NCJ Number
196387
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 64 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2002 Pages: 68-71,121
Date Published
July 2002
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes the North Carolina Department of Correction’s (DOC) offender management software.
Abstract
The software runs on a large, central mainframe. The data are stored in a modern, relational database that makes it easy to query, and easy to link data elements. During the past several years, the Web has allowed the department to share offender data outside the department, with other criminal justice agencies, crime victims, offenders’ families, and the public. The DOC is responsible for approximately 33,000 active inmates and more than 117,000 offenders on probation or parole. The department consists of 76 prisons, more than 270 community corrections offices and other administrative locations, as well as nearly 18,000 employees. The offender management software is known as the Offender Population Unified (OPUS). OPUS is written in COBOL and uses DB2 to store its data. There is a lot of information about many offenders. Data go back as far as the early 1970's and provides a chronological picture of everything known about every offender that has encountered the DOC. Although the DOC was willing to share the data, it did not want users from outside the department accessing the production system for security reasons. It also did not want to risk alternative uses and queries slowing down system response time for staff. The DOC built a set of Web-based search tools that allow people outside the department to examine the data. “Offender information-public search” allows the public to search for an offender using either a number assigned by the DOC or by the offender’s name. A second type of searcher, such as academic researchers or the press, are interested in how many offenders fit a certain set of characteristics. The DOC set up two specific searches--one for escapes and captures, and one for inmate releases. The department has also created a password-protected site that adds several new tools, such as the “offender search by identification,” “view mug shots,” “create a lineup,” and “tattoo search.”