Thousands of victims and family members received phone calls from an Oregon Department of Corrections monitoring system on Friday alerting them in error to inmates' impending release, The Oregonian reports.
Corrections spokeswoman Elizabeth Craig said the Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) system, which allows victims and family members to track when inmates are to be released, issued about 8,000 alerts. The contractor responsible for the system plans to call all notified victims and inform of the error, she said.
Among those who received the false alerts included family members of victims of the murderer Ward Weaver III, who was convicted in 2004 of killing two teenage girls and is serving a life sentence.
Brea Day, a cousin of one of the murdered girls, said she was "instantly horrified." Speaking to local broadcaster KGW-TV, she added, "It's very upsetting."
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