§ 12-29-5.2 - Duties and responsibilities of committee.
SECTION 12-29-5.2
§ 12-29-5.2 Duties and responsibilities ofcommittee. – (a) The committee shall have the duties and responsibilities to:
(1) Establish and promulgate minimum standards for batterersintervention programs serving persons mandated pursuant to § 12-29-5,revise the standards as is deemed necessary, and make the standards availableto the public, provided that the standards shall include, but not be limitedto, the following:
(i) Batterers intervention programs shall be conducted in thecontext of psycho-educational groups, i.e., groups of domestic violenceperpetrators led by one or more professional group leaders trained andexperienced in batterers intervention programming and conducted for thepurposes of learning and enacting non-abusive behaviors through didacticinstruction, interaction among participants and leaders, and teaching of skillswithin the groups;
(ii) The duration of batterers intervention programs shall bea minimum of forty (40) contact hours over the course of twenty (20) weeks;
(iii) Batterers intervention programs shall require that allmandated batterers pay fees for the programs in accordance with the provisionsof § 12-29-5; provided, that programs shall accommodate varying levels ofability to pay by means of sliding fee scales and may elect to offeralternatives to payment in the form of community restitution and/or deferredpayment for a portion of the fees; and
(iv) Provisions shall be established defining thecircumstances under which defendants who have attended a batterers programwhile incarcerated, and/or a batterers program in another jurisdiction which iscertified under that jurisdiction's standards or not subject to standards inthat jurisdiction, may request that their documented participation in suchprogram be accepted in satisfaction of some portion of their obligation toattend forty (40) hours of a certified batterers intervention program asdescribed in subdivision 12-29-5.2(a)(1)(ii).
(2) Monitor and review batterers intervention programsseeking certification with respect to compliance with the standards, includingperiodic on-site review;
(3) Certify those batterers intervention programs which arein compliance with the standards established pursuant to subdivision (1) ofthis subsection; and
(4) Investigate and decide appeals, complaints, requests forvariances, and post-enrollment certification applications.
(b) For purposes of this chapter, "post-enrollmentcertification applications" means those applications made to the committee by abatterer mandated to attend a certified batterers intervention program inaccordance with § 12-29-5 who has, prior to adjudication, enrolled in aprogram not certified by the committee. The application shall includesupporting documentation from the batterers intervention program and a requestthat participation in the batterers intervention program be accepted in lieu ofthe equivalent number of hours of a certified batterers intervention program.The committee shall act upon a post-enrollment certification application withinthirty (30) days of receipt of the application.