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New Jersey Implements VINE Statewide

Service will notify crime victims of offenders' status.

TRENTON, N.J. -- All crime victims in New Jersey will soon have around-the-clock access to vital offender information. The New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice will deploy Appriss' victim notification service statewide.

Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) gives crime victims and concerned citizens toll-free, up-to-date offender custody information, 24 hours a day. Users call an 800-number to find out if an offender is in jail, and register by phone to be notified automatically when an offender is released, transferred or escapes.

VINE is the nation's first portal serving the criminal justice market. The company's communications center relays information from a jail or prison's booking system to registered victims when there is a change in an offender's custody status. VINE is not limited to crime victims -- anyone may call, toll-free, for offender information.

Five New Jersey counties -- including Atlantic, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic and Union -- currently have VINE programs in place. These individual VINE programs will be merged with the rest of the state's 21 counties into one program that uses the same toll-free number. VINE will monitor offenders in all state and local detention facilities.

New Jersey joins 18 other states that have implemented statewide programs, including Texas, New York, Illinois and Florida.
Miriam Jones is a former chief copy editor of Government Technology, Governing, Public CIO and Emergency Management magazines.