NCJ Number
130276
Journal
American Jails Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: (May/June 1991) Pages: 26-28,30
Date Published
1991
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The development of the Correction Management Information System (CORMIS) in New York's Westchester County Department of Corrections helped to demonstrate the case for a $100 million capital expansion program which included a $68 million "new generation jail."
Abstract
Westchester County's experience contrasted to other jurisdictions in that it made an important commitment to design and funding of CORMIS to track inmate population growth, chart inmate population trends, and plot inmate population projections. The information gathered facilitated the decision making exercises that preceded and followed an affirmative decision by voters to raise their taxes and build a new staff-efficient maximum security jail. The planning process for this computer-based information system, set in motion by legislative action at the State level, is outlined. Currently, CORMIS computes inmate population statistics on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. Additionally, it produces an arrest/sentence tracking system and a demographic profile of inmate population, based on booking activity at each of the department's three facilities. The Westchester County experience shows that a computer-based management information system, one which can be revised to accommodate changing needs, is indispensable to long-range planning, decision making, and capital expansion in a local correctional system.