The advocates who worked in the Lake County Clerk’s office to help people fill out orders of protection worked their last day Monday after grant funding dried up, officials said.
When filing an order of protection, someone seeking the order has to go to the Lake County Clerk’s Office to file the paperwork, officials said. For over a decade, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office received funding for advocates to help people file the paperwork, said Sheriff Oscar Martinez
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office has received a Victims of Violent Crime Act grant to provide services that assist victims in understanding and participating in the criminal justice system, assist primary and secondary victims of crime to stabilize their lives, give them a measure of safety and security and provide services that respond to the emotional and physical needs of crime victims, Martinez said.
“The VOCA grant allowed the sheriff’s department to provide supplemental assistance to the clerk’s office for victims who needed assistance with completing the application. The funding awarded under the VOCA grant continues to decline and we were no longer able to provide the resources to support the clerk’s office with protective order application assistance,” Martinez said.
The grant funded two advocates, plus occasional interns, who would provide support to those filing for orders of protection at the clerk’s Gary and Crown Point offices, said Kenyatta Burnside, the Lake County Clerk’s Office Odyssey and Quest system manager.
In Crown Point, the advocates would also help with protective orders filed through the juvenile center, Burnside said. The clerk’s office East Chicago and Hammond locations have never had advocates, she said.
“They definitely, in my eyes, were there as more supportive, more like a friend, as consoling. But as far as the paperwork being done and those people still seeing actual justice for what they’re coming in for, I do see it still happening,” Burnside said.
When the advocates first began, they sat in the lobby helping people through the filing process, Burnside said. But, after an increase in the number of people filing orders of protection, Burnside said the clerk’s office administration decided to convert the chapel into a space for advocates to meet with people.
The advocates would help the person seeking the order of protection properly fill out the paperwork, Burnside said, which helped ensure that the order moved forward through the courts. When an order of protection isn’t properly filled out, it can slow down the legal process.
Then, the advocates would input the order into the clerk’s computer system and inform the clerk about the filling, Burnside said. The clerk then assigned the order of protection to a judge.
Moving forward, the clerk’s office staff will rearrange the room where advocates meet with people, Burnside said, to include six public portals for people to use to fill out orders of protection.
“Whereas before, you had one advocate here but you might have two or three people waiting and each one wants to sit and talk. Now, those people, where they didn’t have access, they have access to sit and still get their information on that paper that they need to get to the court,” Burnside said.
But Burnside said the advocates leaving will create a gap in that emotional support for people filing an order of protection.
“They can sit there and hold their hand,” Burnside said. “When you go to court or when you come to the clerk, we’re neutral in everything. We can’t pick a side, no matter how this story is versus that story. Our job is to get that paperwork in and get it to the judge.”
While it would’ve been a benefit for the advocates to stay on, Burnside said the clerk’s office staff will ensure that people have the space and resources they need to file an order of protection.
“The clerk, he said it also, he’s just here for the people and he’s ready to see the new way of doing things. It’s not something that he necessarily wanted done, but he knows it’s something that he has to do and he’s ready,” Burnside said.
akukulka@post-trib.com
