Brunswick - The State Board of Pardons and Paroles met today with approximately 170 crime victims in Brunswick in what is one of the agency’s largest Victims Visitors’ Days ever conducted. Board Members continued meetings with victims into the early evening.

Parole Board Chairman Terry Barnard spoke at the opening ceremony and says it was important to be in this part of Georgia conducting a Victims Visitors’ Day.

“It is our goal to help victims become survivors,” stated Barnard. “For this to be realized, we must first listen to the interests of the victims and work together toward a process in which their needs can best be served individually.”

Barnard says the Board believes that by meeting with crime victims in their communities, victims are empowered and it allows them to chart a pathway toward becoming a survivor. He says that’s the purpose behind a Victims Visitors’ Day.

Barnard says the event allows for victims to get answers to “lingering” questions on their minds and to understand the parole process.

Victims meeting with the Board today represented nearly 70 different cases.

By meeting with the Board, victims were able to give the Board information about the crime and its impact. Victim information received today will be included in the parole case file on each offender allowing the Parole Board Members to be able to access it and review it when the offender’s case is considered.

Barnard told the audience that exit data from past Victims Visitors’ Days shows that 98% of the victims who met with the Board had their questions answered to their satisfaction and they were charting a path toward becoming a survivor.

“It’s very important to the Board that all victims take control of their future and actually become survivors,” stated Barnard. “The Board is committed to hearing your voices.”

During his comments, Chairman Barnard introduced Carolyn Preston Taylor, a crime survivor, who is now volunteering with the Georgia Office of Victim Services helping bring victims to these events. He says Taylor’s commitment has inspired the idea of creating a victim’s volunteer group within the Georgia Office of Victim Services in order to make future Victims Visitors’ Days even more effective.

The Georgia Office of Victim Services serves registered crime victims in cases involving a state inmate or an offender who is on parole or probation. Registered victims are provided with parole status updates on the inmate in their case. Victims were able to register today if not previously registered with the office. Representatives from the Department of Corrections and the Department of Community Supervision also were available to meet with victims today to address questions from victims concerning an inmate’s incarceration or their community supervision.

Today’s Victims Visitors’ Day is the 24th conducted by the Parole Board and the 16th different community visited since the first event in 2006. 

For more information about the Georgia Parole Board, please contact the Office of Communications, Director Steve Hayes, at 404-657-9450 or [email protected]; also visit www.pap.georgia.gov.

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