Crime Victims meet with the Parole Board during Victims Visitors’ Day

ATLANTA – “We want to help victims become survivors. We must listen to the cries from victims and work toward a process that can best serve their individual needs.”

Those were the words of State Board of Pardons and Paroles Chairman Terry Barnard as he spoke today at Georgia’s annual ceremony marking National Crime Victims’ Rights Week.

Georgia’s Multi-State Agency Victim Services Partnership sponsored the 6th Annual National Crime Victims’ Rights Week Ceremony and Open House so that crime victims could be recognized and learn about services that are available to them. The events were held at State Offices South at Tift Campus in Forsyth.

The Parole Board conducted a Victims Visitors’ Day with crime victims who came to discuss the offenders in their cases with a board member. Parole Board Chairman Terry Barnard said since the advent of the Board’s Victims Visitors’ Day in 2006, more than 2,300 people have had their questions answered in person in meetings with the Board. More than 70 crime victims met with the Board today.

Barnard said the Parole Board understands that in order to help victims become survivors we must first listen and learn in an effort to better understand what victims need and how we can best serve them.

Barnard said the Parole Board is proud to join in a unified approach with the other state agencies to better serve the needs of victims.

“We will stay until the last victim is heard,” stated Barnard.

The 2015 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week will be celebrated Sunday, April 19, through Saturday April 25, 2015. This year’s theme for National Crime Victims’ Rights Week is, Engaging Communities. Empowering Victims.

Georgia’s Multi-State Agency Victim Services Partnership consists of the following agencies: Judicial Council/Administrative Office of the Courts, Georgia Commission on Family Violence, Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Department of Corrections, Department of Juvenile Justice, Department of Public Safety, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, State Board of Pardons and Paroles, and Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.

For more information on the Parole Board please visit our website at www.pap.georgia.gov or call the Office of Communications at 404-657-9450.

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