Victims Visitors' Day Brunswick
The State Board of Pardons and Paroles met on October 15, 2015, with more than 150 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 hours.
Parole Board Chairman Terry Barnard spoke at the opening ceremony saying 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 said 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 said that’s the purpose behind a Victims Visitors’ Day.
He added 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 in Brunswick 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 is 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 have met with the Board have 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 to bring victims to these events. He said 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.
(top photo, Chairman Terry Barnard; second photo, Vice Chairman James Mills; third photo, Board Member Albert Murray; bottom photos, clemency staff)
10 Parole Review/Fall 2015