Connecticut Senate adopts bills to safeguard domestic violence victims, incarcerated women

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Senate unanimously approved a bill late Tuesday to reduce instances when victims of domestic violence are arrested alongside their attackers.

The chamber also unanimously adopted a second measure that mandates a broad array of changes to the treatment of incarcerated women, particularly those who are pregnant.

Both bills now head to the House of Representatives.

The domestic violence measure would implement a broad strategy to reverse a longstanding philosophy of “dual arrests” effectively imposed on police departments by existing law, said Sen. Paul Doyle of Wethersfield, Senate Democratic chair of the Judiciary Committee.

In effect, police officers currently are encouraged in many instances to arrest both parties in a domestic violence incident. The bill, which was developed with bipartisan support, would direct officers to try to establish if there was a “dominant aggressor” in an incident, and if so, arrest only that person.'