Victims are notified
Through the Georgia Office of Victim Services, registered victims of crime are notified as the Board considers parole for an inmate. The Parole Board wants the victim's information and input and seeks to inform victims about the parole process. Victims should be registered and update their information with the Georgia Office of Victim Services any time they change addresses or contact information. The Board wants all victims registered and is working toward that goal.
“We choose to take a proactive approach. In 2014, the Board instructed the Georgia Office of Victim Services to do extensive searches to make sure all victims who want to be registered, are registered,” stated Barnard.
He says the Board has made every effort to register crime victims if the offender is parole eligible.
“It is our goal to meet with a crime victim face-to-face in a private setting where the victim can leave with the confidence that their interests and their experiences are being heard. Our goal is to provide an opportunity for every crime victim in this state to have an audience with at least one board member prior to final parole consideration.”
Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson told the audience of victims that they are the number one priority.
“We believe it is so crucially important to keep in contact so they (victims) don’t feel like they’re not being heard. Today is so wonderful because they are going to be heard by the Parole Board and the people that run the Pardons and Parole department so they can have input into whether or not the person that hurt them is paroled,” stated Lawson.
The Parole Board and the Georgia Office of Victim Services conducted the Victims Visitors’ Day in conjunction with the Clayton Judicial Circuit Victim-Witness Assistance Program. Registered crime victims are served through the Georgia Office of Victim Services. Crime victims who attend a Victims Visitors’ Day are able to receive offender parole status information and register if not previously registered.
The April 19, 2016, Victims Visitors’ Day was held at the S. Truett Cathy Professional Learning Center in Jonesboro.
For more information about the Georgia Office of Victim Services, call 404-656-6872. For Parole Board information visit www.pap.georgia.gov or call 404-657-9450.
Levi and Shiela Simon
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