Utah’s parole board launches new victim notification system

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah’s Board of Pardons and Parole has a new way of notifying victims of crime about their offender’s parole hearings.

The move comes after previous reporting by the KSL Investigators on victim notification failures.

Related: Utahn says she wasn’t told her perpetrator was up for release, Utah parole board promises to do better

In October 2023, the board said it was going to do better and create a victim-centered notification system. This week, the board announced it’s making good on that promise by launching the first phase of the new system called MyVoice.

Previously, board employees were using the state’s offender management to try to let crime victims know about upcoming hearings.

“We were doing things indirectly,” said administrative director Jennifer Yim. “We would look up an offender, we would then have to find survivors of that crime and then reach out to them.”

The MyVoice system is now connected to the offender management system. It allows the board to keep track of victims’ contact information, document their preferences, and log interactions with victims.

In the past, those notifications used to only be sent by mail. Now, Yim said the board has the ability to make notifications by email and by phone. She hopes text notifications will be included as an option in the future.

In the next phase of the project, she also hopes victims will be able to log into the system on their own and set preferences for how and when they want to be communicated with about their offender’s status.

“I couldn’t imagine the trauma that might come from receiving a notification about parole or release on the anniversary of a crime,” Yim said. “When you come to enter your information into MyVoice, you ought to be able to tell us that and we ought to be able to respect that and make sure you don’t get notifications on those days.”

The board also worked with experts, advocates and survivors of crime to create new notification letters, ensuring the wording of the communications victims will receive is trauma-informed.

“We learned that people wanted more information rather than less information, that we had these very spare letters before, and now we’re providing more information even up front,” Yim said.

“I’m super, super grateful that they have listened to us and they’ve heard us and they realized that they needed to make changes,” said Cami Johnson.

Johnson knows firsthand how important victim notifications are. Her perpetrator was granted release just a few months after he was sentenced in her case, without her knowing about the hearing. Once the board was made aware of the notification error, it held a special victim impact hearing. Johnson said having the opportunity to speak to the board made all the difference.

“Because they heard our stories, they knew why he was in, they knew he needed to stay in longer and he’s still in,” she said.

Both Johnson and Yim said the improvements to the board’s victim notification process are the product of the government listening.

“In our case, it was through media reports, it was through failures, that we were able to turn to successes,” said Yim. “I know we’ve got a long ways to go,” said Johnson, “but it’s huge. It’s a huge step forward.”

Victims and survivors of crime don’t need to wait to receive a letter or notification from the board, Yim said. Any victim of crime wanting to participate in parole hearings or express preferences about notifications can reach out to the board and make sure it has the right information.

The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole can be reached at 801-261-6464.

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