Jackson Free Press

[verbatim statement] The Domestic Violence Division of the Mississippi Attorney General's Office, in cooperation with the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, will hold its second annual Domestic Violence Conference on May 13 and 14. The conference will be held at the Silver Star Hotel and Casino in Choctaw, Mississippi, and is entitled Domestic Violence in Our Communities: Response, Accountability, and Progress. Any law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, court clerks, probation and parole officers, and advocates working in the field of domestic violence or victims rights are invited to attend.

"The purpose of this conference is to educate law enforcement officers on how to respond to Domestic Violence disputes," said Attorney General Jim Hood, "More and more we are seeing people who are victims of domestic violence come forward to report their abuse, and as law enforcement officers and officers of the court we need to know how to effectively respond to the complaint."

The keynote speaker will be Professor Sarah Buel. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and has spent the last 29 years working to improve the system response to battered women and abused children and juveniles.

The conference is funded by a federal grant administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women, and as a result no fees are required to attend.