North Carolina Department of Correction - Correction News - December 1998

SAVAN scheduled to go live this month

The Department of Correction will be joining SAVAN (Statewide Automated Victim Assistance and Notification) System at the end of December. SAVAN is a statewide victim notification project funded by the Governor’s Crime Commission that, when complete, will allow crime victims to access offender information in jails, courts and the Department of Correction including the Division of Prisons and the Division of Community Corrections. Already, several jails are on-line and several pilot projects are underway in the court system.

Here is how SAVAN works: The state has contracted with the VINE Company, headquartered in Louisville, KY. Specific data elements from an agency’s database such as OPUS are transmitted several times a day to the VINE Call Center in Louisville. The Call Center updates and stores this information.

Crime victims can call into the VINE Call Center and access the SAVAN system 24 hours a day, seven days a week by using a toll free telephone number, 1-877-627-2826. They will have to at least know the name of the offender. If they have difficulty, they can request assistance from a live operator.

Victims may simply elect to call into the system periodically to obtain information about the offender. If the offender is in prison, the victim will receive information on the facility and location where he/she is housed, custody level, and projected release date. If the offender is on probation, parole, or post-release supervision, the victim will be told the type of supervision and the county where he/she is supervised.

The victim will be given instructions on how they can register by phone to receive telephone notification when the status of the offender changes. If victims elect to register for telephone notification, they will be notified of status changes that occur in the data transmitted by the agency to the VINE Call Center. If the offender is in prison, the victim will be notified of release, placement in minimum custody, escape, capture, and death. If the offender is on probation, parole or post-release supervision, the victim will be notified as to the start of supervision, terminations, abscond, capture and death.

The notifications will be modified and expanded as experience with the system increases. All information conveyed over the SAVAN system is considered public information. With each call, victims are given information on how to access national and state victim service organizations.

Department employees across the state received an introduction to the SAVAN system via videoconferences Nov. 5 and 6. The VINE Company provided nationally renowned expert in crime victim issues, Anne Seymour, to provide the training sessions. In addition, the Director of Management Information Services, Bob Brinson, and SAVAN Manager, Mary Kay Creech, joined Seymour for a panel discussion and took questions from the audience.

Video tapes of the videoconferences and handout materials are available. Posters and brochures will be mailed out to all DOC locations around the first of December. For more information, contact Mary Kay Creech, departmental manager for SAVAN, Secretary’s Office, 214 W. Jones St., Raleigh, N. C. 27603, Courier: 53-71-00, telephone: 919-733-4926 or e-mail: mcreech@doc.state.nc.us.


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