District Attorney Dee Bates addressed the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors at its last meeting with his concerns about losing a Victim Assistance Coordinator.

Bates said the district is required by law to have one VAC, but District 14 — serving Lincoln, Pike and Walthall Counties — has had two VACs since 1996. This is a position they have come to depend on within the District Attorney’s office and criminal justice system. The two VACs in District 14 serve 100,000 people, and the way they have utilized the position would be impossible to keep up if they were to lose the second VAC.

Victim Assistance Coordinators do many things to benefit victims of violent crimes, including informing victims of their rights (required by law), acquiring funds that go to reimburse victims’ families of funeral costs and helping families and victims with paperwork and all sorts of other supportive outreach.

“We’re required by law to do certain things, and it’s very hard to fully follow the law when you don’t the personnel, but we do the best we can with what we have,” Bates said.

Currently, one VAC is funded by the three counties and the other by an 80/20 federal grant, which Bates fears he will lose soon. If he loses the grant, the position would be dissolved and that person would most likely be out of a job.

Bates asked supervisors to establish a position for another VAC in the district  that could potentially be funded by the county. Lincoln County’s part would be roughly $25,000. He said the Pike County Board of Supervisors approved a similar request.

“It’s been an ongoing situation,” Bates said. “The past three years we’ve ended up being funded because other charitable organizations or other things have folded basically. I think one year we were promised a 25 percent cut, two years ago it was a 50 percent cut. Since other organizations have actually quit receiving funds, we have always been able to stay.”

Right now, the Department of Public safety manages the victims’ assistance grants, but talks about moving those grants to the Department of Mental Health are in the works. As of now, the grants have been cut so much that only three districts in Mississippi have them anymore.

“But I don’t know about the future, we haven’t been told yet what the funding will be,” he continued. “I’ve been told that the move to the Department of Mental Health will not have a major effect, but I believe eventually it will have a major effect. That’s where they’re going to end up moving all the grants.”

Bates said when that happens, other programs or positions within the Department of Mental Health will take priority over funding a position, albeit valuable, in the District Attorney’s office.

He asked supervisors if they would approve the establishment of the position, not funding it at this time, and the board approved it. The board advised him to keep them posted as the situation develops. For now, the DA’s office is waiting to see what happens with the grant and hoping that if it does not come their way the board will step in to help.