Knowing your rights as a crime victim/survivor is vitally important to making the criminal justice system responsive to your needs. There are two key pieces of legislation that govern how you will be treated as your case moves through the criminal justice process:

Many victims of crime live in fear that the criminal offender who hurt them may someday return to do so again. In New Jersey, a victim is entitled to know when the offender is arrested or is scheduled for release from custody. Essex County Victim Information Notification Everyday (V.I.N.E) System an automated telephone service that electronically links crime victims to a national communications center that gives victims, their families, and other interested parties the ability to learn the custody status of any offender housed in a New Jersey county jail or state correctional facility, 24-hours, 365 days a year.

In addition to providing custody status information to callers, Essex County V.I.N.E. also has an automatic notification feature. Crime victims that register with Essex County V.I.N.E. will be notified automatically when an offender's custody status changes. This feature eliminates the need for victims to call the police or Essex County Prosecutor's Office to verify the offender's status. Protecting and vindicating victims is a core purpose of our work. The Essex County V.I.N.E. System helps us to help survivors of crime more efficiently.

Registering for Essex County V.I.N.E. is a simple process with which your advocate can assist. You can also register for the service independently and anonymously. If you chose to do so, you will need one of the following pieces of information to register: offender's name, offender's date of birth, or SBI (State Bureau of Identification) Number that you can obtain from the advocate assigned to your case. You will also be asked to register a phone number at which you can receive information and a personally selected four-digit PIN. You can register a home phone and/or cell phone number as well as an email address. However, you should not leave a contact phone number that rings to a switchboard or other automated device.

Once an inmate is scheduled for release from jail, you will receive a call from the system every 30 minutes until you enter your PIN, which will stop the calls. If you are not at home at the time of the call, the Essex County V.I.N.E. System will leave a message on an answering machine. If there is no answer, Essex County V.I.N.E. will call back the phone number you registered until you enter your PIN code or until 24 hours has passed.

For more information, please contact the advocate assigned to your case at 973-621-4687. You can also call 1-877-846-3465 from a touch-tone phone or visit www.victimwitness.nj.gov/vine