§ 12-28-6. Right to address parole board.
(a) Prior to acting upon the petition or any continuance of the petition of an inmate
at the adult correctional institutions or the women's reformatory, the parole board
shall notify the victim, if he or she is identified and his or her residence is known,
of the criminal conduct for which the inmate has been incarcerated and of the pendency
of the proceedings before the board. The victim shall upon request be afforded the
opportunity to address the board regarding the impact of the crime upon the victim;
provided, that the board may, in its discretion, permit the parent and/or legal guardian
of a victim who is a minor at the time of the hearing to address the board on behalf
of the minor.
(b) Should the parole board be unable to locate the victim, the board shall seek the assistance
of the local police department of the city or town where the victim was last known
to have resided. The police department shall make every effort to locate the victim
and shall, no later than thirty (30) days from the date its assistance was sought,
send a written report to the parole board detailing its efforts to locate the victim.
(c) Whenever the parole board shall seek the assistance of any police department in locating
a victim, the board shall not act upon the inmate's petition until it has reviewed
the written report from the assisting police department.
(d) For the purposes of this section, "victim� is one who has sustained personal injury
or loss of property directly attributable to the criminal conduct for which the inmate
has been incarcerated. In homicide cases, a member of the immediate family of the
victim shall be afforded the right created by this section.
(e) The board shall also make a reasonable effort to notify the victim of the crime committed
by the prisoner, or, in homicide cases, the victim's next of kin, and/or, in cases
where the victim is a minor, the victim's parent and/or legal guardian, not less than
thirty (30) days prior to the meeting, of his or her right to provide a victim impact
statement to the board.
As used in this chapter, "victim impact statement� means a statement providing information
about the financial, emotional, and physical effects of a crime on the victim and
the victim's family, and specific information about the victim, the circumstances
surrounding the crime, and the manner in which it was perpetrated.