Commonwealth of Virginia

Transcription

1 June 1, 2011 Commonwealth of Virginia VirginiaCORIS Category: Data, Information and Knowledge Management Nomination submitted by: Samuel A. Nixon Jr. Chief Information Officer Commonwealth of Virginia Virginia Information Technologies Agency

2 2011 Commonwealth of Virginia NASCIO Award Submission Category: Data, Information and Knowledge Management Project: Virginia Corrections Information System (VirginiaCORIS) Executive Summary To vastly improve operations, manage offenders, better serve and collaborate with public safety partners, provide interoperability with law enforcement and retire outdated, costly legacy systems, the Virginia Department of Corrections (DOC) has implemented a far-reaching, tightly integrated, data-driven offender management system. The Virginia Corrections Information System (VirginiaCORIS) unites offender management for more than 13,000 current users including prison institutions, probation and parole officers and the Virginia Parole Board, to manage a population of more than 100,000 at 115 locations. VirginiaCORIS now communicates with and also is used by the Virginia State Police (VSP), the Fusion Center (VFC), local law enforcement, the Attorney General s office and courts. Virginia now is closely and easily working with the F.B.I. on its developing national database and exchanging data through NDEx. Prior to implementation of the new information system, two major divisions often handled the same offenders but operated different systems. Paper files existed in multiple locations without the same data and could not be viewed by all users. Managers could only view limited information on any offender; data was repeated multiple times manually, and accuracy was questionable. Data sharing was minimal; offender contacts were siloed. Entries could take months to reach other important public safety touch points. Legacy systems were failing and required daily downtime to maintain. Vendors no longer supported the technology; a graying workforce signaled loss of maintenance capability. Contract labor was a scarce and expensive requirement. Today, multiple user groups access and update a single system, VirginiaCORIS, from any location, 24x7, via secure Web access to track offenders and log information, including a complete real-time log of all contacts with corrections and law enforcement systems. A database collects and organizes data variables, freeing the Web-based front end from attempting to serve the data and providing business and historical views. VirginiaCORIS was designed and now operates fluidly as an easily maintained, interoperable system, including active arrest notification integration with Virginia State Police information systems. Major functionality was completed in The system eliminated inefficient and paper-based systems and created global views that vastly improve public safety. Over a dozen legacy systems, including one 32-year-old mainframe system, now have been retired. The project s return on investment is a positive 13.5% over 20 years. More user groups, including local jails and applications including health records, biometrics and kiosks for offender use are planned; more aged legacy systems are scheduled to be retired. As a living system, VirginiaCORIS will never be finished. Due to its business-driven, interoperable and standardized architecture, future uses will be easily incorporated.

3 Description Business problem: Corrections management requires significant interaction with multiple entities responsible for various aspects of the offender lifecycle, including law enforcement, courts, facility, probation and parole. Facilities require significant resource management of variables including beds, term of inhabitance and medical care; even details such as meals procurement require accurate information. Gang activity, deliberate misinformation from offenders and return to community dictate further need for effective understanding of offender population through data management. In the past, two major divisions often handled the same offenders but operated different systems. Paper files existed in multiple locations without the same data and could not be viewed by all users. Data was repeated multiple times manually, and accuracy was questionable. Data sharing was minimal; offender contacts were isolated and could take months to reach other important public safety touch points. Two mainframes, over 20 individual systems and numerous databases were antiquated, in danger of collapse and required daily downtime to maintain. Vendors no longer supported the technology and a graying workforce signaled loss of maintenance capability. Contract labor became a scarce and expensive requirement. The technology was deemed unsupportable and unusable. The financial burden of maintaining legacy systems was estimated at $2.5M per year, without factoring in down time, system crashes and general unsuitability for meeting growing business needs. Staff could not work remotely, at home or in the field, though many positions involved offender contact at remote locations. Paper was swallowing the agency. Managers had to utilize different systems to mine information and data accuracy always was in question. Policies were inconsistently applied. Security and privacy were difficult to enforce in the paper-based environment. Reporting to entities including other agencies, the legislature and the federal government was inefficient and sometimes impossible. Business Solution: A business-based IT solution providing a new layer to connect and reference data was deemed vital. Today, VirginiaCORIS consists of a secure Web interface for input and data view, plus a data mart, the Multi Dimensional Decision Support System (MODSS). Many potential solutions were considered, including custom build, outsourcing and vendor offerings. Utilizing Commonwealth procurement best practices, a base software system for offender management was purchased from xwave/abilis, with the stipulation that the system be custom designed for Virginia per identified business requirements and managed internally. Project Management: Due to investment size and project complexity, VirginiaCORIS was classified as a Commonwealth major IT project, subject to approval, regular review and independent verification and validation. DOC followed Project Management Institute guidelines and hired a dedicated project manager with substantial experience with criminal justice, corrections and state implementation of offender management systems. The project team includes business managers from major units (probation, parole and

4 institutions) and other stakeholders, has made decisions critical to system design and also has provided invaluable assistance to business integration. Solution architecture: VirginiaCORIS is a multi-tier.net software-framed solution, built on a SQL server 2008 database with seven physical application servers, each running through a round-robin load balancer. The database has one primary production server for transaction processing. The architecture includes a production mirror with failover configuration designed within the SQL database from the primary to the mirror. Business layer processing co-exists between both the application servers and the database server. Server updates take place by removing a single server from the load balancer, updating the server, and then returning it - without affecting users or usability. System design was developed through extensive collaboration with public safety partners; planned expansions were included in business requirements. Disaster recovery: Should the primary database fail, the mirror database, which is updated in real time to remain in synch for catastrophic failure events, will assume the load. A third snapshot database is replicated daily with production data. In the event of catastrophic server failure, the load balancer will push work from the failed device to the remaining units where there is capacity - without affecting users ability to perform work. Change Management: An aggressive communications campaign informed and educated users. Executive management solidly backed the initiative. At staff meetings, the project was discussed and supported. Newsletters and s were generated to users. At each DOC location a point person led training and routed user problems, reported bugs and suggested possible enhancements as users began interaction. Accessibility, information security: Role-based access is a significant part of the architecture. New policies and procedures were created to identify and standardize user access. Web-based views provide anytime, anywhere access and are delivered via virtual private network utilizing SSLs. Use of assistive technology is expedited. Users: The system now has more than 13,000 active users, including all operating units of Corrections, Correctional Education, numerous public safety agencies, Virginia State Police (VSP) and the Office of the Attorney General. Timeline: As a major IT project, VirginiaCORIS has been in development for several years brought significant project completion; three major releases were implemented. The addition of the institutions component was particularly critical; it included inmate classification, population/bed count, transportation and transfer, grievances, property and education. A module uniting incidents and charges between Institutions and Probation and Parole went live. Active Directory was enabled; 25 system enhancements based on field requests were made to the probation and parole module.

5 Significance to the improved operation of government Implementation of VirginiaCORIS has resulted in a streamlined, interoperable, accessible, anytime method for multiple entities to manage data generated by offender management and companion public safety concerns. VirginiaCORIS vastly improves public safety capability for the agency, all business partners (including localities and the federal government), and ultimately, citizens. Inability to use applications interoperably from a Commonwealth business perspective was a key driver. Today, legal (courts, Attorney General) and enforcement (VSP) share and add to information generated by Corrections, to support investigations and strengthen public safety initiatives. Crime occurs 24x7, but prior to VirginiaCORIS, access to offender information was unavailable to users such as VSP for 12 hours daily. Regular updates now have been enabled and data accuracy verified, creating user access and confidence. Elimination of legacy systems and mainframe applications provides important financial efficiencies. Use of a modern, updateable platform guarantees that future additions easily can be integrated, such as health insurance records and biometric data. The scope of the data maintained by the agency is vast and includes multiple inputs and outputs from other entities necessary to offender management. The data mart provides enhanced analysis capability, consistent data across the enterprise, faster and deeper reporting and a cost-effective method to better manage a vast information system. VirginiaCORIS closely aligns with the Commonwealth Strategic Plan for Information Technology. It adheres to Commonwealth IT Investment Management standards subject to regular review by the CIO and independent verification and validation. The Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts recently completed its information system security audit of DOC and reported no finding on VirginiaCORIS. VirginiaCORIS supports several of Governor Bob McDonnell s key initiatives, including Executive Order 11, The Virginia Prisoner and Juvenile Offender Re-Entry Council and Executive Order 28, Gang and Violent Criminal Executive Committee. The re-entry process is crucial to an offender s successful rehabilitation. Tracking and sharing data about gang activity is critical to public safety. VirginiaCORIS provides in-depth reports, identifies institutional and community staff who will provide transitional services, and collects and manages input by law enforcement and correctional staff. Interoperable data communication enhances the re-entry process and public safety. VirginiaCORIS closely aligns with NASCIO priorities, including strategies of consolidation, shared services, budget/cost control, security and e-discovery and priority technologies including content management, unified communications, identity and access management, business intelligence and mobile workforce enablement.

6 Benefit of the project VirginiaCORIS now is one of if not the largest integrated offender management system in the U.S.; multiple stakeholders benefit daily. An inefficient, paper-based system is eliminated. Global views vastly improve public safety. Over a dozen legacy systems, including one 32-year-old mainframe system, now have been retired by DOC. Benefits provided by the Multi Dimensional Decision Support System data mart: Users can study data from a variety of different perspectives Drill down into results to study detail behind each data point is enabled Historical data is available on-demand basis Isolated data is integrated into a single data repository for a unified view All users conduct analysis against the same dynamically refreshed data A central data source is tailored for reporting A flexible, scalable platform does not impact production systems. The simplified database structure increases query performance Existing technology investments can be leveraged. Any user with offender contact can log notes to alert other users. Changes in address, work status and parole officer visits now are securely logged. More than three million system-generated notes now have been captured that would have been paper-based. Active arrest notification integration with VSP information systems is achieved. Over 10,000 arrest notifications have been delivered. Photos now are being added; VirginiaCORIS currently holds 300,000 offender images and the number is increasing daily. New entries to the population now require photos; addition of biometrics is scheduled. Over 100 business-driven, highly configurable reports now are generated and can be scheduled or produced on demand. For example, a Planning and Budget analyst now gets a daily Facility Population Summary via . Previously the report would have been run on the mainframe, printed and mailed; time has gone from weeks to minutes. Inmate-based legacy paper-based transfers previously took six weeks; now through automated business process in CORIS they are completed within four business days. Return on investment (ROI), official project analysis: VirginiaCORIS is critical to provide interoperability, better access and more reliable information to support the department s mission. Ongoing costs for the "As-Is" are approximately $2.5M each year (and as estimated, do NOT increase over the next 10 years). At a project cost of $17M and annual support cost of $400,000, the ROI over a 20-year span is a positive 13.5%. Redeployment of staff is assumed; application management is in-house. VirginiaCORIS is predicted to last twenty to thirty years, making the continued ROI increasingly important and positive in future years.

7 Business intelligence has been enabled by the data mart. Critical offender management reporting can be run on an as-needed or scheduled basis and delivered digitally. An alert feature immediately highlights critical information for all users including threats of violence, sex offense, gang activity and special needs. The fugitive unit is alerted when offenders abscond from community supervision; officers have immediate access to an offender s complete file. Cross-jurisdiction enforcement is enhanced. Remote access is enabled from anywhere in the world. The system is fully redundant, with 99.9% availability. Offender data is visible as a comprehensive picture 24x7x365. External documents are improved. Arrest warrants now contain demographic snap shots, including photo if available, to assist law enforcement with offender identification. If offenders are returned to prison for violations, activity is visible to the institution for placement and program/treatment planning. Offender data now is moved without multiple entries; it is entered once and populated to multiple forms. Data is selectable. Administrative burden has been significantly reduced. Scanned documents and many paper documents can be incorporated. Offender transfers and released offender management are simplified. File material previously was copied and faxed or mailed. Now, electronic notices allow instant case movement on acceptance from sending to receiving district. Offender files now exist in a secure environment. A recent fire destroyed an office; while some workingpapers and older files were burned, VirginiaCORIS data was available once data communication was restored. A neighboring district provided offender reports within hours to assist with recovery. The Virginia Fusion Center (VFC) is the central point in Virginia for collection, analysis and timely dissemination of all-crimes information and intelligence and is managed by VSP. A comment from a VSP user at the VFC aptly summarizes benefits: Intelligence analysts now obtain a thorough view of offender histories, current status, risk profile and sentencing/release information, which is directly impactful. The success of integrated efforts across criminal justice agencies to grapple with multi-level, widescope criminal issues depends on willing interconnection of information sharing applications like CORIS. VirginiaCORIS is an outstanding platform to view and use DOC information crucial to the analytical mission performed by the VFC. Its continued development as a one stop shop is eagerly anticipated and applauded. This enterprise data management system has been designed with awareness of developing needs such as electronic health records and biometric identifying data. Emerging requirements easily will be assimilated. Business managers regularly meet to discuss further additions. VirginiaCORIS now is an adaptable IT tool which supports the best-practice business of corrections and public safety, in service to citizens.