by Brent Addleman
Helping Connecticut process sexual assault evidence kits in a more timely manner is the focus of new federal funding.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced it will award $1.2 million to Connecticut that will be used at the state’s Forensic Laboratory for adding personnel, supplies, and equipment to aid ongoing efforts in sexual assault investigations, Gov. Ned Lamont said.
“Through the collaborative efforts of advocates and the state crime lab, over the last several years Connecticut has reformed the procedures used to process sexual assault kits to ensure that they are completed in a timely manner with a focus on delivering justice for survivors and providing law enforcement with what they need to keep perpetrators off the streets,” Lamont said in a release. “This additional federal funding will support our state’s ongoing mission to combat sexual assault, solve and prevent crime, and support survivors.”
Grant funding, according to the release, will also be utilized to support statewide training on crimes that are sexually motivated by the Connecticut Police Academy, in addition to training hospital personnel on evidence tracking.
Connecticut, in recent years, has enacted reforms designed to expedite processing of sexual assault evidence kits, and in 2019 the Joyful Heart Foundation, a national nonprofit working with other states to end the backlog of untested kits certified Connecticut as having “full reform, according to the release.
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Brent Addleman is an Associate Editor of The Center Square and a veteran journalist with more than 25 years of experience. He has served as editor of newspapers in Pennsylvania and Texas, and has also worked at newspapers in Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Kentucky.
Photo “Forensic Lab” by Tima Miroshnichenko.
