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August 24, 2011 By Brian Heaton
California is reducing the number of inmates at its state prisons, but the decrease won’t necessarily drop the workload at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). The agency is knee-deep in changes to IT systems to help keep tabs on prisoners who will soon be on the move.
A number of CDCR computer systems will be impacted by the state’s Public Safety Realignment Plan. The plan shifts certain offenders to county jails starting on Oct. 1 and is part of a broader effort to meet a U.S. Supreme Court decree that California must shed 33,000 state inmates over the next two years.
Systems such as the CDCR’s Revocation Scheduling and Tracking System (RSTS), CalParole, Law Enforcement Automated Data System, and the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) application will need adjustments to meet the data exchange needs of both the state and the counties that will inherit the paroled inmates.
Joe Panora, the CDCR’s CIO and director of enterprise information services, explained that as prisoners who have been convicted of non-serious, non-violent and non-sexual offenses are moved out of state prisons, the agency will need to update the RSTS with information from the local governments that are monitoring those individuals.
The RSTS is used to facilitate the tracking of parolees, to schedule hearings and to report revocation actions.
Andrea Rohmann, CIO of enterprise information services at the CDCR, said the challenge is that California’s 58 counties aren’t necessarily using the same system as the state, so the ability to do a seamless data exchange in order to keep the information in the RSTS current is a challenge.
Panora agreed and added that the corrections department will need to change some of the functionality and fields in the RSTS to track where revocation hearing locations will be — entering in the right county code, what the “return-to-custody” time frame is for a prisoner and other items.
“We’re making some modifications and enhancements to our systems to track and accept these types of indicators,” Panora said. “How counties are going to notify CDCR is all being worked out.”
CalParole — the tracking system used for supervisory purposes by CDCR parole agents and other law enforcement entities to access demographics, photos and information on parolees — also needs a few tweaks.
California AB 109, the legislation that created a funding mechanism for prison realignment earlier this year, requires that the CalParole system have post-release community supervision units added. The change will also be reflected in the Law Enforcement Automated Data System.
In addition, although no actual programming changes need to be done to the COMPAS application, sharing its information is a challenge that CDCR officials said needs to be addressed. The tool is used to assess the risk and needs of adult offenders in an automated system, with the intent to reduce recidivism.
But not every county uses COMPAS, so for counties that don’t, the CDCR is working with them on what standard data elements can be shared. Panora said the information in COMPAS would “probably be the biggest area of initial data sharing” between the state and counties.
One of the first local governments the state is working with on this is San Francisco County.
“We’ve sent them our data structure and a copy of our data sharing agreement,” Panora said. “They are going to look at that for any concerns or issues and identify what data elements they would want us to exchange with them. We’ll do that with each individual county.”
Rohmann emphasized the need to stay collaborative with agencies on the county level. She said that from the state’s perspective, the state is standardized, whereas the counties aren’t. So it was important to use that collaborative approach to come up with the best way to exchange data.
“The real key is to determine to what degree do we automate an actual interface into some of these systems,” Panora said. “Right now, we’ll probably extract the data and send it to [the counties] versus their ability to come in and interface live and do the download themselves. Their systems are all different, so we have to work it out on a county-by-county basis.”
The CDCR has been focused on standardization and consolidation for a while. The agency has rolled out its enterprise resource planning software, which Rohmann said is supporting financial, accounting, budgeting and supply chain management for procurements and contracts. It’s also a big part of the CDCR’s human resources activities.
Overall, Panora said that the CDCR has more than 36,000 desktop PCs connected to its network. It also has an additional 19,000 non-networked educational devices and 3,500 network devices such as hubs, servers and databases.
But the agency is placing an emphasis on virtualizing. On the server side, the CDCR is shutting down the location it uses in Rancho Cordova, Calif., and will have its entire server operation hosted at the California Office of Technology Services — the main state data center — by the end of the year.
“We have 70 racks and 800 servers,” Panora said, “and when we get done and are at the state data center, we’ll be in three racks, in a high-density virtualized environment. From a power consumption and support model perspective, the efficiencies are going to be there. We’ll end up with savings. If you look at the footprint by itself, there will be substantial cost avoidances.”
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It seems like the CDCR and the state are more interested in tracking for the future plans of reincarceration of paroling inmates rather than for the inmates getting a fair shake at rehabilitation. This can only be because of the underlying greed and dominion that the CDCR has over California's citizens, and the fact that they have not rehabilitated anyone in prison. Rehabilitation in hell on earth only comes from inside the individual inmate, in spite of the CDCR. Californians need a degree in reading between the lines as to how this can in the future impact them.
Prison was never meant to be a reform school, or the "place to go" to receive health care unattainble by conventional methods. Inmates chant, "More teachers, less guards." But I say, "More students, less inmates." Just keep kids in school; that's the cheaper solution. Those that end up in prison serve their time, as they should, without the tax payers becoming their parents.
CDCR houses law-breakers sentenced to prison. It is those in society that believe these law-breakers can be rehabilitated that seek to blame CDCR instead of the individuals themselves, for not getting rehabilitated. Having worked in a county jail for 24 years, I have seen quite a few that don't wish to change their behaviors and end up back in jail or prison, despite efforts to provide counseling and programs. It is not a jail or a prison's main goal to "fix" a person (think: Clockwork Orange), but the individual's own inner will to change that will get them to change and stop breaking the laws of society. CDCR has zero greed and dominion over California's (law abiding) citizens. They mearly control the environment that seeks to keep those sentenced to prison, there in prison. Anyone who thinks Correctional Officers are over-paid or greedy should seek employment as a CO, to completely understand what it takes to work a 24-7 job, work holidays, work weekends, forced overtime, forced leave days, supervising the absolute worst individuals of society, who might just want to throw urine or feces or spit on you, or stab you with a prison-made improvised knife.
Having volunteered in Texas prisons for years, I've seen the wonders that can be accomplished by a few caring individuals. You want to reduce the revolving door, get involved. Don't push out organizations like Prison Fellowship simply because you don't agree with their philosophy. Work with them in order to accomplish change. Most of the individuals in prison grew up without any guidance in their youth. They turn to the only thing they know. Should they be punished? Yes. Should we help rehabilitate them? Yes. It is the society's responsibility to work with the prison system and outside organizations to accomplish this.
Ditto to Tim Moore's comments - he is on the mark.
The Supreme Court upheld the Constitution and California will have to reduce the number of prisoners it packs in like cattle at feedlots. The Donovan prison in San Diego found a way to save lots and lots of money. One of Donovan's officials said on a radio show that their rehab, drug, and education programs reduced their recidivism rate from 70%! to 21%. Not only did the programs save salvageable lives, and the cost of so many people returning to prison, but more important they reduced new crime and new victims. Using faulty logic and false economy, funding for the programs was almost eliminated. How many new crimes would have been prevented if that decision had not been made?
Thanks to posters Darla Anderson and Clay Harryman for their comments. Providing some support and training for prisoners and ex-offenders reduces crime and keeps us all safer and helps save salvageable lives. Who among us could restart our lives with $200 and a bus ticket in a world where employers will not hire us and landlords will not rent to us? The Supreme Court upheld the Constitution and California will have to reduce the number of prisoners it packs in like cattle at feedlots. FOLLOW THE MONEY. Who profits from failed criminal justice and horrifically overcrowded prisons that are bankrupting states across the nation? District attorneys and prosecutors who are promoted for winning cases and harsh sentences at any cost; Tough-on-crime scare tactic politicians hoping for votes; Guard employee unions; For-profit-contract-bed-privatized-corporation prisons that profit not from reforming people, but when the recidivism rate goes up; Parole department in California where everyone released is on parole; Three strikes law that sends people to prison for 25 years over petty crimes such as stealing a pizza; The bail bond industry that benefits from unnecessary criminal justice practices that increase incarceration; Rigged line-ups that get faulty convictions and promotions; Increased recidivism from the requirement to check prior-arrest/conviction boxes on employment, government, and rental applications for those who have been crime-free for years; Serving high carb, low protein food that hurts prisoners health and requires more spending on contracted medical services; Private companies that protest when prisons try to contract out prisoner labor that increases prisoner's self esteem and job skills; The list goes on.....
Hi tech california prison, better watch on criminals by Ip cameras and understand their behaviours and maintain the databases.
Right, Pray4Peace. That's why not long ago in Folsom State Prison, a female nurse was assaulted by a prisoner ( I don't know ALL the details, but it was bad enough to make people think twice about working in the prison). These are the kinds of people we are talking about. Now I do know in some of the lower level prisons there are people that DON'T want to be there and are thinking twice about what they did, and don't want to repeat their mistake. But in the upper-level prisons (3&4, especially 4), that is not the case. Also, I believe that stealing a pizza is a misdemeanor, not a felony. Three-Strikes is about felonies.
There will always be two schools of though, centralization and decentralized. I understand that intelligent people well versed in their field have looked at the "all the eggs in one basket" approach and have declared it"good". Experience has taught that one earthquake, one flood, one lightning strike and lets not forget the one angry employee to take the system down state wide. I understand the "Recovery Plan" covers all situations but what if... Then it is to late, isn't it?