It's a probation department's nightmare... A sex offender has a few minor technical violations and slips through the cracks. But those are just the warm-up for the rape, kidnapping or murder he commits next.

With high caseloads and crude monitoring and tracking systems - mostly paper and pencil based - officers in the field have difficulty keeping up with every offender who has an infraction. Unfortunately, that may mean that a high-profile case explodes in front of them.

But agencies and legislatures now are working hard to bring technology to those officers in the field and improve the tracking and monitoring of offenders.

"You are seeing a big push and it's simultaneous across the country where people want to improve the caliber and quality of the technology. I think it is possible that we can deploy this technology where we can prevent crime from occurring or minimize its impact. That's where everyone wants to be," said Scott McPherson, CIO for the Florida Department of Corrections.

The Florida DOC is one agency that has put the pedal to the floor and will soon equip officers with a wireless, hand-held appliance that will enable them to collect and communicate information they obtain while supervising offenders.

"It's empowering the probation officer in the field and turning that individual into a very powerful and proactive force," said McPherson.

By helping probation or parole officers record information and share it with others in the department, agencies can do a better job of managing and monitoring offenders.

"The key to this thing is identifying a violent probationer or sex offender and picking them up for the little things before they do the big things. If you can get someone who has clearly violated the terms of their probation, you are reducing the likelihood that a crime will be committed," he said.

With the abduction and deaths of teenagers Jessica Lunsford and Carlie Bruscia in Florida over the last year, corrections officials and the legislature there had no choice but to make major changes to how the system supervised offenders after release.

According to McPherson, the corrections secretary has moved forward with his vision to connect officers in the field with facilities and the courts in an effort to better manage offenders.

DOC officials plan to work with a vendor to create a hand-held device for probation and parole officers that records and sends vital information about offenders to other law enforcement entities. With help from the legislature, the plan will likely be put into action soon.

"What's clear is Florida is going to have to lead the nation in trying to deploy this technology. The secretary's vision extends beyond the probation officer on the street and has reached into information we can grab from the courts and from law enforcement. If we just have the money and a good project plan, we can work wonders," McPherson said.

In determining which technology they wanted to go with, DOC officials looked at tablet PCs as well as hand-held technologies. They opted for the smaller version because they felt it would allow officers to continue to function in other parts of the job.

"One of the bigger concerns about technology is you don't want to encourage probation officers to walk around with a laptop or a tablet. They are not usually calling on people in the upscale side of town, you don't want to fumble with your laptop when you are trying to take your firearm out of the holster," McPherson said.

McPherson said a hand-held device better fit the needs of the officers because they would be able to attach it to their service belts in case of an emergency. He added that because communications technology has become so advanced, the vehicle for it - hand-held, laptop or tablet - can be versatile.

"IT has to learn how these people are operating in the field and mold to the way they conduct their business," he said. "You also don't want to see these guys robbed at gunpoint."

As the process of bringing these devices to the officers is completed, officials expect that public safety will be enhanced.

"It's not just what can be pushed back into the office, but also what can be pushed to the officers [in the field] such as an Amber Alert. It could accelerate response times and turn probation officers into force enhancers," McPherson said.

Whether it is an individual state's effort or that of a consortium, departments of corrections and their staff are beginning to reap the benefits of wireless and web technologies.

Consortium Brings Low-Cost Solution to Some States

Several years ago when Utah created its own offender management system and shared it with New Mexico and Alaska, it began a collaboration between states that has grown to a larger consortium.

The National Consortium for Offender Management Systems currently includes eight states, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Indiana and South Carolina, that are working together to come up with a low-cost offender management system they can share.

"The concept is every state that is the member of consortium can receive software free of charge, but can't sell or distribute it to anyone else. Any modifications they do, have to be given back [to the group]. The idea is to help them save money and work together," said Brad Alvaro, Chairperson of the consortium and CIO for the State of Idaho Department of Corrections.

According to Alvaro, offender management systems can cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $20-$40 million, which few small states can afford.

"We don't have the money to purchase these costly offender management systems, nor will the legislature fund it," Alvaro said.

The system that is being used and shared by the consortium members was originally developed by the State of Utah. The system, called O-Track, is now copyrighted by the consortium and is being tweaked and improved by consortium member states.

"The goal was to move it to a web-based application. In Idaho, we were fortunate to get money in the last year. We are going to take the front end and convert that to the web. When we are done we are going to give that back and all states can benefit from that. We're going to continue to build on it," said Alvaro.

He said, in the end, the system will move all of offender management, including probation, parole, inmate tracking, and corrections online. Other states, such as Utah, Have also made improvements like creating a medical module that ties into the system.New Mexico has created a gang tracking component as well.

To keep control of the source code language behind the system and the changes that are made to it, the consortium has written standards and bylaws governing the collaboration and joint use of the system.

Alvaro said that when each member state uses the system and changes the code behind it, it must follow certain rules and standards so that other states can easily integrate the changes into their existing software.

"We will control the versions. The core component we are trying not to change. As states take the source code - and they can use any vendor but the consortium owns it has the copyright -- and we want [them] to use our standards," he said.

To become a member of the consortium, which is free, states need to have their corrections directors sign a joint powers agreement and assign a liaison to the group.

"This is a way for us to work together and collaborate and we are sharing ideas and knowledge transfer. If I have a problem, I'll contact other states. It's a nice forum to work together," Alvaro said.

And, according to Alvaro, the end product is comparable to other systems on the market.

"As far as functionality I think it's right up there with other ones. [And] because we own the source code, we are not paying maintenance costs on it," he said.

The consortium also benefits from having feedback from multiple states about how the software functions or the improvements it needs.

"We are learning from everyone. The system is very intuitive; within a few mouse clicks you can get to the information," he said.

Even if a state joins the consortium, Alvaro said, it does not have to use the software. The sharing of ideas about offender management is just as important, he said.

Ohio Finds a High-Tech Answer

Parole and community services officers in Ohio recently went high-tech when the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction automated offender management by connecting field staff to each other and the office.

According to Harry Hageman, Deputy Director of the Division of Parole and Community Services for the Ohio DRC, the system was built specifically to meet the needs of the department.

"We built this from the ground up. Prior to this we didn't have anything automated that synchronized with the mainframe," he said. "It was all paper based before. Now we can collect data we weren't able to collect [such as] information about offender employment or education."

Hageman explained that the tablet PC is the size of an 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of paper, contains all the elements of a computer but is completely portable, has a detachable keyboard, utilizes handwriting recognition that turns writing into type and is easy to carry.

In choosing this technology, which was provided by MaxTek Corporation, the DRC put together a workgroup during the early stages of the project that participated in a number of joint application development sessions with the vendor to develop the functional requirements for both the hardware and software. The group included management, parole officers and line supervisors. 
 
In the early stages, it took about 60 days to explore the different platforms and decide on the tablet. The software engineers identified the potential platforms based on our requirements and then led officials through the decision making process.

The tablet was selected, according to Hageman, because it has all the features of a desktop and it is portable. Parole officers were also attracted to the tablet because of the handwriting and voice recognition features.

Hageman said when the DRC first began to deploy the tablet to its 500 parole and community officers, it was voluntary, but all of the officers have signed up to use it.

"The bottom line is they love it [and] now we have better data," he said.

By implementing automated technologies such as these, agencies and their staff are better able to do their jobs, collect vital information and maintain the public safety. The challenge that remains for many corrections departments is connecting the importance of the technology to the overall public safety mission.

"It's kind of a scary thing when you think the agencies who are entrusted with the responsibility to protect the public, [yet] they are left fighting for table scraps [with the state budget]. There's got to be an awareness that its also technology that is keeping people safe," said the Florida DOC's McPherson.

Resources:

McPherson: McPherson.Scott@mail.dc.state.fl.us

Brad Alvaro: balvaro@corr.state.id.us

Ohio DRC - 614-752-1150