Law enforce-ment, also, must give victims information about individuals taken into custody and about their disposition. Law enforcement must also provide victims with information about support services that are available. If there is an appeal or petition for a post-conviction remedy, the attorney general or appropriate state agency must provide victims with information on those proceedings. Once there is a sentenced defendant, the corrections agency provides information, at a victim's request, respect-ing release, parole, or any other dispostion decision that might be made in the correctional setting. The information that the victim receives helps the victim implement his or her other rights.
Information is the lubrica-tion of the whole system of victims' rights and protection.
The second article establishes a crime victim's compensation program in an enacting state. Such programs are generally available in all the states in the Unit-ed States, and there is federal funding available in the form of block grants administered by the U.S. Justice Department. It is based upon the Uniform Crime Victims Reparations Act of 1973, an Act which now becomes obsolete. A state agency is designated as the program administrator. It has essential pow-ers to administer the program and to obtain the information necessary for considering claims.