Ensuring Victims Are Informed and Heard: Marsy’s Law and GOVS in Action

In honor of this year’s National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, April 19-25, Marsy’s Law for Georgia is spotlighting those who elevate victims’ voices, like KaMarie Jones.

As a victims’ services specialist with the Georgia Office of Victims’ Services (GOVS), KaMarie Jones is no stranger to Marsy’s Law for Georgia’s mission, especially since her job centers around being the one to communicate with victims and provide them with updates on their case or on their offender’s movements.

“Once that post-conviction period starts, once they’re sentenced, we really make sure that they [victims] are notified and kept up to date on any movements regarding the case,” Jones explains. “We notify them about certain processes that include maybe work release or parole consideration, and we ensure that any thoughts or concerns a victim may have are made available to the appropriate parties for when an offender in their case is being brought up for consideration.”

Not only does Marsy’s Law for Georgia guarantee victims the right to this information, but it also helps ensure that they can receive it in a timely manner, something that Jones assists with. While she says GOVS is trying to move more toward electronic notifications, much of their communications are distributed via postal mail, email, or phone call. “It is just really any preferred method of communication that works best for each specific victim in their family.”

Jones’s role as a victim’s service specialist closely aligns her with a multitude of cases and the victims who are affected by those cases. It is not an easy job; “a lot of these cases do stand out to me. Sometimes it is hard to keep work at work,” she confesses. “And I don’t mean in the sense of sharing anything, but just a lot of these cases will really stick with you.”

Whether victims, witnesses, or family, Jones emphasizes that the people at the GOVS care deeply about helping everyone who comes through their office doors, genuinely wanting to provide support — either in the form of concrete resources or emotional support. The Georgia Office of Victims Services was established in 2015, which — despite being more than a decade ago now — is not a long time, relative to other Georgia offices/resources. Because of this, a large proportion of victims and their loved ones have no idea that it exists, nor that they have the rights they do. Jones, and other people like her, make an effort to find those individuals to both let them know the services are there and to help get them connected with whatever or whoever they might want or need.

According to Jones, Marsy’s Law for Georgia has “really opened up a lot of doors to have tough conversations, a lot of opportunities to bring awareness, and to be able to remain informed and work together to combine our efforts to really help these victims feel as if they’re more than just victims, but just people. Marsy’s Law for Georgia helps provide that humanity and really instilling that in victims and letting them know that their story is more than just a court case; it’s a life experience for them.”

Preserving the humanity of victims is something that’s incredibly important both during and after criminal proceedings, and the work that Jones does every day, alongside many others with GOVS and Marsy’s Law for Georgia strives to do just that — making it a perfect match to this year’s National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (April 19-25, 2026) theme: “Listen. Act. Advocate.”