DOJ to upgrade Victim Notification System

The Justice Department will expand the technical capabilities of the Victim Notification System, which keeps crime victims informed of the status of cases in which they are involved.

The DOJ awarded a $12 million contract to AT&T Government Solutions to manage and extend the technical capabilities of the Web-based victim information tracking and notification management application. The contract is for a year, with four option years.

The system serves as the main source of crime victim contact and notification information for the Justice Department through the U.S. Attorney’s offices and the Criminal Division, the FBI, the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The Victim Notification System also provides federal crime victims with information on scheduled court events and the outcome of any criminal charges that have been filed.

DOJ selected AT&T Government Solutions to develop the system in 2000.

“As one of the architects of the Victim Notification System for the Department of Justice, AT&T knows firsthand the intricacies of the complexity of the system, from coordinating activities across the respective government agencies to the user training,” said John Klebonis, vice president of AT&T Government Solutions.

Under the terms of the new contract, AT&T Government Solutions will be responsible for integrating software systems and the management of the entire program, including quality management, configuration management and risk management.

“This is more of a refresh and enhancing some of the capabilities, such as upgrading the database and refreshing the user interfaces,” Klebonis said. For example, “one of the portions of the project is a Web-based interface tool and certainly we want to modernize that and make it more plug-and-play,” he noted.

AT&T will provide software engineering and IT services such as systems engineering, software configuration, design and development, intranet and Internet site development, database engineering, and hardware maintenance, he noted.

An Oracle database engine is an integral component of the system. The design team uses software development tools such as Microsoft.Net, Klebonis said.

AT&T's systems and software development, integrated process and product development, and supplier sourcing that will be used for the Victim Notification System meet a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 3 rating from the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University.

CMMI is used as a prerequisite and evaluation factor for many military and civilian government programs that have significant software engineering systems and projects.

Victim Notification System users from more than 2,000 DOJ and U.S. Postal Inspection Service offices approve approximately 300,000 notifications per month to victims. AT&T Government Solutions has delivered training classes for government employees who use the system and has also handled thousands of calls from both users and victims, Klebonis said.