(a)  The committee shall have the duties and responsibilities to:

(1)  Establish and promulgate minimum standards for batterers intervention programs serving persons mandated pursuant to § 12-29-5; revise the standards as is deemed necessary; ensure the standards comport with evidence-informed practices designed to reduce risk; and make the standards available to the public, provided that the standards shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

(i)  Batterers intervention programs shall be conducted using evidence-informed programming and dosage levels designed to reduce the risk of future violent behavior;

(ii)  The duration of batterers intervention programs shall be a minimum of forty (40) contact hours over the course of twenty (20) weeks;

(iii)  Batterers intervention programs shall require that all mandated batterers pay fees for the programs in accordance with the provisions of § 12-29-5; provided, that programs shall accommodate varying levels of ability to pay by means of sliding-fee scales and may elect to offer alternatives to payment in the form of community restitution and/or deferred payment for a portion of the fees; and

(iv)  Provisions shall be established defining the circumstances under which defendants who have attended a batterers program while incarcerated, and/or a batterers program in another jurisdiction that is certified under that jurisdiction’s standards or not subject to standards in that jurisdiction, may request that their documented participation in such program be accepted in satisfaction of some portion of their obligation to attend forty (40) hours of a certified batterers intervention program as described in subsection (a)(1)(ii).

(2)  Monitor and review batterers intervention programs seeking certification with respect to compliance with the standards, including periodic, on-site review;

(3)  Certify those batterers intervention programs that are in compliance with the standards established pursuant to subsection (a)(1); and

(4)  Investigate and decide appeals, complaints, requests for variances, and post-enrollment certification applications.

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(b)  For purposes of this chapter, “post-enrollment certification applications” means those applications made to the committee by a batterer mandated to attend a certified batterers intervention program in accordance with § 12-29-5 who has, prior to adjudication, enrolled in a program not certified by the committee. The application shall include supporting documentation from the batterers intervention program and a request that participation in the batterers intervention program be accepted in lieu of the equivalent number of hours of a certified batterers intervention program. The committee shall act upon a post-enrollment certification application within thirty (30) days of receipt of the application.

(c)  The state public safety grant administration office may provide grants to provide for the access to, and expansion and improvement of, community-based batterers intervention programs. The batterers intervention standards oversight committee shall make recommendations to the public safety grant administration policy board regarding the distribution of funds in the form of grants to programs to cover the costs of delivering quality services to indigent offenders, and to assist community providers and their staffs to utilize outcome-based best practices and effective programming methods.