Establishment of Department of Defense automated victim notification system

(a) Establishment Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall establish an automated notification system to ensure that a registered victim receives timely and accurate notification of each of the following: (1) Any proceeding of a service clemency and parole board relating to the offense, not later than 30 days before the date of such proceeding. (2) Any change in the confinement status of the offender, including release, transfer to a residential reentry center or halfway house, furlough, or escape. (3) Any grant of clemency or parole with respect to the offender. (4) The projected release date of the offender, not later than 60 days before such date, including notice of whether the offender has received good time credits for early release. (b) System requirements In establishing the automated notification system required by subsection (a), the Secretary of Defense shall ensure the system incorporates the notification capabilities available in existing Federal and State automated victim notification platforms, including capabilities equivalent to those provided by the Department of Justice Victim Notification System and State-based Victim Information and Notification Everyday programs. At a minimum, the system shall— (1) provide each registered victim with a unique victim identification number and a personal identification number to enable secure access to case and custody information through an internet-accessible portal and a toll-free automated telephone call center, both available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year; (2) allow a registered victim to elect to receive notifications through any combination of— (A) automated telephone call, with persistent retry at regular intervals until receipt is confirmed by entry of the victim’s personal identification number, or until a 48-hour threshold is reached, after which a written notification shall be mailed to the victim’s address of record; (B) electronic mail; (C) short message service text message; (D) a secure, dedicated mobile application available on commonly used mobile operating systems; or (E) TTY or other accessible format for victims with hearing impairments; (3) make notifications available in English and Spanish, and provide access to live interpretation services in not fewer than 10 additional languages through the toll-free call center; (4) provide each registered victim with the ability to use the internet portal or toll-free call center to— (A) search for and verify the current custody status and facility location of the offender; (B) view the projected release date and any scheduled service clemency and parole board proceedings relating to the offense; (C) update the victim’s contact information; and (D) discontinue participation in the notification program; (5) continuously poll the military confinement records system for changes in offender custody status and transmit notifications to registered victims not later than 24 hours after a triggering event described in subsection (a); (6) generate a confirmation record for each notification transmitted, which shall be retained in the confinement record of the offender; (7) be accessible to victims regardless of the military department of the offender or the military correctional facility in which the offender is confined; (8) protect the privacy and confidentiality of each registered victim by— (A) encrypting all victim data at rest and in transit using encryption modules validated under Federal Information Processing Standard 140–3, or any successor standard, as certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology; (B) limiting access to victim registration data and notification records to authorized personnel with a demonstrated need to know, and maintaining an audit log of all access to such data; (C) prohibiting the use of victim registration data for any purpose other than providing notifications authorized under this section, and prohibiting disclosure of such data to any person or entity not authorized under this section or applicable Federal law; and (D) providing each registered victim with a written privacy notice, at the time of registration and upon any material change to the system’s data practices, describing the categories of information collected, the purposes for which such information is used, the individuals authorized to access such information, and the procedures by which a victim may request correction or deletion of their registration data; and (9) be designed, implemented, and operated in a manner consistent with the guidelines for protecting personally identifiable information set forth in National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800–122, or any successor publication. (c) Verification before board proceedings (1) The Secretary of the military department concerned shall verify, before convening any proceeding of the applicable service clemency and parole board, that each registered victim, with respect to the offense at issue has been notified of the proceeding in accordance with subsection (a)(1). A record of such verification shall be included in the official record of the proceeding. (2) If the Board determines that timely notice was not given or that the victim was not adequately informed of the nature of the proceeding, the Board shall continue the hearing for the time necessary to notify the victim of the time, place, and nature of the proceeding. (3) Before making such determination, the Board shall make every effort to permit the fullest attendance possible by the victim and shall consider reasonable alternatives to the exclusion of the victim from the proceeding. (d) Coordination In carrying out this section, the Secretary of Defense shall ensure that the system established under subsection (a) is consistent with— (1) the rights of victims under section 806b of title 10, United States Code (article 6b of the Uniform Code of Military Justice); and (2) the victim and witness assistance programs established under Department of Defense Instruction 1030.02, or any successor instruction. (e) Report Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives a report on the implementation of this section, including— (1) a description of the automated notification system established under subsection (a), including the delivery channels and languages made available; (2) the number of registered victims enrolled to receive notifications as of the date of the report; (3) the number of notifications transmitted during the one-year period covered by the report, disaggregated by triggering event type and delivery channel; and (4) any recommended legislative changes to further strengthen victim notification under section 806b of title 10, United States Code (article 6b of the Uniform Code of Military Justice). (f) Definitions In this section: (1) The term registered victim means a victim of an offense under chapter 47 of title 10, United States Code (the Uniform Code of Military Justice), who— (A) has a right to receive notices under section 806b(a)(2) of such chapter (article 6b(a)(2)); and (B) informed the Department of Defense of their desire to receive such notices— (i) by submitting Department of Defense form 2705 (or a successor form); or (ii) through another method determined appropriate by the Secretary of Defense. (2) The term service clemency and parole board means a clemency and parole board established by the Secretary of a military department pursuant to sections 952 and 954 of title 10, United States Code.