STATE OF WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE  BRAD D. SCHIMEL ATTORNEY GENERAL 114 East, State Capitol P.O. Box 7857 Madison, WI 53707-7857 608/266-1221 TTY 1-800-947-3529 Paul W. Connell Deputy Attorney General Delanie M. Breuer Chief of Staff May 3, 2018 VIA INTERDEPARTMENTAL MAIL The Honorable Robert Cowles, Co-Chair 2017 Joint Legislative Audit Committee Rm. 118, South State Capitol The Honorable Samantha Kerkman, Co-Chair 2017 Joint Legislative Audit Committee Rm. 315, North State Capitol VIA EMAIL Bob.Cowles@legis.wisconsin.gov Samantha.Kerkman@legis.wisconsin.gov Dear Senator Cowles and Representative Kerkman: Thank you for allowing the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) to update the Legislative Audit Committee on the testing of Wisconsin’s accumulated unsubmitted sexual assault kits (SAKs). I appreciate and welcome your shared interest in DOJ’s effort. The Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) grew out of a statewide group created by the Office of the Attorney General called the Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Response Team (AG SART). This is a multidisciplinary group with statewide representatives from law enforcement, health care, prosecution, community advocacy, and the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory (WSCL). The appointed members addressed the many issues related to the collection of forensic evidence kits from sexual assault victims, including: establishing a uniform protocol for collection of forensic evidence including an option for victims who need more time to decide whether they wish to participate in the criminal justice system; establishing guidelines for the cost of the sexual assault exams; revising the order of evidence 2017 Joint Legislative Audit Committee May 3, 2018 Page 2 collection during the exam; and creating a new collection kit that is provided by the DOJ and universally used by all health care facilities. To further this initiative, DOJ has created a website https://wisaki.doj.wi.gov to monitor and provide detailed information about inventoried SAKs. For your reference, the table below shows the number of kits that sat at hospitals and law enforcement agencies, and were never submitted to the state crime lab, until DOJ began the SAKI project. This, and more detailed information that breaks down every inventoried kit by year, county, and law enforcement agency, is also available on the easy to navigate website https://wisaki.doj.wi.gov . Year 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Kits Created Year Kits Created 1 0 0 0 2 6 1 6 21 20 14 19 17 20 42 63 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Unkown 71 94 110 175 215 278 310 336 373 404 532 643 636 670 738 638 341 The data dashboard on the publicly available website https://wisaki.doj.wi.gov shows that 4,181 kits have been designated for testing, of 6,796 total inventoried kits. As of April 13, 2017, testing is complete on 1,379 kits and an additional 2,409 are currently in the testing process at one of three outside laboratories. These numbers are updated monthly, and can be viewed by any member of the public at https://wisaki.doj.wi.gov/numbers/inventory . 2017 Joint Legislative Audit Committee May 3, 2018 Page 3 Currently, DOJ has contracted with Bode Cellmark, Sorensen Forensics, and Marshall University Forensic Science Center for WiSAKI kit testing. These labs are the few in the nation with the required accreditation and capability to test this volume of SAKs from Wisconsin and from dozens of SAKI sites across the country. The labs have been inundated with requests for assistance due to there being 30 sexual assault kit initiatives currently underway throughout the country. In fact, the federal SAKI has inventoried nearly 44,000 previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits nationwide, and nearly 32,000 have only just been submitted for testing since 2015. This has required DOJ to send the SAKs to the labs in batches each month. For example, Bode Cellmark was only able to accept 200 kits per month and a total of 3,000 kits. DOJ shipped 200 kits per month and now Bode Cellmark has received all of the contracted 3,000 kits. DOJ has sent the maximum SAKs per month, and sometimes more when the labs have capacity, to these additional labs since the contracts began and nearly all SAKs are in the possession of the outside labs. Based on the inventory and the contracted schedule for testing, all testing stands to be complete by the end of 2018. Testing SAKs is a large and critical piece of the SAKI project, but the purpose of the project is much greater. The goal is to bring justice to survivors and to protect the public from future crimes. It is important to note that we are not waiting for all SAKs to be tested before moving forward to provide justice. As testing continues, and foreign DNA profiles are found, the SAKI team at DOJ, comprised of survivor advocates, two law enforcement agents, a prosecutor, and a researcher, have been working diligently with local jurisdictions, advocate groups, and District Attorney’s (DAs) offices to review test results and case information. This has led to multiple case re-openings and has resulted in prosecutions by DAs, and others that will be led by DOJ. Through this initiative, DOJ will bring justice to survivors, protect the public from future crime, and completely overhaul the systematic response to sexual assault. It has become clear as a result of this project that significant reform of our laws is needed to ensure this initiative is not necessary again. DOJ has been working directly with advocacy groups, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE), law enforcement, our scientists, and survivors to create legislation which would provide for a kit tracking system and set very clear parameters and expectations for handling sexual assault evidence. Statutory clarity is critical for health care providers, law enforcement, the state crime labs, and survivors navigating a difficult system after one of the worst crimes. 2017 Joint Legislative Audit Committee May 3, 2018 Page 4 As we work toward a permanent legislative solution we are working with law enforcement agencies to make sure we receive required evidence. The state crime labs are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist law enforcement in evidence submission. Further, our SAKI team continues to meet with individual law enforcement agencies and local/regional sexual assault response teams (SART) to educate on SAKI and more generally, sexual assault response. Very recently, DOJ was granted position authority for a law enforcement trainer whose sole responsibility will be educating law enforcement on best practices for handling sexual assault cases. Further, the SAKI effort is heavily research-based, in order to improve sexual assault response with evidence-based reforms that will help identify resource needs to improve responses from health professionals, law enforcement, and prosecutors to bring justice to survivors. In addition, the SAKI 17 Grant awarded $2 million for the funding of the implementation of a SAK tracking system; and funding for a training officer to train more law enforcement officers, prosecutors, sexual assault nurse examiners, and victim advocates with the specialized knowledge and resources needed to properly respond to sexual assault cases. The grant also helps fund the required processes for the remainder of the kit testing. Thank you again for expressing an interest in DOJ’s work to support victims of sexual assault and holding sex offenders accountable through the testing of unsubmitted sexual assault kits. As Wisconsin has become a national leader in this effort, we have welcomed the bipartisan support and assistance of the legislature in completing this critical work. Very truly yours, Brad D. Schimel Attorney General of Wisconsin BDS:ler:alm