NCJ Number
206778
Journal
Corrections Today Magazine Volume: 66 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2004 Pages: 78-81
Date Published
July 2004
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the development, benefits, and long-term commitments involved in the District of Columbia's Supervision Management and Automated Record Tracking (SMART) system, which combines case-management functions with an emphasis on agency performance.
Abstract
Established by the U.S. Congress in 1997, the Federal Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA) assumed probation and parole supervision of approximately 14,000 offenders from the District of Columbia (DC) Superior Court and the DC Board of Parole. CSOSA launched SMART in order to facilitate case management. Unlike traditional case management solutions, SMART data revolve around the offender, with specific case information presented as one attribute of an offender. To bring the new information system online in record time, CSOSA's information technology team worked closely with Community Supervision Services to compile requirements and chart the flow of information in the new system. Key factors in the project's success were the securing of senior management's support from the outset and the formation of a partnership with the business users and the vendors. Agency leaders emphasized the importance of strong user participation in providing the requirements for the system. SMART 1.0 includes the following core modules and functions: intake, including automatic assignment of cases to supervision teams based on offender demographics and round-robin cycles; reports, including detailed management-level caseload summaries; home page defaults to show caseload lists, team assignments, or branch assignments; security roles to restrict access to modules based on a user's assigned role; tracking of offender demographics; replication of drug-testing results; detailed supervision information; treatment referral; and tracking of offenders in community service and other programs. From its beginning, SMART's ease of use made it a success with staff. CSOSA's long-term commitment to performance management and data quality involved the planning of enhancements to the first module even before initial implementation. Overall, SMART has had a key role in CSOSA's efforts to revitalize community supervision in the District of Columbia.