Information Systems Approach to Jail Management: Guidance, Development and Use (Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement and Corrections)

INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPROACH TO JAIL MANAGEMENT: GUIDANCE, DEVELOPMENT AND USE INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPROACH TO JAIL MANAGEMENT: GUIDANCE, DEVELOPMENT AND USE Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data CONTENTS PREFACE Chapter 1: RUNNING AN INTELLIGENT JAIL: A GUIDE TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF A JAIL INFORMATION SYSTEM FOREWORD SECTION 1.WHY DO JAILS NEED TO BECOME INTELLIGENT? SECTION 2.MEASUREMENT OF JAIL PERFORMANCE AND KEY CORRECTIONAL POLICIES SECTION 3. DATA THAT MOST JAILS ARE REQUIRED TO COLLECT SECTION 4. DATA USES IN POLICY ANALYSIS AND ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT SECTION 5. REQUIRED SKILLS FOR JAIL INFORMATION SYSTEMS SECTION 6. PLANNING AND DEVELOPING INFORMATION SYSTEMS SECTION 7. IMPLEMENTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS SECTION 8. REQUESTING PROPOSALS FOR INFORMATION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND SELECTING VENDORS APPENDIX A.WHAT DRIVES INFORMATION NEEDS? APPENDIX B. SAMPLE OF A DATA DASHBOARD APPENDIX C. OVERCOMING THE HURDLES OFJAIL INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPENDIX C. OVERCOMING THE HURDLES OF JAIL INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPENDIX D. CASE EXAMPLE: CONTRA COSTA JAIL, MARTINEZ, CA APPENDIX E. CASE EXAMPLE: KENT COUNTY JAIL, GRAND RAPIDS, MI APPENDIX F. EVALUATING YOUR JMS SYSTEM SUPPORT AND USABILITY FEATURES APPENDIX G. “MEASURING WHAT MATTERS” KENT COUNTYCORRECTIONAL FACILITY ANNUAL STATISTICAL REPORT Chapter 2: JAIL CAPACITY PLANNING GUIDE: A SYSTEMS APPROACH FOREWORD INTRODUCTION SECTION I. GETTING STARTED SECTION 2. SYSTEM ASSESSMENT: JAIL POPULATION MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES SECTION 3. THE JAIL SNAPSHOT SECTION 4. CASE-PROCESSING STUDY SECTION 5. JAIL CAPACITY PLANNING OVERVIEW SECTION 6. THE JAIL CAPACITY FORECAST: A COUNTY EXAMPLE SECTION 7. PLANNING FOR ONE EMPTY BED APPENDIX A. JAIL SNAPSHOT: DATA VARIABLES APPENDIX B. CASE-PROCESSING STUDY: SAMPLE VARIABLES APPENDIX C. SAMPLE DATA ANALYSIS CALCULATIONS APPENDIX D. SAMPLE COUNTY COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS CENTER DATA ABOUT THE AUTHORS INDEX It is clear that virtually all criminal justice organizations, including jails, are driven by information. From initial intake to final release, virtually all key decisions are largely driven by the availability, quality, and careful analysis of data to support the variety of decisions made by jail administrators and personnel. Jails should consider themselves as information- processing organizations and active users of information technologies. A precondition of effective management support in the jail system is having access to accurate, high-quality data that can be presented in the appropriate formats. For most jails, this requires a jail management information system (MIS) that is adequate to support all routine inmate-processing activities. Even when a jail has an adequate MIS, we often see inadequacies in the design of performance measures and inmate-monitoring indexes and, more generally, in quantitative analyses that make use of this information. This book uses many years of the authors' collective experience in addressing the information technology (IT) infrastructure, database content, and analytical capacities of innumerable criminal justice institutions to develop a guide to the development and use of a jail information system. The book also discusses a jail capacity planning guide.