§17. Victims assistance program; creation

A. There is hereby created, within each judicial district in the office of the district attorney, a victims assistance program. The purpose of the program shall be to assist victims and their families through the entire criminal justice process and to facilitate the delivery of victims' services and rights as provided by law.

B. There shall be a full-time victims assistance coordinator for each judicial district. In judicial districts exceeding one hundred thousand persons there shall be one full-time victims assistance coordinator for each one hundred thousand persons or portion thereof which exceeds fifty thousand persons.

C. The victims assistance coordinator shall be paid an annual salary not to exceed thirty thousand dollars, including benefits. This salary shall be payable monthly by the state treasurer upon the warrant of the district attorney and may be supplemented by local funds as may become available to the district attorney.

D. The district attorneys' offices shall establish uniform minimum qualifications for the victims assistance coordinators. The district attorneys shall be responsible for the promulgation of the uniform minimum qualifications of the victims assistance coordinators.

E. The district attorney may assess and collect a reasonable fee from participants in pretrial diversion or pretrial intervention programs to support and maintain victims assistance and/or diversionary programs.

Acts 1995, No. 1170, §1; Acts 2008, No. 316, §1.