Fear less: Victim can learn when abuser’s out of jail

By Abigail Goldman

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

Her boyfriend was slimy enough to slip through the system; he'd been arrested for domestic violence and released, arrested and released, arrested and released.

The last time, when she thought he was still locked up, she didn't think twice about hanging out at their old haunts - the bars and casinos, the familiar places, with the friends they'd made together. She felt as safe as a battered woman can. Then someone spotted him and she flipped.

When her boyfriend was arrested again the woman did this before anything else: She registered with VINE.

Elynne Greene, a Metro Police victims' advocate, told her to.

"He was out there and she didn't know it," Greene said. "She had a false sense of security and (then) she was absolutely terrified."

VINE, short for Victims Information and Notification Everyday, is an anonymous and automated telephone service that lets victims of crime know when a particular perpetrator is released from jail. In Southern Nevada, if you want to know when someone's getting out of the Clark County Detention Center, you call in and sign up.

"That little bit of information gives victims a tiny drop of control," Greene said. "It empowers them in a small way."

Soon they might feel more empowered. A secondary VINE program, one that will let victims of domestic violence know when the restraining orders they file are served, is being paid for with a $309,000 grant from the Justice Department. The grant, awarded in October to Clark County's Family Violence Intervention Program, will fund a delivery confirmation of sorts. One that will call the victim over and over until she has received word that the restraining order is official.

It's the sort of service that benefits victims of domestic violence in particular, Greene said. Perpetrators, she said, often get angry when they learn they've been formally instructed to get lost.

More than 3,000 restraining orders were filed through the Family Court from January to September, said Wendy Wilkinson, coordinator of the Family Violence Intervention Program. Although Wilkinson doesn't expect the notice of service to be instantaneous, even half an hour's warning could mean a lot to victims of domestic violence.

"It's a safety issue."

The VINE inmate information system calls a phone number provided by the victim about an hour before the inmate is released from the detention center. Calls will come every 30 minutes for the next 24 hours, until the victim picks up. The inmate, for the record, will never know the victim asked for the heads-up.

The VINE program works in counties across the country. Metro Police have provided the service with federal grant money since November 2000. Although police don't track the number of release notification calls that go out, Julie Proctor, executive director of Safe House, a shelter for victims of domestic violence, can testify that the program is important to those who use it. Abused women often stay in the homes where they lived with the abuser while the offender is behind bars, Proctor said. They can become sitting targets when the abuser is released.

"They're content at home until that happens," Proctor said. "But when the abuser is released, we see more people fleeing to the shelter."

VINE notification also reminds victims of domestic violence that they need to be filing protective orders, Proctor said. When the second VINE program launches, victims who have filed can expect a second warning call.

Wilkinson would not put a date on when the second VINE system will become available but said she hoped it will happen within a year. The grant will support the program for two years and includes additional money to improve the technology the court uses to issue emergency protective orders.

Greene recommends the service to almost everyone she encounters, but says victims of domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault, and the family and friends of homicide victims, use it most frequently. Or perhaps it just means the most to them.

"It's a loss of control when you find out this person is out, walking around," Greene said, "There is just an overwhelming fear when you don't know."