Calls help ease victims' fears

Crime victims and their families rarely feel their nightmare is over just because somebody is locked up. Prisoners might be moved to a different facility. They might be paroled. When on parole, they might move from one address to another.

A system now provides for such information to be automatically sent to crime victims by phone or email. It is up and running in 23 detention centers and work camps.

Since June 4, 1,500 people have called the toll free line (1-866-SCSAVIN). SAVIN stands for Statewide Victim Information and Notification Service. The Website is www.vinelink.com.

Already 2,400 victims have registered to receive messages through SAVIN, and 31,000 messages have been sent.

A grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance made this program possible. The state Department of Corrections, since 2001, has notified victims automatically. They will make the transition to SAVIN later this year. Implementation for all correctional facilities of the state, counties and the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

In a recent letter to the editor, Laurel Fox described how her father, Stanley H. Kohn, was murdered in 1985. Since then, she has monitored the status of the man who is serving two concurrent life sentences for the murder. Her letter thanked those who had supported her in petitioning for him to be denied parole — for the fourth time.

SAVIN will not take away Mrs. Fox's pain. Nor will it give her assurance that her father's killer will remain in jail for the rest of his life. But it will give her knowledge she needs regarding his next parole hearing.

SAVIN is a commendable effort to keep the public informed. It saves time for jailers whose job is to notify victims about perpetrators.

And it facilitates victims' quests to keep themselves and their families safe.