said a statewide review showed that on average, 22 percent of children
being served are there because of exposure to drug-using relatives,
Internet victimization or domestic violence.

"The world is changing, and we need to respond to it," she said. "We also
need the funding to keep our heads above water."

Some centers have experienced dramatic increases in their caseloads.
Particularly in rural areas, the impact is keenly felt because of small
budgets.

"Child endangerment in our rural areas has become a real issue," said
Tracey Tabet, program administrator for the Children's Justice Center
program. "In Carbon County their case load has increased by 50 percent as
the result of drug cases. We want to be able to serve every child in every
community."

Mitchell said the meth problem is skyrocketing, adding that typical
meth-using women are of child-bearing age.

"When they become addicted, children are not given regular meals, there are
strangers coming in and out of the home to buy or sell the drug and the
adults are so high they don't supervise the situation. These kids are often
exposed to strangers who violate them," she said.

Buttars said a relatively new child endangerment law on the books has given
law enforcement the tools to respond to the escalating problem of meth use,
and he'd like Children's Justice Center programs to be similarly prepared
with enough resources.

"The people who do these meth labs have little regard for children, even
their own," he said. "On one burner they are cooking meth, and on the other
burner they have eggs going for the kids. It is very real, and it is very ugly."