On The Money: Sexual Assault Programs Blasted
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- California Inspector General Laura Chick today blasted two local agencies for bungling the use of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus funds.
The Yolo County Probation Department received more than a quarter of a million dollars in federal money – awarded by the California Emergency Management Agency. Probation agents were supposed to warn sexual assault victims when their attackers were released from the Yolo County jail, but in most cases – the Inspector General said – that did not happen.
"The program is failing," said Laura Chick in her Sacramento office.
The Inspector General told reporters that with only four months left in the grant period, the Yolo County Probation Department had not made even a third of the promised contracts with victims.
"And very importantly, real human beings are not receiving the services that they so desperately need," Chick said emphatically.
CBS 13 asked Marjorie Rist, Yolo County's Chief Probation Officer, why her department failed to notify women when their perpetrators were set free.
'We underestimated how difficult it would be to try and track down the victims," Rist told CBS 13.
Rist added, "And then we had no way of really gauging the rate at which victims would have a desire not to be contacted."
Rist provided CBS 13 with this document, outlining the objectives of the grant.
Rist also told CBS 13, "I should note that at the completion of the grant program, our officers assigned to this unit had completed 6,629 contacts with the perpetrators of sex crimes, which is more than 50% above the intensive level anticipated in the grant application."
The Inspector General also criticized the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault – CALCASA, a Sacramento based non-profit agency that provides critical training for rape crisis centers statewide.
Calcasa received $300,000 in stimulus money, "But woefully failed to achieve the promised results," Chick explained.
The Inspector General said some of the money was misspent on staffing expenses.
CBS 13 asked Calcasa's new director how that could happen.
"Well there generally are expenses related to overhead," Sandra Henriquez explained.
"There were a few items that were incorrectly coded. However, when that was brought to our attention through the Inspector General's report, that has been corrected," Henriquez stated.
Henriquez also took issue with some of the findings in the Inspector General's report, including page 41, which states, "no reference to these programs are included on CALCASA's website."
Henriquez told CBS 13, "I am not certain why the IG's office was unable to locate the trainings, but they are and have been listed on our web site. Please see the following links:
CALCASA: "Tis the Season to Caucus"
CALCASA: Receptionist to Executive Director: A.S.C.E.N.D. to Leadership
CALCASA: CALCASA is Coming to Town
Additionally, the information regarding the trainings was distributed through internal list serves via 12 posts on CALCASA's email groups to California Rape Crisis Centers," Henriquez stated.
The Inspector General told CBS 13 Calcasa should pay back the misspent money. Calcasa says it is working with both state and federal government agencies to clear up the issues mentioned in the report.
