Q&A
Detailed explanation of the process for reporting and investigating sexual abuse complaints
2:24:18
·
3 min
Deputy Director Ingris Martinez provides a comprehensive explanation of the process for reporting and investigating sexual abuse complaints in city jails. The process involves multiple reporting pathways and a series of steps to ensure proper handling of complaints.
- Complaints can come from various sources, including staff members, medical personnel, or 311 calls
- All complaints involving staff are immediately forwarded to the Department of Investigation (DOI)
- Investigators take measures to ensure victim privacy and conduct confidential interviews
- The process includes collecting evidence, conducting interviews, and reviewing medical reports
- Supervisors, not field investigators, make determinations based on the collected information
Mercedes Narcisse
2:24:18
So can you walk me through when somebody make a complaint of sex sexual abuse, let's say sexual abuse.
2:24:26
Can you walk me through that process?
2:24:27
What happened?
Ingris Martinez
2:24:29
Okay.
2:24:30
So multiple pat reporting pathways.
2:24:33
And I'm gonna paint you a picture that Consider an email as a is the notification.
2:24:39
The notification comes in to a Prius supervisors.
2:24:43
It could be from another staff member.
2:24:45
It could be from medical.
2:24:47
It could be a 311 forwarded to us.
2:24:50
Very minimal information.
2:24:53
Person that call from such housing area claim this.
2:24:58
Sometimes, they may have a date and time.
2:25:00
Sometimes, they may have an an aggressor name.
2:25:03
Sometimes, it'll just say staff.
2:25:05
The minute the supervisor the previous supervisors reads this, it's immediately forwarded out to DOE, just based on staff.
2:25:12
We don't know a name.
2:25:13
We don't know other particulars.
2:25:16
That coincides with our mandate to also report corruption within the department.
2:25:23
There's a DOE duty team, a weekly duty team, and within minutes to up to 24 hours, that DOE clearance is sent back to us.
2:25:31
We we start our mandated services.
2:25:34
We generate separation orders when we find out, you know, where the the the victim is located.
2:25:39
We will go out to where they are located.
2:25:41
If they're at the hospital, if they're at facility.
2:25:45
Are they in the housing area?
2:25:46
All of those factors are taken into account when we're dispatching our staff.
2:25:51
Our staff arrive, taking in situational awareness, taking a look to see the type of housing area, is there a confidential room that we can use.
2:26:02
Maybe grievance has a room in there.
2:26:05
Is it a double tier housing area with a particular pantry that took away from view of other persons in in the housing area.
2:26:15
Those are the type of things that we look into to kinda gauge whether we we can talk to that person in that housing area.
2:26:22
Sometimes just just appearing in front of them, and they may just say, I don't wanna talk.
2:26:27
Right now or I don't wanna talk here, that kinda gives my investigators a lot.
2:26:32
Okay.
2:26:32
Well, let's let's look further into this.
2:26:34
Let's figure out, can we take this person to the intake?
2:26:37
Can we take this person?
2:26:38
Maybe the chapel is available for an interview at this point.
2:26:43
Taking into account, we now do a confidential interview.
2:26:49
Our investigators are compassionate in the manner that they conduct their interviews.
2:26:55
They are careful not to re victimize the persons in custody.
2:27:00
However, take into account that we do have to ask the hard questions sometimes.
2:27:05
So I was taking a little bit of a a fact with the previous question because we may it's not necessarily just because they're transgender we're asking for genitalia.
2:27:14
We may be asking because it's necessary for the investigation.
2:27:18
Right?
2:27:19
We'll ask those hard questions.
2:27:21
What did it look like?
2:27:22
Right?
2:27:23
It's not because they're transgender.
2:27:25
It's because it's necessary to the investigation.
2:27:28
Maybe they had a mole, something, you know, that the victim can help us identify later on.
2:27:34
So moving forward from there, we all the information is collected.
2:27:39
I wanna Our investigators do not make any type of determination when they're out in the field.
2:27:46
They are collecting all the information.
2:27:48
Business records, canvases, interviews, medical injury report, in taking that back to the office to a supervisor that makes the determination for it to be a decision whether it's reported incident or not.
