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Ms. Johnson City Jessica Nixon joins local lawmakers to announce the first annual Protect our Families conference coming to our area November 17.
(Tony Duncan / Johnson City Press)

Lawmakers tackling domestic violence

By Brad Hicks
Press Staff Writer
bhicks@johnsoncitypress.com

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State Rep. Matthew Hill said domestic violence is an issue that people may hear a lot about, but not many want to talk about.

However, Hill not only wants people to talk about domestic violence, he wants the public’s input on how to take on the problem.

Hill, Sen. Rusty Crowe and Miss Johnson City Jessica Nixon were on hand at Johnson City Medical Center Wednesday morning to announce that the first annual “Protect Our Families Conference” will be held Nov. 17 at the First Tennessee Human Resource Agency in Johnson City from 9:30-11:30 a.m.

The conference will act as a way to raise awareness for the issue of domestic violence, but also to share information and get input into proposed legislation Hill and Crowe helped write, aspects of which Hill referred to as “groundbreaking” and “innovative.”

“We want to hear from folks,” Hill said. “We want to hear how themselves individually and how their families have been affected by domestic violence, their ideas and thoughts because legislation, as Senator Crowe knows, is a work in progress.”

While Hill said more information will be provided at the conference, he said one bill containing seven pieces of legislation will be filed. These seven individual pieces of legislation will include ways of dealing with times of conviction in domestic violence cases, new charges for the first and subsequent convictions, a new felony conviction for domestic violence, a completely new charge for domestic violence, new ways of dealing with repeat offenders, new ways of dealing with restraining orders and orders of protection, and addressing of mandatory holding times.

“This is going to totally change the code,” Hill said. “This is going to change the Tennessee Annotated Code as it relates to domestic violence. This is going to put a clamp down on this horrible, horrible activity.”

The legislation also includes having domestic violence offenders pay monetarily and includes ways to incorporate counseling.

Nixon, a victim of domestic violence herself, said abusers are often victims of some type of abuse themselves, and the legislation aims to protect families, not break them apart.

“If an abuser can recover, that’s what we want to do and we want to aid them in that,” she said. “If they refuse to do so, then we want to protect those that are getting out of situations. So we want to cover every part of this cycle of abuse.”

Rather than begin new programs, Hill said the legislation is written to utilize programs already in place, such as Safe Passage and Abuse Alternatives. Hill also said because of state budget shortfalls, the seven pieces of legislation will be filed individually, and Hill said he likes the chances of some of those getting passed.

“We’re realistic about our chances this year,” Hill said. “There are some pieces of legislation that we’re going to raise awareness on and get information out there that we’ll continue to work on because of the potential fiscal impact. However, we are optimistic that there will be several pieces of legislation that we will be able to pass this year.”

The Protect Our Families Conference is free and open to the public. It is being sponsored by Safe Passage and the FTHRA.

“This is a really important project because domestic violence permeates through our entire community,” Crowe said.