State House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, last week announced he wants to address domestic violence in Connecticut during the 2010 legislative session.
To accomplish that mission, Donovan has created a 16-person task force to focus on the issue, which includes Rep. Gerald Fox, D-Stamford.
“Most people don’t realize that about 30 percent of criminal court dockets involve domestic violence, and many more of these crimes go unreported,” Fox, an attorney and vice-chairman of the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “This is an issue with many complicating factors including a desperate need to improve the level of available victim services.”
Freshman Rep. Terrie Wood, R-Darien, is also a participant on the task force.
Fox recently co-chaired a group created by Donovan’s predecessor, retired Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, to study and address domestic violence in the immigrant community.
Although lawmakers failed to enact related legislation by the end of the regular 2009 session at midnight on June 3, the language was tacked onto one of the bills passed by the General Assembly Oct. 2 to implement the new two-year state budget.
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