HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lawmakers this week overwhelmingly voted to create a new fine on convicted sex offenders to help fund organizations that provide services to thousands of children who have experienced abuse.
Offenders will be fined up to $1,000, depending on the seriousness of their conviction. The fee is expected to generate between $3.6 million and $3.9 million annually, according to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
That money will be placed in a newly created Child Victim Recovery Fund and distributed by the commission to the 41 Children's Advocacy Centers across Pennsylvania.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, signed the bill into law Thursday afternoon.
Children who have experienced abuse are often referred to these centers — most of which are nonprofits — by local law enforcement or county children and youth agencies.
Children’s Advocacy Centers of Pennsylvania, a statewide organization that advocates on behalf of the local centers and provides training to them, estimates that 70% of referrals are related to suspected sexual abuse. The centers serve roughly 14,000 children annually.
“The effects of child sexual abuse can be lifelong if there's no intervention, if there's no support response given, if there's no mental health therapy that's appropriately given to the child and the family,” said Abbie Newman, chief executive of Montgomery County’s Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center.
The centers coordinate medical and social services for victims, while also working with law enforcement and prosecutors to streamline investigations. They specialize in conducting what are known as forensic interviews, which take place in quiet rooms, include open-ended questions, and are designed so a victim has to tell their story only once — rather than to several agencies.
Currently, the state earmarks roughly $2 million per year from fees on birth certificates for these centers. That works out to about $50,000 per center, plus $400,000 for Children’s Advocacy Centers of Pennsylvania.
Local centers can also apply for competitive state grants funded by an endowment fund created after the Penn State sexual abuse scandal.
But for years, officials with the centers have said the money is not enough and forces them to divert staff time to piecing together other sources of funding, such as competitive grants, local contracts, or private donations.
An analysis by Children’s Advocacy Centers of Pennsylvania found that the centers collectively must seek $14.5 million every year from nonstate sources to be fully funded.
The new law directs the state crime commission to create a noncompetitive formula to distribute the money. The revenue estimate assumes about 55% of fines will be collected — in practice, advocates say it’s difficult to predict, so the number could be higher or lower. The commission will prorate grants if there isn’t sufficient money.
The fines will go into effect in April.
Meghan Lennox Gagorik, executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Northeastern Pennsylvania, said the new funding will help free up time to improve services at her organization, which conducted more than 650 forensic interviews with children last year.
“Every bit of time that we aren't dedicating to creating funding sources, we can repurpose into building up our team better and serving our clients better, and so I mean that's really the core of why we're there,” Gagorik said.
Grantees will be able to use the new funding for forensic interviews and medical evaluations, “trauma-focused” mental health services, victim advocacy, and other improvements to the centers’ operations, according to the law.
At least one in four girls and one in 20 boys in the United States experience child sexual abuse, according to the CDC. Gagorik cited the frequency of these cases to argue the importance of the centers’ services.
“We are seeing people from every background, from every neighborhood, from every community, from every school,” Gagorik said.
Chris Kirchner, executive director of Children’s Advocacy Centers of Pennsylvania, said in a statement that the bill “is a significant step forward in holding predators accountable and investing in specialized services for our most vulnerable children.”
“Every child abuse survivor deserves a response that puts their safety, healing, and future first,” she said.
A last-minute push
The legislation creating the fine was introduced by state Reps. Kyle Mullins (D., Lackawanna) and Jim Rigby (R., Cambria) in April.
It passed the state House in June, but sat in the Senate until this week. Republicans in the upper chamber objected to the so-called “ability-to-pay” provision, which would have allowed judges to exempt some defendants from paying the fines based on their financial capabilities.
That provision was added to the bill in June, in response to concerns from the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
“Ability-to-pay determinations help ensure that courts impose financial obligations that are realistic and collectible, rather than creating unpayable debt that undermines successful reentry while doing little to generate revenue for victim services,” Veronica Miller, deputy legislative director at the ACLU of Pennsylvania, wrote in a letter sent to lawmakers this week before the floor vote.
Mullins said state House Democrats agreed to cut the provision to reach a deal with Senate Republican leaders. He stressed it was necessary not to delay funding any longer.
“Children who come into our child advocacy centers have endured, survived some of the most heinous crimes and abuses imaginable,” Mullins said. “These centers are operating on shoestring budgets and shouldn't have to worry about keeping the lights on with their limited funding, when their sole focus should be providing a safe space for children to heal.”
The provision was removed by the state Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday over the objections of most Democrats. Chair Scott Martin (R., Lancaster) said cutting that provision addressed members’ concerns “about fees not being applied uniformly between the different counties for all offenses and all offenders convicted of these crimes, which would have limited the program’s overall effectiveness.”
The legislation cleared the state Senate in a 47-3 vote on Wednesday, shortly before the House passed it unanimously.
Other states vary drastically in how they fund child advocacy centers and related services. Colorado, Oregon, and Washington are among those that already use revenue from court fines to raise funding for the centers.
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