In the 2010 legislative session, Jana's Campaign will be advocating that Kansas lawmakers pass House Bill 2335 (pdf).

This legislation requires a domestic violence tag to be placed on all legal documents associated with a criminal act that is based on an intimate relationship. Jana's Campaign believes that having this DV tag is key to preventing offenders from repeating their crimes. The legislation also advocates the importance of having sanctions put in place against the offenders before violence escalates. To prevent cases from falling between the cracks, the bill also requires the courts to order assessments of the domestic violence offenders and recommend interventions and treatments.

The intention of the legislation is prevention and early detection. By appropriately responding to domestic cases before the violence escalates, the bill's advocates believe that lives of Kansans can and will be saved.

The development of Jana's Campaign to stop domestic violence was inspired by Jana Mackey's 1100 Torches national campaign and in response to Jana's own life and legacy.

Jana Mackey was a dedicated activist in Kansas. She had worked on several state and national political campaigns. She served three years as one of the youngest lobbyists at the Kansas State Capitol for the National Organization for Women and the Kansas Equality Coalition. She had volunteered, caring for sexual assault and domestic violence victims.

Those that knew Jana believed that she was the least likely person to become a domestic violence victim. At just 25 years old, the KU law student was found dead in her ex-boyfriend's home on July 3, 2008, murdered.

According to the Kansas Bureau of Investigations, 19 adults and 14 children lost their lives in domestic violence related homicides in Kansas in 2008 alone.

The Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence offered these additional statistics:

• Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44.
• Pregnant and recently pregnant women are more likely to be victims of homicide than to die of any other cause.
• Approximately one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner.
• Men who batter their spouses or partners physically abuse their children at a seven times higher rate than non-battering men and they sexually abuse their children at a six times higher rate than non-battering men.
• Rape remains the most dramatically underreported crime. 70-84% of rapes are not reported to law enforcement.
• Most rapes are perpetrated by someone known and trusted by the victim. In 2002, in Kansas, the offender knew the victim in at least 71.3% of the reported cases.
• Women with disabilities have identified issues of violence and abuse as the highest health priority.
• Batterers not only use physical and sexual violence to control their victim, they use economic control as well. One method of economic control is sabotage of employment and employment-related activities. An abuser may start fights before key events or interviews, threaten or harass her at work, prevent her from going to work or school, give her visible bruises or injuries to make her embarrassed to go to interviews or classes, flatten car tires, destroy bus passes, kidnap or threaten to kidnap the children, or fail to follow through with promised childcare or transportation.
• On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day.

Kansas Attorney General Steve Six recently appointed Curt and Christie Brungardt, Jana's parents, as co-chairs of the Kansas Domestic Violence Batterers Intervention Program Advisory Board.

The Brungardts have been meeting with groups across Kansas in October, talking with Kansans about the importance of the upcoming legislation.

On November 4th, they will be speaking in Lawrence.

Jana's Campaign will likely have its official kick-off activity and press conference during the International 16 Days of Activism Against Violence, Nov. 25 - Dec. 10, 2009.

We hope to update you with more information as it becomes available.

If you or someone you know is struggling with abuse, please seek assistance from law enforcement or a domestic violence program. You can contact 1-888-END-ABUSE for assistance.