(The Center Square) – A recent report from the Florida auditor general’s office shows that the Commission on Offender Review didn’t comply with the state constitution in the administration of victim rights notifications.
The audit found that the commission needs improved security with storage of confidential victim records and better document scanning equipment.
The commission is a quasi-judicial body that administers the state’s post-prison supervisory release programs such as parole, conditional release and conditional medical release. It has a central office in Tallahassee and 11 regional field offices, with 161 employees and a $14.2 million appropriation.
For victims rights, the commission is tasked with informing crime victims of the potential release of an offender, all post-conviction processes and procedures and how they can participate in parole and other release processes.
Victims have the right under the state constitution to be notified about the potential release of the offender.
Despite a raft of processes and procedures, the audit found records didn’t adequately reveal whether officials had reviewed monthly listings of parole-eligible cases to ensure victims of their crimes had been located and notified and whether further search efforts were required.
Among the issues found by auditors included a lack of accounting for two of nine initiative interviews with inmates with active victims.
Two of 30 test parole cases didn’t have documentation that the commission had sent next interview date notification letters to victims. Also, auditors found in three of 26 parole cases, the notification letters didn’t inform them of their right to speak and appear at a commission meeting or write a letter if they were unable to appear.
One notification letter to a victim didn’t specify the data of the offender’s next interview date, but that the interview was scheduled for “month year.”
The report also says commission officials didn’t document evidence in five tested parole cases where the computer system said an inmate’s crime had no active victims. In three other test cases, only a single data source rather than a number of sources were used.
Auditors recommended that commission officials update “victim input rules for parole, conditional medical release, and control release proceedings to clearly align to constitutional and statutory requirements.”
They also recommended that officials review commission procedures for clarity and consistency while enhancing controls to provide more documented supervisory review of commission activities and victims rights notifications.
In its response letter, the commission said it will modify its procedures to comply with the auditors’ recommendations in the coming 12 months, with some able to be accomplished in six months.
