Crime victim service programs

§ 631-a. Crime victim service programs. 1. The office shall make grants, within amounts appropriated for that purpose, for crime victim service programs to provide services to crime victims and witnesses. These programs shall be operated at the community level by not-for-profit organizations, by agencies of local government or by any combination thereof. Crime victim service programs may be designed to serve crime victims and witnesses in general in a particular community, or may be designed to serve a category of persons with special needs relating to a particular kind of crime.

2. The director shall promulgate regulations, relating to these grants, including guidelines for its determinations.

(a) These regulations shall be designed to promote:

(i) alternative funding sources other than the state, including local government and private sources;

(ii) coordination of public and private efforts to aid crime victims; and

(iii) long range development of services to all victims of crime in the community and to all victims and witnesses involved in criminal prosecutions.

(b) These regulations shall also provide for services including, but not limited to:

(i) assistance to claimants seeking crime victims compensation benefits;

(ii) referrals, crisis intervention and other counseling services;

(iii) services to elderly victims and to child victims and their families;

(iv) transportation and household assistance;

(v) outreach to the community and education and training of law enforcement and other criminal justice officials to the needs of crime victims; and

(vi) services to victims of a mass shooting as defined in subdivision eleven of section eight hundred thirty-five of this chapter or of a shooting incident in which four or more people are injured.