When Sheriff Larry Amerson wants to find out which inmates are assigned to a particular cell in the Calhoun County, Alabama, jail, he relies on CORMAP.  With its ability to graphically display multi-level living areas in a three-dimensional layout on a computer screen, CORMAP helps corrections agencies to manage information about inmates and retrieve it quickly.

"The primary benefit that we saw for us in using [CORMAP] is that it is very simple to use," said Amerson.  "The user sees a graphic of the schematic of the jail so all you have to do is click on a certain section to find out what inmates are assigned to a particular cell."

Calhoun County has been using the product, which was developed by the Savannah River Technical Center and the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center - Southeast (NLECTC-Southeast), for several years now.  According to Amerson, prior to CORMAP, the county jail had no streamlined process for retrieving information about inmates and their locations within the facility.

"There was not an easy, simple way to look at [inmate information]," Amerson said.  "We could generate a report and then print out that report and look at it, which was [a] very cumbersome [process]."

With CORMAP, corrections officers no longer have to sort through reports to garner information.  All they have to do is point and click on a computer screen and they can access facts such as where an inmate is supposed to be located in the facility and an offender's race, sex, age, medical history and charges against them.  Agencies have the freedom to choose exactly what details about an inmate they want to have displayed through CORMAP.

"We can customize [CORMAP] any way that we need to do so," Amerson said.  "It's very flexible."

The Many Uses of Mapping Technology

At the Calhoun County jail, CORMAP is installed in the tower, which overlooks seven sections of the jail, and the booking area.  There, officers can research information about inmates in the event of gang activity, riots and medical emergencies.

According to Amerson, CORMAP is also particularly helpful in doing research for lawsuits and other legal matters, especially when inmates claim that they are witnesses to incidents that occur in the jail.  Using the technology, jail staff can determine exactly which inmates were assigned to certain areas of the jail on a particular date.

"We've had cases where the inmates who were allegedly witnesses [to incidents] were not even anywhere near [that area of the jail]," Amerson said.  "[CORMAP] gives us a really quick way to say this is not true."

According to Robert Donlin, Project Manager for NLECTC Southeast, CORMAP has many other uses in corrections, too.  Healthcare is one area that it can be an effective tool.

"With the huge increase in contagious diseases that are running around in prisons now, it has the potential to be able to trace who [has lived] with who and immediately mark the people who you want to check," Donlin said. 

For example, he explained, if inmates A and B originally lived in a cell together and inmate B is discovered to have hepatitis and has lived with several other inmates during his stay at the jail, CORMAP can help an agency to determine exactly which inmates he lived with and which ones need to be tested for the disease.

"Just with the simple push of a button we can trace who an inmate was in a cell with," Donlin said.  "It gives you something [to use] when you're undertaking a job to do it quicker and more effectively."

CORMAP is also useful in identifying certain inmate groups, said Donlin, who recalls when the system was used to gather information about inmates' religions after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"During 9-11 we put in the question of religion and in approximately two minutes, we were able to find out where certain inmates were," Donlin said.  As long as the schedule is [loaded into CORMAP] and you identify certain groups, with the push of a button, it will tell you where they're supposed to be."

Large Gains at Low Cost

To acquire this technology, which combines Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with Computer Assisted Drawings (CAD), corrections agencies need only purchase the software, provided that they have a platform, like MapInfo, to run it on, Donlin said. 

In that case, when agencies already have a compatible platform, the cost of CORMAP is minimal, Donlin pointed out.

But, while the cost is low, the technology's benefits are plenty, especially when it comes to sharing information with other agencies outside of corrections, Amerson pointed out.  Calhoun County is heading in that direction, he said.

"The big issue we're tuning into is how do we share information so our systems can talk to each other?  [The] GIS platform is something that everyone can use to share information," Amerson said.  "We're now in the process of working on mapping issues in our county," he said, pointing out that the ultimate goal is to link all county departments through this type of technology.

Donlin agreed that technologies like CORMAP are tools that are becoming more and more useful to corrections agencies as they try to increase their efficiency and ability to share information with other agencies.

"I think that resources are getting thinner and thinner because of budget constraints in agencies and I think that technology is a means of aiding [them]," Donlin said.  "I don't believe that technology will ever replace people, but it's a way of making people more efficient and allows their job to be done quicker and better.  It gives them the opportunity to do more in less time."

Resources:

For more information about CORMAP, contact Donlin at (800) 292-4385

To contact Sheriff Amerson, call (256) 236-6600