The AIM application is located in the sheriff's data warehouse and networked to the community corrections centers. Consequently, the results of drug tests and events recorded in the centers can immediately be shared with interested parties that, in the past, have been unable to exchange information.
According to Stefan LoBuglio, deputy superintendent for Suffolk County, the change required more people- skills than technology. "We are still in the process of implementing the system and that poses a challenge to existing practices," he said. "People are wedded to existing practices. Much of the data was captured in different locations and people had a high comfort level with those systems and were not aware of how inefficient those systems were."
The task of taking attendance and performing drug tests in correctional institutions has been a labor intensive and somewhat unreliable activity with inmates occasionally inventing ways to beat the system. The AIM application supports bar coded ID cards that make attendance-taking more reliable; bar-coded specimen cups and tablets bearing electronic signatures. (The tablet is a device much like the digital signature screen widely available at retail outlets.) This system of digital assurances, according to LoBuglio, will be particularly useful in establishing chain-of custody and will provide judges with accurate information about an inmate's behavior over time.
"The data on participation and compliance will be carefully collected," LoBuglio said. "It is certainly to their [the inmate's] advantage to have it collected so we can make decisions in their favor."
LoBuglio said the decision to streamline and automate these processes grew out of frustration with a complicated system that is far from perfect. "One of the challenges of the criminal justice system is the fragmentation. There are all these different agencies involved in the process and we don't have common data systems," he explained. "This allows us to stitch together unified data systems and record keeping that transcends agencies. It's very exciting." LoBuglio added that data is shared with the courts directly. If a judge is sitting on the fence about a particular petitioner before the court, he or she he doesn't have to make a decision just based solely on judgment. Verifiable data will be available.
The Sheriff's Department believes the new digital process will create cost savings along with serving the cause of justice.
