The Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) experienced a technical glitch on Friday when its victim alert system wrongly sent thousands of text message alerts to crime victims all over the state saying that the criminals who victimized them were about to be released. The DOC announced in a statement that its Victim Information Notification Everyday, or VINE system, malfunctioned during routine maintenance sending “numerous notifications to victims in error.”

 

The system, launched in 2011 (Oregon being the 11^th state to utilize such a tool), allows crime victims and members of the public to track release dates for inmates in local county jails as well as state correctional facilities, both for youth and adults, and those on community supervision.

 

The DOC added in its statemnet that its contractor, Apriss, is working feverishly to fix the error and will be sending out corrected messages to anyone who received a false alert. The statement also said, “DOC and Appriss apologize for the erroneous notifications, and are committed to remedying the issue as soon as possible.” The number of false alerts sent out is somewhere around 8,000 as reported by the Oregonian, citing corrections spokeswoman Elizabeth Craig.

 

Oregon residents far and wide were sent into unnecessary panic when they got the false alerts. Infamous convicted murder Ward Weaver III, serving a life sentence, was among the convicts falsely reported to be slated for release. “Instantly horrified,” Brea Day told KGW-TV after receiving word that her cousin’s killer was being released. “It’s very upsetting.”