Assemblyman Phil Ramos (D- Central Islip) announced today that the Assembly has passed a number of measures to help crime victims and their families, in recognition of Crime Victims Week, April 13-19.

“The needs of crime victims and their families are too often overlooked,” said Ramos, a former police officer. “We need to make it as easy as possible for victims to get the help they need and these bills are intended to do that.”

Included in the package are bills to help crime victims get the help they need and deserve. These bills would:

• require all Crime Victims Board members to participate in a crime victim assistance education program (A.846);
• streamline the Crime Victims Board’s reporting requirements to reduce red tape (A.1110);
• ensure that an elder law attorney serves on the Crime Victims Board (A.6204); and
• require a minimum of 15 hours of training for police officers and prosecutors in the handling of sexual assault cases (A.2419).

Also included are bills to help ease the financial hardship that many victims and their families often face as the result of a crime. These measures would expand benefits to crime victims by:

• enabling parents and guardians who experience loss of earnings due to the hospitalization of a child victim to be eligible for a crime victims award (A.2656); and
• enabling crime victims to be reimbursed for transportation costs for necessary court appearances (A.6675).