Crime victims want state out of notification system

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - When an offender is about to be released from prison, victims want to be notified. So the Indiana Department of Correction contracts with a company that contacts victims by phone or e-mail. But the state is not planning to renew that contract and victims are concerned.

The state’s contract with VINE, Victim Notification and Information Everyday, ends on June 30. After that, the Department of Correction plans to handle the task of notifying tens of thousands of crime victims. But victims and their advocates fear the state isn't up to the task.

Debbie Norris lost her 20-year-old daughter Heather in the most violent way imaginable. Three years after the death of her only child, the grief is still fresh, raw, unrelenting.

Heather's boyfriend, Joshua Bean, was convicted in 2008 for stabbing her to death, cutting up her body, and tossing body parts in Dumpsters on Indianapolis' south side. And Debbie Norris needs the assurance of knowing that bean is behind bars.

"I feel very threatened by him, and I believe that if he got out he would do this again," said Norris.

That's why she signed up with VINE.

"Knowing that I'm on that victim notification gives me a peace of mind," said Norris.

But the contract with Appriss, the operator of VINE, costs the Indiana Department of Correction a million bucks a year. Indiana DOC leaders say the state can do it for less.

"Our agreement now with the funding that we have in place will be $375,000 per year," said Brent Myers of the DOC.

That's a savings of $625,000 a year. But victims' advocates fear the state is putting money before victims.

At an afternoon meeting, Indiana Department of Correction leaders told state victims' advocates that the state's new victim notification process will be cheaper and more effective than the current system. But victims' advocates say other states have tried to handle victim notification themselves and failed.

"South Carolina and Colorado tried to do it themselves. It cost them many more millions of dollars than operating the SAVIN [Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification service powered by VINE] system and they have since gone back," said Myers.

But Indiana DOC leaders insist it will succeed where other states have not.

"We're leveraging current technology. There's a whole host of technology available on the market today to do these types of notifications," said Myers.