OTTUMWA — Peace of mind is hard to come by for some crime victims. There can be a lot of uncertainty. For many, the feeling boils down to one question: Where is the person who did this?

Officials hope VINELink can help.

Jeremy Weller, the administrator for the Wapello County Jail, said the system tracks people who are incarcerated in jail or prison in participating areas. Iowa is a member and Wapello County just went online at the end of last month.

The site, at www.vinelink.com, ties together information from the vast majority of Iowa counties, along with all or part of 46 states. Victims can register for e-mail or phone notifications when people are released or transferred from one facility to another.

“They can go online and register as a victim of a crime. Let’s say they wanted to know ... when Joe Smith gets out of jail,” Weller said. “Anybody can go on here and register.”

Registration means entering a phone number or e-mail address and coming up with a personal identification number (PIN). The person then selects the offender they want to be notified for. The system will follow the notification instructions when that offender is released or transferred.

There are some details people should be aware of. The notification does not follow the offender from one facility to another. If the person is transferred, the user must sign up for a new notification for the new location.

And the system is persistent. A phone notification means calls every 30 minutes for 48 hours or until the recipient acknowledges the call by entering the PIN number. Charlotte Kovacs, the victim advocate in the Wapello County Attorney’s office, said that’s why people need to choose a number they can remember.

“You can also register more than one phone number,” she said. “And if they’re having trouble registering, they can always call the county attorney’s office.”

VINELink dates back 12 years to the murder of a Kentucky woman. She was sexually assaulted and identified her attacker. The sheriff promised she would be notified if he got out of jail, but that didn’t happen. The man posted bail and shot her six times as she left work.

Incidents like that explain why Kovacs sums up the system’s importance for victims with one word: “Protection.”

Signing up for VINELink notification is free. The site updates every 15 minutes, Weller said, so it includes fresh information about offenders’ locations.

The system is also open to those who were not victims of crimes. Anyone can go to the site and look up anyone incarcerated in a participating state or county.

Matt Milner can be reached at (641) 683-5359 or via e-mail at mwmilner@mchsi.com