Sec. 54-228. Request by victim or family member of inmate for notification.  


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  • (a) Any victim of a crime or any member of an inmate's immediate family who desires to be notified whenever an inmate makes an application to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Department of Correction, sentencing court or judge or review division as provided in section 54-227, or whenever an inmate is scheduled to be released from a correctional institution other than on a furlough, may complete and file a request for notification with the Office of Victim Services or the Victim Services Unit within the Department of Correction.

    (b) Any victim of a criminal offense against a victim who is a minor, a nonviolent sexual offense or a sexually violent offense, as those terms are defined in section 54-250, or a felony found by the sentencing court to have been committed for a sexual purpose, as provided in section 54-254, who desires to be notified whenever the person who was convicted or found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect of such offense files an application with the court to be exempted from the registration requirements of section 54-251 pursuant to subsection (b) or (c) of said section or files a petition with the court pursuant to section 54-255 for an order restricting the dissemination of the registration information, or removing such restriction, may complete and file a request for notification with the Office of Victim Services or the Victim Services Unit within the Department of Correction.

    (c) A request for notification filed pursuant to this section shall be in such form and content as the Office of the Chief Court Administrator may prescribe. Such request for notification shall be confidential and shall remain confidential while in the custody of the Office of Victim Services and the Department of Correction and shall not be disclosed. It shall be the responsibility of the victim to notify the Office of Victim Services and the Victim Services Unit within the Department of Correction of his or her current mailing address and telephone number, which shall be kept confidential and shall not be disclosed by the Office of Victim Services and the Department of Correction. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the Office of Victim Services, the Board of Pardons and Paroles and the Victim Services Unit within the Department of Correction from communicating with each other for the purpose of facilitating notification to a victim and disclosing to each other the name, mailing address and telephone number of the victim, provided such information shall not be further disclosed.

(P.A. 91-389, S. 3, 12; P.A. 92-153, S. 10; P.A. 93-219, S. 13, 14; 93-310, S. 22, 32; P.A. 96-97, S. 4; P.A. 01-211, S. 4; P.A. 04-234, S. 2; P.A. 05-146, S. 3; 05-152, S. 12; Jan. Sp. Sess. P.A. 08-1, S. 27, 28.)

History: P.A. 91-389, S. 3 effective April 1, 1992; P.A. 92-153 deleted reference to confidentiality “as provided in section 54-204” and inserted provision specifying that requests for notification “shall not be disclosed”; P.A. 93-219 authorized any member of an inmate's immediate family to complete and file a request for notification, effective July 1, 1993; P.A. 93-310 changed “commission” to “office of victim services”, changed “commission on victim services” to “office of the chief court administrator”, and added provision re responsibility of victim to notify office of current mailing address, which shall be kept confidential, effective July 1, 1993; P.A. 96-97 added phrase “scheduled to be” before “released”; P.A. 01-211 designated existing provisions authorizing a victim to file a request for notification as Subsec. (a) and amended same. to authorize the victim to file request with the Department of Correction, added a new Subsec. (b) to authorize the victim of certain sexual offenses to file a request for notification whenever the perpetrator seeks to be exempted from the sexual offender registration requirements or to restrict the dissemination of the registration information or remove such restriction and designated existing provisions re the form and confidentiality of the victim's request for notification as Subsec. (c) and amended same to make the confidentiality and nondisclosure provisions applicable to the Department of Correction and require the victim to also notify the Department of Correction of his or her current mailing address; P.A. 04-234 replaced Board of Pardons and Board of Parole with Board of Pardons and Paroles, effective July 1, 2004; P.A. 05-146 specified that the request for notification under Subsecs. (a) and (b) should be filed with, and the notice of the victim's current mailing address under Subsec. (c) should be given to, the “Victim Services Unit” within the Department of Correction; P.A. 05-152 amended Subsec. (a) by adding exception re furlough granted for the purpose of reintegrating an inmate into the community and amended Subsec. (c) by providing that nothing in section shall be construed to prohibit communication between Office of Victim Services and Department of Correction re current mailing address of victim and disclosure of such address to each other; Jan. Sp. Sess. P.A. 08-1 amended Subsec. (a) to delete provision re victim notification whenever inmate is to be released on furlough granted for the purpose of reintegrating the inmate into the community and amended Subsec. (c) to require victim to provide his or her current telephone number, replace provision allowing Office of Victim Services and Department of Correction to communicate with each other to determine if either has current mailing address of victim and, if so, to disclose that address to each other for purpose of facilitating notice to victim with provision allowing Office of Victim Services, Board of Pardons and Paroles and Victim Services Unit within Department of Correction to communicate with each other for purpose of facilitating notice to victim and disclosing to each other the name, mailing address and telephone number of victim, prohibit further disclosure of “such information”, rather than “such mailing address”, and make technical changes, effective January 25, 2008.