A Judge’s Guide

ail hearing, move, etc.), and up to one year unpaid leave with a guarantee of their present job
back. Dr. James Hardeman, the manager of their employee assistance program, also meets with
every perpetrator-employee to explain that his continued employment is dependent upon not
reoffending and the successful completion of a certified, one-year batterer’s intervention
program. 328 All employers, from police departments and hospitals, to two-person practices and
courts, should have such a policy that makes victim safety a priority. If more employers adopt
guidelines clarifying that we are here to help prevent further harm, many more victims and their
children could be alive tomorrow. Additionally, batterers may obtain the interventions they
need to avoid recidivism and possibly prison.
An outstanding model which could be replicated in most areas is the “Polaroid CEO
Project”. Polaroid’s CEO Gary DiCamello recruited about sixty other Massachusetts’ corporate
CEO’s to enlist their company’s support in “adopting” a domestic violence program (mostly
shelters) or visitation center. The corporations are not asked to give large cash donations,
though they are certainly free to do so. Rather, the corporations work with their adopted
programs to identify needs (such as maintenance, financial planning, fundraising, etc.) for
which the company could help. One of Polaroid’s additional contributions was to pledge to
provide job training to one hundred battered women per year, enabling them to learn valuable
job skills, while gaining economic empowerment and self-esteem. This is the program through
which Newton-Wellesley (MA.) Hospital adopted their local shelter, providing free medical
care and financial planning, among other assistance.
XXI. CONCLUSION
As adult and child advocates, law enforcement, probation and parole officers, social
workers, counselors, attorneys, judges and other interveners, we should be celebrating that
domestic violence victims and children are increasingly turning to the courts for protection from
abuse. Nashville’s Police Lt. Mark Wynn says we have the privilege of making the law keep its
promise to abuse victims: affording them equal protection, due process and freedom from
domestic tyranny. As Lt. Wynn has shown with the remarkable efforts underway in Nashville,
one key is applying gentle, relentless pressure to achieve the protections our victims deserve.
We can interrupt the intergenerational cycle of learned abuse by teaching our children that the
community will not tolerate the violence. “We have a choice,” Juvenile Court Judge Dale
Harris says, “Will our children and their mothers have homes they can run to or homes they
must run away from?” 329
Additional Resources
1. Laura Crites & Donna Coker, What Therapists See That Judges May Miss: A Unique
Guide to Custody Decisions When Spouse Abuse is Charged, 27 Judges' J. 11 (Spring
1988).
328 To receive more information about the Polaroid Corporation’s Domestic Violence Guidelines and other
employer assistance, you may contact the Workplace Violence Project (of the Family Violence Prevention Fund) at
#415-252-8900.
329 Judge Dale Harris presides over the Juvenile and Family Court in Lynchburg, Va.
277