A new report has found more failings on the part of the New Zealand Corrections Department and the way it manages offenders on parole.
It details serious failings in the management of parole, in nearly every single case it investigated. The Auditor General’s Office has looked at how the department handled 100 case files including 52 offenders regarded as high risk. It has found in most cases the Department did not follow one or more of its own sentence management requirements and has identified several cases where Corrections was not managing offenders adequately … The report makes 20 recommendations to Corrections, mostly urging them to follow their own parole rules. These include:
- The proposed accommodation of offenders not being problematic for victims;
- Probation officers regularly visiting offenders in their homes;
- Senior staff overseeing how probation officers manage high-risk offenders;
- Enforcement action being consistent and prompt; and
- Victims being notified promptly about certain enforcement actions relating to an offender’s parole.
Corrections Minister Judith Collins says the report is alarming. “I am deeply disappointed and concerned by the finding of the report,” she says. “I support all of the recommendations of the Auditor-General and I am treating the findings of this report extremely seriously.”
vericatrajkova Australasia, INTERNATIONAL, New Zealand, Probation and Parole, Victim Notification Systems
Crime victims will be able to follow inmates after they are released on parole or probation thanks to upcoming changes to Ohio’s criminal tracking system.
State officials say a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice will allow Ohio to upgrade its current tracking system by 2010. “It will empower victims and allow them more control over their own situation and safety,” said Matt Hellman, administrator of the Ohio attorney general’s office of victim services. “If they need to, they can make plans for their own safety and for the safety of friends and family.” Victims already can check the status of current inmates still in prison through the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s internal tracking system and by phone and e-mail through a national automated information and notification network. That system provides information on changes to an inmate’s status, including releases, transfers, escapes and deaths … State officials say the system was used nearly 1 million times in 2007 to check on the custody status of Ohio inmates or receive notification of changes in that status.
The enhancements to … VINE will allow victims to follow offenders’ movements after they are released. The new information will include updates on an offender’s status while under supervision, including any parole violations or upcoming hearings _ information which hasn’t been a legal requirement for the notification process, state officials said.
More details from Ohio.com
vericatrajkova Ohio, Victim Notification Systems
Georgia’s budget ax could cut loose crime victims who are owed restitution and thin the ranks of prison chaplains who cost the state $2.2 million a year. These possibilities arose as a committee of state Senate budget writers searched for savings in the Board of Pardons and Paroles and the Department of Corrections.
Like most state departments, those agencies are under Gov. Sonny Perdue’s order to trim at least 6 percent from their budgets to help the state cope with a projected $2 billion deficit in the current year’s spending plan. Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, chairman of the committee, questioned whether the Board of Pardons and Paroles should be using taxpayer money to notify crime victims that they are entitled to restitution payments from parolees. The six positions that handle those notifications, among other services for victims, cost $257,880 … On the prison side, the Department of Corrections spends $2.2 million on 18 full-time and 31 part-time chaplains who counsel and minister to inmates. Commissioner James Donald said he plans to cut part-timers from the staff, a roughly $1.2 million savings.
More from the Florida Times-Union.
vericatrajkova Georgia, Religious Issues, Victim Notification Systems
- Luzerne County PA joins PA SAVIN, the State’s victim notification system
- The Orleans Parish LA Jail is being investigated by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice; Sheriff calls it “a review”.
- ADP in Chester County PA falls below 900 for first time since 2005.
- Strip searches at Cook County Men’s Jail ruled unconstitutional; suits may total more than $10 million
vericatrajkova IL Cook County, Inmate Lawsuits, LA Orleans Parish, PA Chester County, PA Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Victim Notification Systems
The IowaVINE system that allows for the tracking of inmates for the benefit of victims is set to expand to all but one county in the State.
The system now includes information on all state prisoners as well as those convicted in 49 county courts. The IowaVINE system allows the public to track whether an arrested or convicted offender has escaped, has been released or transferred, or has died, etc. It was launched in June with information from 23 counties. Attorney General Tom Miller said Friday that adding information from the Department of Corrections means that about 8,700 more offenders will be traceable … The Department of Corrections, which has notified victims by regular mail since 1986, will now update its records on IowaVINE about 20 times a day. County jails will update every 15 minutes.
More from the Des Moines Register.
vericatrajkova Data Sharing, Iowa, Victim Notification Systems
The Department of Justice (DOJ) Victim Notification System (VNS) is an automated system used by federal personnel to notify federal crime victims regarding developments in their cases, including information about the status of the investigation, prosecution, trial, incarceration, location, and custody status of the offender related to the crime.
The VNS came online in October 2001 and as of October 5, 2007, contained information on more than 1.5 million registered victims. The annual budget for the VNS has remained at approximately $5 million since fiscal year (FY) 2002.1 Since work began on creating the system in FY 1998, the VNS has cost a total of more than $38 million. The VNS is managed by the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) and is used by all United States Attorneys Offices (USAO), the DOJ Criminal Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).
In a recent audit, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) examined the management of the VNS, the effectiveness of the VNS for victims, and the information security of the system. In conducting this audit, they interviewed personnel who managed the system, as well as personnel from agencies directly involved with the VNS. They analyzed victim-related data in the VNS and sent surveys to a sample of victims in the VNS. They also worked with a contractor to perform a review of the VNS’s information security. In general, their audit covered the period from FY 1998 through FY 2007.
A full copy of the audit is available in the Library under Technical papers.
vericatrajkova Federal Systems, Victim Notification Systems