Victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking will be able to rest easier thanks to the Address Confidentiality Program, which Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin announced yesterday at a State House press conference.
The program, which is now in operation, is a mail forwarding system that prevents offenders from keeping track of victims.
“This is a major step in protecting the victims of domestic violence,” Galvin said. “This program will help victims to be safe by offering a substitute mailing address that conceals their actual locations from those who would harm them.”
To participate, a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking must relocate to an address unknown to the perpetrator and that is not contained in any public record. Then, the victim must complete an program application with a trained application assistant.
To be eligible, the applicant must demonstrate that disclosure of the applicant’s address would threaten his or her safety. Once the applicant is accepted into the program, the secretary assigns a substitute address to the participant to be used as the participant’s legal mailing address.
The participant will be assigned a P.O. Box and someone from the program will pick up the mail and forward it to the victim’s actual address the same day. Participation in the program and the substitute address lasts for four years.
“To be safe or be a citizen, no one should have to make a choice,” said Sen. Cheryl Jacques (D-Needham), co-sponsor of the bill. “People live in fear of their identities being exposed. This program gives rape victims, stalking victims and victims of domestic violence some peace of mind,” she said.
The program was established in the Acts of 2000 and signed into law on Jan. 11 of this year. Washington was the first state in the nation to adopt an address confidentiality law in 1991. Similar laws are now in effect in Nevada, California and New Jersey.
In Washington, there are approximately 1,000 participants in the program, while there are between 500 and 1,000 participants in the other states.
The estimated budget for implementing and running the program in Massachusetts is $250,000 per year, according to Galvin.
With the passage of the program, victims of rape, domestic abuse and sexual assault “won’t be afraid to vote, enroll in school or purchase property,” said Rep. Carol Donovan (D-Woburn). She thanked former Gov. Paul Cellucci, who had signed the bill.
Galvin said the best way to publicize the program is through advocacy groups that are already in existence and currently helping victims.
Judith Beals of Jane Doe, Inc., a woman’s advocacy group, thanked everyone who helped in the passage of the program.
“This law could have so easily fallen through the cracks,” she said. “I assure you this will save lives.”
Geneva Riley Tiggle, a licensed social worker and administrator, will manage the program.
There are currently not any active participants in the program, but applications are expected to be processed and participants enrolled as early as May.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
