The Riverside County District Attorney's Division of Victim Services was the first agency in California to use compact discs to preserve victim impact statements. Since 2002, victims of crime have been able to record on CD-ROM their statements of how crime has affected their lives and the lives of their families and friends. These recorded statements, played at the sentencing hearing, are taped at the victim's home or in the District Attorney's Office. The victims - or survivors in the case of homicides - are saved from having to face their attackers and can express true feelings rather than simply reading a statement about the impact that the crime has had on their lives.

Made possible by a grant from the former Office of Criminal Justice Planning (OCJP), the equipment digitally preserves these statements for future parole hearings. Parole boards will be able to hear and see living, breathing victims or survivors as they relate how the crime impacted their lives. The victims' anger and anguish will come alive for the parole board. Their voices will be heard - even if the parole hearing is held decades from now.

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