IJIS Institute Industry Briefing and The National Forum on Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Save the Date!
The IJSI Institute Industry Briefing will take place from July 26-28, 2012, and The 2012 National Forum on Criminal Justice and Public Safety from July 29-31 at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa, Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico. More details on both events will be published soon.
The Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort is a perfect destination for families. Located outside of Albuquerque, the Tamaya Resort was voted on of the world’s best by both Conde Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure magazine. It offers an extensive array of activities for children and adults including horseback riding, hot air ballooning, a full service spa, hiking and biking trails, tennis, yoga, a championship golf course and a kids camp. Rooms are available at a special conference rate of $77 per night plus tax. Book your room now!
Please mark your calendar now and plan to join your colleagues for this exciting and unique conference.
Cloud Computing in Government
Cloud Computing looks to be a popular topic at this year’s Corrections Technology Summit. IJIS will present a very informative workshop on Cloud Computing covering the subject from both the IT and consumer’s point of view.
Columnist Michael Koplov covers the specific barriers to be considered by government agencies contemplating cloud based solutions in the article below. These concerns are shared by Corrections; security, ownership and control. This is a subject we must all be well versed about as many technology solutions proposed in recent bids and RFPs for Corrections projects include some cloud aspect. We must be able to compare these hosted solutions against other hosted solutions as well as against the more traditional on-premises proposals. What is a public cloud vs a private cloud? Personally, I’m still asking, “what’s the difference between a private cloud and my agency’s WAN?”
—–Ed Raper, CTA Past-President
From softwareadvice.com
by Michael Koplov, Procurement System Analyst
January 18, 2012
Within the private sector, Cloud-based, software-as-a service (SaaS) applications are now being adopted aggressively, even by some formerly nay-saying late majority buyers. The public sector, however, has been slow to follow. And it hasn’t helped the Cloud’s case when high-profile municipalities fail in a Cloud deployment. One recent example: the highly publicized plan to roll-out Google Apps throughout Los Angeles, which was scrapped by LAPD in December.
Is the relationship between the Cloud and public-sector organizations truly oil-and-water? In this post, I explore the issues stifling Cloud adoption in the public sector and highlight strategies for promoting it in one area in particular-procurement-that has a high probability of success.
All About the Benjamins
The Cloud offers a number of benefits over traditional enterprise software alternatives: a smaller upfront investment, subscription pricing, increased accessibility for users and a flexible architecture that easily scales to accommodate fluctuations in organizational size, among other benefits.
Which factor has the greatest potential to impact the public sector? Cost. That is, according to Alan E Webber, Partner and Principal Analyst at Altimeter Group.
“It’s just a hard thing to take [cost] off the table,” says Webber. “Considering the current economic situations that public-sector groups are in, it’s the number one decision criterion these days.”
…..visit Software Advice for the rest of this story.
CTA 2012 Technology Summit Update
Corrections Technology Association Executive Committee seeks your participation to make this year’s Technology Summit the best ever. Our theme this year, Corrections Technology: On Track For Success represents CTA’s mission of leveraging technology in the field of corrections. We have selected three program tracks that will focus on the critical issues facing corrections and technology today:
Green Flag: Innovative Cross Jurisdictional Data Sharing
(Corrections/Justice/Public)
Yellow Flag: Implementation Initiatives/Lessons Learned
Red Flag: Solving Correctional Problems with Innovative Technologies
CTA strives to present practical applications and actual experiences from individuals who have implemented innovative technical solutions to complex correctional problems. We provide a unique opportunity for information technology professionals dedicated to corrections to network and forge productive, collaborative relationships.
With the continual shrinking of state and local budgets in general and corrections budgets specifically, now more than ever we need to find innovative uses of technology to solve the correctional business problems of today. What are the emerging technologies that have the greatest potential to improve corrections’ ability to meet its mission? What are the correctional and justice business problems that technology will have the opportunity to help solve? As a CIO, IT manager, or program director for a state, county, or local correctional/justice agency what is keeping you awake nights? Security vulnerabilities in your networks and the need to provide greater access to and yet still protecting your data? Increasing demands to share your information both internally to your organization and across agency borders?
Please refer back to this website for updates on registration, call for presentations, and updated agenda. We look forward to seeing you at the Daytona Beach Hilton, Dayton Beach Florida, May 20-23, 2012.
Regards,
Leisa Rackelmann
President
New York DOCCS Receives Award for its Secure Offender Network Law Library
First-of-its-Kind Computer-Based Legal Document Access System Receives Center for Digital Government’s Best Application Serving and Agency’s Business Needs Award
The NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) yesterday was honored by the Center for Digital Government with its 2011 Best of New York Award for the Department’s development and implementation of the Secure Offender Network Law Library Automation Project. DOCCS literally changed the face of legal research in its correctional facilities by taking on this large-scale, first-of-its-kind project, which provides offenders with computer-based access to legal materials in a digital format. The Department is required by law to provide offenders with direct access to legal resources. During 2010, DOCCS law library resources were used by offenders in 542,899 separate instances.
The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory organization that focuses on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government.
“Undertaken as part of Commissioner Fischer’s ongoing effort to improve efficiency in the delivery of critical and required services throughout the prison system, this initiative will generate significant savings to New York State taxpayers (approximately $2 million annually) by eliminating the costly paper-based libraries and the efforts required to maintain them,” said Thomas J. Herzog, DOCCS Assistant Commissioner of Management Information Services. A major benefit of the electronic Law Library system is that it provides more equitable access to the much-needed legal resources. Prior to being automated, the Law Libraries would have one set of New York Statutory Laws on the shelf. If an offender needed to obtain a copy of the Penal Law § 70.30 for example, there was only the one volume to go around. The offender would have to wait until the volume became available. Now, with the information loaded electronically, several offenders can simultaneously access this same information using the networked thin clients.”
Please visit http://www.docs.state.ny.us/PressRel/2011/Secure_Offender_Network_Award_091511.html for more information about this award and to read what Commissioner Brian Fischer has to say about this project.
CTA Executive Board Update
Our CTA President, Craig Thatcher, recently resigned from his position with 
KentuckyDepartment of Corrections and accepted a position in the private sector. His new position is outside of the Corrections and Public Safety realm. In order to focus on his new career, he has resigned as President of CTA. On behalf of the entire CTA Executive Board, I wish Craig the best in his new career and thank him for all his time and contributions to CTA he has made over the past three years. Craig volunteered for a more active role with CTA as a Track Chair for the 2009 Annual Technology Summit and again the next year. Last year he was elected President Elect and coordinated the solicitation and selection of this year’s workshops, continuing CTA’s tradition of assembling a rewarding agenda.
Our President-Elect, California’s Leisa Rackelmann, has assumed the position of President per our bylaws. The CTA Executive Board has a scheduled Board meeting at the end of this month and will address the appointment of a President-Elect to finish out this year’s term. If you have an interest in getting more involved with CTA and helping us prepare for 2012′s Annual Technology Summit, contact me or any of the Executive Board members.
On a personal note, thank you Craig for your hard work and active involvement with CTA these last three years. Reduced agency resources made it a real challenge to build an attractive agenda worthy of the expenditure of limited travel funds. You achieved this all while dealing with your own reduced agency resources and increased demand at the “day job”. Congratulations and good luck to you and your family!
posted by: Ed Raper
CTA Past President