As the federal government slashes public safety funding, including grants supporting programs for crime victims, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano joined other top prosecutors in Alexandria this week to hear stories from survivors.
For more than an hour on Wednesday (Nov. 19), Descano, Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Deghani-Tafti and Norfolk CA Ramin Fatehi listened to crime survivors at the National Organization of Victim Advocacy (510 King Street) headquarters, next door to the Alexandria Courthouse.
The victim of domestic violence, NaQuetta Mitchell was able to leave her ex-husband and move from Texas to her family in Virginia. Her ex-husband, a U.S. Army veteran, was dishonorably discharged with post-traumatic stress disorder, ended up remarrying, and then killed his wife and himself when she threatened to leave him with their children, according to Mitchell.
“If I didn’t have my family, I would have been stuck with him,” Mitchell said. “I wouldn’t have been able to leave. A lot of times when women are leaving domestic violence relationships, they are also victims of financial abuse. If you’re not working, you don’t have money, you can’t leave.”
Mitchell founded a nonprofit, Women of Endurance, which supports single mothers with advocacy, education and funding.
“It’s hard to find domestic violence organizations that support single moms when they’re trying to get back on their feet,” Mitchell said.
The funding gap results in an elimination of 24-hour hotline services, legal and medical advocates and counseling.
The discussion was organized by the Prosecutors Alliance, which is working with legislators in California, Virginia, Georgia and Colorado to rally support for replenishing Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) program funding that has been significantly cut over the last several years.
According to Urban Institute, a research nonprofit, funding for victim advocates and services through the US Crime Victims Fund has dropped 70% since 2018.
This past spring, the Trump administration terminated an estimated $819.7 million in federal grants for public safety and justice programs, including community violence intervention programs, legal assistance for victims, services specifically for victims of hate crimes and more.
In California, the state legislature allocated $103 million in one-time funding in its 2024 budget to help bridge a widening gap in funding for victims’ services. Now, the Prosecutors Alliance wants Virginia legislators to do the same.
Robyn Sordelett, the survivor center director for the Prosecutors Alliance, said that the General Assembly needs to have a line item in the state budget for victims services, including for victim witness advocates working under commonwealth’s attorneys. She said it could cost upward of $30 million annually.
“We’re seeing the unraveling of any sort of scaffolding for victim services in this country,” Sordelett said. “Now with this administration inserting language into grant conditions that won’t provide services to culturally specific groups, like trans folks, immigrant populations, undocumented people, you will lose funding.”
Descano said he’s working on reaching out to legislators for additional funding for victim support services.
“Virginia has always funded its criminal justice on the cheap,” Descano said. “Virginia doesn’t fund prosecutors to do misdemeanor cases. If you’re the victim of a misdemeanor crime, in most jurisdictions it’s basically up to you to prosecute your case.”
While he didn’t name any specific legislators he’s working with, Descano said he is willing to talk with anybody who will listen.
“They’re in the unenviable position of having to balance budgets, worry about everybody else coming to talk to them,” he said. “I think this funding should be permanent, because if you want to improve the justice system, really, what you’re doing is building a culture, and it’s very difficult to do that in two to three years.”
Descano has faced criticism since he first took office in 2020 of prioritizing defendants’ rights over the needs of crime victims, culminating in Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares releasing a report in September that alleged an “alarming pattern of misconduct” based on prosecutors’ handling of 16 different cases.
Defending his office’s work as helping make Fairfax “the safest large county of its size in the country,” Descano, a Democrat, dismissed the report at the time as a “political stunt” by Miyares, correctly predicting that the Republican would lose his reelection bid this month.
During the Prosecutors Alliance-organized roundtable, Fatimah Muwahhid, another victim of domestic violence whose husband is in prison, said that programmatic cuts to victim support services are heartbreaking.
“When you cut things like that, it allows victims to feel like Alice in Wonderland,” Muwahhid said. “Like, where do I get my support?”
