IJIS Institute Implements First Standards-based Victim Notification Services

Work enhances information sharing capabilities for five states
By: IJIS Institute
 
March 17, 2015 - PRLog -- The IJIS Institute (http://www.ijis.org)—a nonprofit organization that focuses on mission-critical information sharing for justice, public safety, and homeland security—announces the successful enhancement of the information sharing capabilities of five states’ Victim Notification Systems (VNS): Montana, North Dakota, Illinois, Indiana, and Alabama. The projects were funded by U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) grants, including the most recent three that were performed under a subcontract agreement between the National Criminal Justice Association and the IJIS Institute.

VNS, also referred to as Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification (SAVIN) systems, provide a single point of shared services for victims to learn about the status of their case against an offender, from the point of arrest and incarceration through disposition, release, and community supervision. VNS systems are implemented, or are in the process of being implemented, in almost every state in the US. The National Information Sharing Standard for Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification provides a standards-based approach for all states to create or enhance VNS and, ultimately, provide better services to crime victims.

The National Information Sharing Standard for Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification leverages the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and the Global Reference Architecture (GRA) Service Specification. The standard provides technical guidance for exchanging victim-related information nationwide, regardless of the type of technology used. The most recent implementations of the standard were completed in North Dakota, Illinois, and Alabama, and earlier implementations of the exchanges were done in Montana and Indiana.

As a mother who lost her daughter to homicide, Pat Tuthill, founder of the Peyton Tuthill Foundation, is all too aware of the fears and unique need of victims. In her work as a victim advocate, she recognizes the need for victims to be notified of offender status changes to address their fears after being harmed. Tuthill said, “I applaud the work of IJIS in bringing together stakeholders, including victims, to develop and produce a National Information Sharing Standard for Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification that can be adopted by all states to keep victims and survivors informed as they try to reclaim their lives. Victim notification provides a sense of safety and peace knowing that you will be kept informed to protect your family.”

Larry Arrington, a chief systems architect working with the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center, said of the implementation in Alabama, “The NIEM-compliant County-Jail data exchange, which resulted from the National Information Sharing Standard for SAVIN project with IJIS, has given the state of Alabama an information exchange vehicle to collect jail inmate and booking data for the first time ever.” He added, “This data will allow victims to register for offenders at the county level, and receive custody status change notifications via email, SMS text, or interactive voice response phone calls. This would not have been possible without the assistance of the IJIS project team.”

There is already evidence of the impact the National Information Sharing Standard for Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification implementation is having on VNS effectiveness. Heidi Smith, SAVIN program manager for the North Dakota, stated, “Unfortunately, prior to this project, many victim witness coordinators would not refer victims to use the court notifications due to the delayed, confusing, repetitive and overly generic notifications. The reactions we’ve gotten from victim witness coordinators since this project have been positive. We anticipate that we will see a dramatic increase in the number of users within the next year due to the increased referrals and outreach made possible by these improvements.” In addition, John Daugherty, CIO of the Montana Department of Correction, stated, “The ability to receive an acknowledgment from our victim notification provider gave us more than a verification they received notification information; it gave us the ability to see how they interpreted our notification information and make changes that provided more accurate notification messages to the victim.”

The IJIS Institute acknowledges the significant contributions of the following IJIS Member companies involved in these implementations of the victim notification standard who contributed to the improved information sharing and services to victims: Appriss, Microsoft, Open Networks, and URL Integration.

For more information on the National Information Sharing Standard for Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification and how your agency might benefit from its implementation, please contact Kathy Gattin at 703-726-3681.

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Page Updated Last on: Mar 20, 2015
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