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California Corrections Scans 200 Million Inmate Documents, Completes Milestone in Project

Now that 170,000 paper inmate files have been scanned into the Strategic Offender Management System, most tasks associated with paper are eliminated.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has just completed the conversion of some 200 million documents into electronic images — a major milestone in CDCR’s Strategic Offender Management System (SOMS). As reported last September in TechWire, SOMS will modernize legacy computer systems, obtain access to accurate and complete offender information, and consolidate intake, history and tracking of inmates across its more than 30 institutions.

Now that 170,000 paper inmate files have been scanned into the electronic records management system (ERMS) “Most tasks associated with the paper [central files] are eliminated,” said Deloris Paschal, chief of the Correctional Case Records Services. She noted in a statement that for the first time in her 32-year career, inquiries from law enforcement, the courts, the Attorney General’s Office and other state and federal agencies can be handled from a computer, rather than literally standing in line to retrieve a file. Thus, the department expects major gains in savings and efficiency.

“With this implementation,” said CIO Joe Panora in a release, “technology becomes a significant mission-critical tool embedded in the business processes of CDCR.

This story was originally published by Techwire