Alabama victims, advocates protest at agency
Crime victims and advocates held a protest in Montgomery on Friday, saying they were struggling to get timely compensation from the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission.
Faith In Action Alabama, a Birmingham-based organization that has been helping victims apply for aid, organized the protest. Muaath Al-Khattab, a community organizer with the Montgomery chapter of the group, said they found it difficult to get answers from the commission.
“Our purpose for visiting the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission is to ask officials the status of the application and to seek justice,” he said. “We have had many issues communicating with the commission staff, or the claimants have, and some of the advocates. We want clarity, transparency and accountability for the responses given, and when the claimants should hear back.”
The Alabama legislature established the commission in 1984. It provides monetary reparations to the victims of violent crime or their family members.
Eligible recipients can be reimbursed up to $15,000 for hardship and expenses like medical costs, travel, lost wages and funeral expenses resulting from the crime.
To receive compensation, victims and their families must complete an application and provide supporting documentation, such as insurance or documentation of the crime. Commission staff then review the documentation. If approved, staff determine an appropriate award.
Victims and family members have been waiting months, and some upwards of a year for more, to receive compensation or an update on their requests. Members of Faith in Action said some applications had issues completing the paperwork.
After observing that claimants’ wait times had been increasing for the past few weeks, Faith in Action Alabama leaders decided to pay the commission a visit to get some of the clients’ issues resolved. The protest featured a mix of people. Some still needed to complete an application form. Others were looking for an explanation into the results of their case.
“The response was a denial, and I did an appeal back in November of last year,” said Lakeisha Simmons, one of the victims who was protesting at the event. “I had a hearing in January of this year. Before the end of January, I was given a decision for reduced payments. I am not sure why.”
Some wanted answers to why their claims were denied by the commission, while others wanted to know the reasons their award amounts were reduced.
Kim Martin, the acting executive director of the Crime Victims Compensation Commission, said staffing is one possible cause for the delay.
“We really don’t have enough people to process these claims,” she said. “It really comes down to funding. We hope to be able to address that in the future, but we really are not adequately funded for the task that we have.”
The commission does not get funding from the state’s two budgets. Its revenue comes primarily from fines and fees that are levied on people for traffic violations.
The commission also receives money from court fees, restitution payments, as well as victim assessment fees. It also received a grant and interest payments from an investment fund from money deposited years ago.
The funding stream has continued to dry up, but Martin said it was especially noticeable in the past decade. As a result, they have had not only fewer dollars for compensating victims, but also fewer staff to process the claims that were submitted to the commission.
That has resulted in delays for updating claimants about their status.
When she finished going over the reasons for the delay, she then asked the group’s members to wait so that she could organize the staff to handle the group’s request. They were taken to a room where staff could handle each case.