Office of the Victim Advocate

The Office of the Victim Advocate (OVA) was created by the Victim Advocate Law, Act 8 of the 1995 Special Legislative Session on Crime. The purpose of the Victim Advocate is to represent the rights and interests of crime victims before the Board of Probation and Parole and the Department of Corrections. In addition, the Office of the Victim Advocate also provides notification to crime victims of the potential for inmate release and opportunity to provide testimony, notification of the inmate’s movement within the correctional system, referrals for crime victims to local programs, basic crisis intervention and support, general information on the status and location of the inmate as allowed by law, and notification of the expiration of an inmate’s maximum sentence or date of execution, if applicable, as well as preparation of a victim who chooses to witness an execution.