Schofield Barracks To Participate In Sexual Assault Prevention Pilot Program
The initiative is set to begin in 2022 after a series of military investigations and legislation calling for sweeping reforms.
The Army has selected Hawaii鈥檚 Schofield Barracks to participate in a pilot program aimed at improving efforts to curb sexual assault and harassment in the military.
The revamp of the聽Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program, also known as SHARP, is based in large part on recommendations from the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee, which the Army formed after the murder of Spc. Vanessa Guillen, whose body was found after she went missing last year.
Her killing was one of 聽that brought to light widespread leadership failures at the base, which has had high rates of sexual assault, harassment and other problems.
Schofield Barracks will be one of six bases participating in a yearlong program establishing a “fusion directorate designed to care for, protect and empower victims” by creating additional reporting mechanisms and coordinated support services that are independent of the immediate command, the Army said in a press release issued Friday.
The pilot program, which is part of the planned redesign of SHARP, is due to begin next year.
“Right now, we are in Phase I of the process and just building the capability to support the pilot program,” Army Garrison Hawaii spokesman Rick Black said in an email.
The Army launched SHARP in 2005 and has poured millions of dollars into the program, but it has been heavily criticized. Victim advocates often worked part time and held other military positions often deeply embedded in the chains of command of survivors and accused abusers in investigations and legal proceedings.
Military commanders rather than prosecutors have traditionally a court martial. Spurred in part by the events at Fort Hood, recent congressional legislation created special prosecutors with the authority to convene trials .
Guillen’s death became a rally cry for female service members and veterans who have long complained that the military wasn’t doing enough to address harassment and violence.
Selena Roth, an Army veteran killed by her soldier-husband聽earlier this year at Schofield, had Guillen’s portrait as her Facebook profile picture at the time of her death in January.
Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the new program was a positive development but more work needs to be done. Hirono previously worked with then-Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in introducing Talia’s Law, which reformed how the military tracks and reports child abuse after the 2005聽 at her father’s home at Wheeler Army Airfield.
鈥淏ringing an updated SHARP program to Schofield Barracks using a survivor-centered model means that the Army is following through on its commitment to implement recommendations from the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee Report following聽Vanessa Guillen鈥檚 tragic murder last year,” Hirono said in an email.聽“Eliminating the scourge of sexual violence in the military is a top priority for me and my colleagues.”
The other bases included in the pilot program are the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Irwin in California, Fort Riley in Kansas and Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
