IJIS Institute Helps Indiana Extend Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification (SAVIN) Program Exchange

Individuals and communities throughout Indiana are safer as a result of a new information sharing initiative funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance

Ashburn, VA. (October 8, 2013). The IJIS Institute—a nonprofit organization that focuses on mission-critical information sharing for justice, public safety, and homeland security—is pleased to announce the successful enhancement of the information sharing capabilities of Indiana’s Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification (SAVIN) program. The project was funded by a technical assistance grant from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).

To enhance the SAVIN system, the IJIS Institute worked with the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) and the Indiana Supreme Court’s technology Department. The Institute implemented the Victim Notification Service (VNS) Specification Package (SSP) by using the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM), the Global Reference Architecture (GRA), and the capabilities defined within the SAVIN SSP. The project enabled interoperability between the IDOC and the Supreme Court by allowing the data exchange between the court case management system, called Odyssey, and the SAVIN system at IDOC.

Registered SAVIN users in Indiana will now receive notifications related to eight separate court events, including: cases filed, changes of venue, hearings, disposition changes, sentencing events, appeals filed, appeal decisions, and probation violations resulting in revocation hearings. Of the eight notifications, four are events that the IDOC previously received no information about; and, the other four are now more quickly received by the IDOC.

Brent Myers, Director of Registration and Victim Services at the Indiana Department of Correction said, “The enhancements to the SAVIN system not only allow us to provide more timely information but also to improve access to additional vital information that we were not previously able to share. This initiative has strengthened our SAVIN system and has allowed us to provide improved services to the victim community in the State of Indiana.” Mr. Myers further stated, “This enhanced capability will increase the types of notifications that victims will receive and will improve the speed with which others are delivered.”

“The implementation of the new enhanced standards-based information sharing between the IDOC and the courts is further proof of the value of standards such as NIEM and the GRA,” said Steve Ambrosini, executive director IJIS Institute.

SAVIN is currently in use, or in partial use, in 47 states. It offers victims and concerned citizens free, anonymous, and confidential access to timely information and notification 24-hours a day on the status of offenders.

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About the IJIS Institute—The IJIS Institute unites the private and public sectors to improve mission-critical information sharing for those who protect and serve our communities. The IJIS Institute provides training, technical assistance, national scope issue management, and program management services to help government fully realize the power of information sharing. Founded in 2001 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation with national headquarters on The George Washington University Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, the IJIS Institute has grown to over 200 member companies and individual associates from government, non-profit, and educational institutions from across the United States. For more information, visit our website at: http://www.ijis.org/; follow us on Twitter @ijisinstitute; read the IJIS Factor Blog; or, join us on LinkedIn at Justice and Public Safety Information Sharing.