Giving victims a voice

Every year, more than 22 million people a year fall victim to a crime. They are friends, neighbors, relatives and co-workers.

Bringing attention to your (peers) is exactly why April 6 through 12 is National Crime Victims’ Week. Approved by the Carbon County Commissioners at their April 1 meeting, the theme for National Crime Victims’ Week’s this year is “30 years: restoring the balance of justice.”

So what does Carbon County do to assist our local crime victims? It begins with one Carbon County woman who is bringing the guilty to justice by assistance to the innocent.

Her name is Loretta Hansen, and as the victim/witness coordinator for the Carbon County Sheriff’s, she is there to lend a helping hand to crime victims within Carbon County.

“Victim witness programs are within the criminal justice system. We have a law enforcement program, the city of Rawlins has a victim assistance program, but we take care of all the county—all of the municipalities. I work cases for Saratoga Police, Baggs, Hanna, Sheriff’s office, highway patrol, I help out with the coroner when he needs our services with families.”

According to a release by the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office, National Crime Victims’ week was founded by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Once the former-President formed the President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime, the task-force discovered “widespread poor treatment of victims and indifference to their needs by the criminal justice system.” There were several programs available during the mid-80s, but most were ill-funded. Today, Carbon County has a working witness/victim program supported both by the county and grants.

Hansen said that having a program that helps crime victims are important not only to the victims, but it also helps bring the persecutor to justice .

“It’s taking that person from the time of the incident through the court system. We work very closely with the prosecutor’s office,” Hansen said.

Hansen said that there are few things more important with her job than insuring that the victim knows his or her rights.

“Victims have the right to information and if there is not that link there between the cop who took the report and the prosecutor, then they are really left out,” Hanson said. “They don’t get notified of court hearings, they don’t know how to participate, they don’t know how to have a voice, and that’s what we are here for … We are the one’s who notify them. There is a lot of education and teaching.”

It does not matter what the crime is, Hansen said her office is always willing to help victims in need.

“It really is a spectrum of (victims.) When people are hurt, physical assaults, even being ripped-off when someone steals or damages their property, it’s the same kind of process.”

Lindy Glode, a Carbon County Commissioner from Saratoga, said she supports having a week for crime victim awareness “It brings attention to things that we seem to forget,” Glode said. “It is a privilege for the commissioners to be involved in this.”

Glode said that she has always been extremely impressed with Hansen’s work.

“Loretta does an amazing job with victim’s rights,” Glode said.

To learn more about National Crime Victims’ Week, goto the website of the United States Office of Justice programs website at http://ovc.ncjrs.gov/ncvrw/ .