Glitch in notification system causes scare

Local News

February 6, 2009

By Andrea Hirsch The Hendricks County Flyer Fri Feb 06, 2009, 04:46 PM EST

INDIANAPOLIS — — More than 336 notification calls and about 11,000 e-mails were sent to victims throughout the state last Thursday, notifying them that an inmate in one of the Indiana Department of Correction Facilities had been released.

The problem was that the inmates had not been released.

IDOC Commissioner Edwin G. Buss said inaccurate notifications were sent through the Indiana Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification system (SAVIN). The SAVIN system is based on the Victim Information and Notification Everyday system developed by Appriss, Inc., which allows concerned individuals to sign up for automated information concerning the release and other movement of IDOC offenders.

While Appriss was performing maintenance on the system Thursday, a technical problem accidentally triggered the incorrect notifications. The incorrect release notifications reported inmate releases, when in fact, the vast majority of the offenders remain in custody.

Rick Jones, Appriss spokesperson, said no one was put in danger, but the false notifications resulted in concern for those who believed that offenders had been released.

“We understand that some of these people who sign up for notifications use this system to ensure their safety,” he said.

Jones said Appriss engineers noticed the problem when service representatives began receiving a large spike in follow-up calls from concerned registrants. Upon realizing the problem, the service for the IDOC was shut down until the problem could be corrected. He says the system was back up within 24 hours.

“Our first and foremost concern is with those who received the erroneous notifications,” Appriss CEO Doug Cobb said in a press release. “We are working closely with IDOC officials to resolve the problem and have provided accurate information to the more than 11,000 recipients who received the messages in error.”

Jones added, “We believe it was more of a human error than a technical error. We are still trying to find out exactly what the problem was. It is technology. We certainly plan to do everything we can to have safeguards in place to keep this from happening again.”

Buss expressed his regret for the concern and distress that may have been caused by the incorrect notifications.

“The IDOC is committed to providing accurate public safety information and we apologize for the errors made (Thursday),” he said.

Douglas Garrison, communications director for the IDOC, said second notes, letting people know that they had received incorrect information regarding an inmate, were sent out as soon as they realized there was a problem.

Service representatives are also reaching out to the nearly 100 registrants who received accurate notifications on Thursday to confirm that the information they received was correct.

Though this happened all over the state, Garrison said he cannot pinpoint how many inmates from the Plainfield Correctional Facility were part of the false notifications.

Wendy E. Knight, superintendent for the IDOC facility here, said that as of Friday morning she had not received any calls or complaints from victims that were involved in the error.

Garrison said a similar situation occurred in Ohio several years ago. He said IDOC officials plan to re-double their efforts to ensure it doesn’t happen again here.

People who believe they may have received an incorrect notification may verify the status of the offender they are tracking by checking the IDOC website at www.in.gov/apps/indcorrection/ofs/ofs.

Appriss has had a VINE system in operation in Marion County for more than 10 years. In January 2007, Appriss launched the statewide notification. In 2008, the company made 1.2 million notifications of registrations all around the country.

andrea.hirsch@flyergroup.com

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