Jails across the country see a variety of people rotate through their systems on a daily basis.  And, for the most part, they collect information from each of those people - names, addresses, fingerprints and much more.  But none of that data means anything if no one is scratching beneath the surface of it - and jails are figuring that out.

Over the past three years, officials in Orange County, Florida, have begun to take a longer - and harder - look at the data being collected from its jail.  With a research statistician on staff, the county's Corrections Department is using the information it collects from inmates to its advantage - to improve efficiency at the jail and save taxpayer dollars.

"It's my assumption that a lot of jails can produce data and they likely do," said Patrick Jablonski, research statistician for the Corrections Department.  "What I think is really nice about our operation in this county [is that] the decision makers and public policy [makers] and the courts and the jail operators actually do something about the data we [gather].  They don't just let it sit on the shelf."

According to Jablonski, the Corrections Department collects information about the jail population, such as what types of people are passing through the jail and what the trends are, in terms of who is being incarcerated.  Jablonski analyzes and translates that data so it is useful to key personnel, he said.

"We collect, automatically out of our database, approximately 500 pieces of information every day that get fed into a series of spreadsheets that many people in the department have access to and my job is to monitor that information and track it and then let management and decision makers know if there is a problem or if, maybe, [there are] ways [to] make some progress in managing the jail's population," said Jablonski.

One key area that officials in Orange County have focused on since Jablonski was hired in 2001 is the factors that the length of time people remain incarcerated at the jail. 

"[We are] trying to figure out, are there ways we can process appropriate people more efficiently through the system?" said Jablonski. 

Scott Bradstreet, Deputy Chief, Orange County Corrections Department, agrees.

"Our goal here is to move people through the system as expeditiously and efficiently as we can," Bradstreet said.

He added that the department uses the quality data it collects to achieve that outcome.

According to Jablonski, the county's correctional facility was being examined by a Jail Oversight Commission back in 2001, which was particularly concerned with overcrowding and case processing.  By 2003, the Corrections Department, with Jablonksi's help, had been able to use data to improve operations at the jail and meet some of the Commission's recommendations.

"We started to make big progress in running more efficient operations in 2003," said Jablonski.  "We used the data to build a case saying that we can manage the criminal justice system a lot more efficiently and effectively to release people who can possibly be released and examine those cases on a case-by-case basis."

As a result of this data-driven approach to managing the number of inmates at the jail, Jablonski said that the population was reduced in 2003 and remained stable in 2004.

According to Bradstreet, a variety of changes took place at the jail to lower its inmate population, including a reduction in the amount of time it takes for an inmate to be transferred from the jail to a state prison.  Through data analysis and examining how long it took to process court documents, the agency was able to improve the efficiency of its case processing system and reduce the time an inmate awaits transfer from an average of 30 days to six.

Bradstreet also noted that data analysis has helped the agency to better monitor internal operations as well.  He said the monthly Primary Indicators Report - which measures all of the incidents that occur in the jail - serves as a report card for how well the facility is functioning.

"[It includes] everything that we need to know internally about our operations and what goes on inside the jail," said Jablonski.  "It's a yardstick for everything we do here," he said.  "We track just about everything and it gives us a really good tool to measure how effective each of our [units] is being."

Having this kind of data on-hand is crucial, Bradstreet said.

"From my perspective [collecting data] is critical," Bradstreet said.  "If we are to continue to try and make improvements, if we don't collect the data and use it effectively in making decisions as we move forward, we are certainly not going to be successful as an organization."

And that success is dependent on realizing how well your agency is operating currently and using data to make improvements, Bradstreet said.

"I think it's very difficult to set goals if you have no idea where you are today and there is nobody tracking this type of information on a regular basis," he said.