Project: icori (Internet-Accessible Criminal Offender Record Information)

Transcription

1 Project: icori (Internet-Accessible Criminal Offender Record Information) Category: Digital Government Government to Business Commonwealth of Massachusetts Sandra Edler Commonwealth of Massachusetts Information Technology Division One Ashburton Place, Room 804 Boston, MA Phone: Project Initiated: September 2010 Project Completed: May 2012

2 Section 2: Executive Summary In August of 2010, Governor Patrick signed Chapter 256 of the Acts of 2010 into law. This new statute made significant changes to the Massachusetts Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) law (M.G.L. c.6, ss b), which governs access to Massachusetts criminal record data. The most significant change required by the new law was that the state s criminal record data was to be made available over the public internet. The system created to meet this need is our Internet-Accessible Criminal Offender Record Information, known as icori. Prior to the enactment of this statute, access to CORI was limited to primarily government agencies and not-for-profit organizations. This new statute widened the scope of access to CORI to include employers wishing to conduct CORI checks on current and prospective employees. Before creation of icori, access to criminal record information by many organizations was enabled through a semi-automated process comprised of a combination of electronic and manual processes. For entities not eligible to use the semi-automated process, all requests had to be made via paper. The average response time for a record which did not require screening by the Massachusetts Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS) legal team was approximately 5-7 business days. Average response times for other types of record requests ranged from 2-10 weeks. In May of 2012, the DCJIS implemented the internet-based icori system. The system fully automates the record check request process for ~ ninety percent (90%) of the DCJIS s non-criminal justice constituent base. Now, system users register yearly for access via an online process, and many registrations are approved automatically. Requests for records are submitted electronically, the system searches the criminal record database, automatically screens the record to return only the data the requestor is legally able to obtain, and places the results in a results queue, which can be accessed by the requestor for a period of six months. The average icori response time is approximately 10 to 15 seconds. Currently, approximately 18,443 employer organizations have registered accounts within icori. Collectively, government entities, not-for-profits, and for-profit organizations have made 186,753 request within icori for employment purposes. Thanks to icori, the DCJIS has been able to greatly improve service while reducing costs. Response times for record types the system can handle automatically went from days to seconds and paper request processing has dropped by approximately ninety percent(90%). The DCJIS has saved more than $335,000 by not needing to backfill open positions and fill new ones. Finally, DCJIS has significantly reduced its paper consumption and retired four large laser printers which were previously used to print record check results. 2

3 Section 3: Business Problem and Solution Description On August 10, 2010, the Governor of Massachusetts signed into law Chapter 256 of the Acts of This new statute made significant changes to the Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) law (M.G.L. c.6, ss b), which governs access to Massachusetts criminal record data. Included in the changes were the renaming of the agency which oversees the operation of the law from the Criminal History Systems Board to the DCJIS and the expansion of access to criminal record data to employers. The most significant change required by the new law, however, was that Massachusetts s criminal record data was to be made available over the public internet. The statute set a deadline of May 4, 2012 for the establishment of online access. Before creation of icori, access to criminal record information by many organizations was a semi-automated processcomprised of a combination of electronic and manual processes. Many customers could submit requests electronically via a system called CORI Web. Those requests were then printed out and forwarded to the Criminal History Systems Board (CHSB) for action. If approved, these customers could then submit electronic requests which then required manual processing by the DCJIS. Results were returned to the inquiring agency in an encrypted Portable Document Format (PDF) file via . For entities not eligible to use the semi-automated process, all requests had to be made via paper. The average response time for a record which did not require screening by the DCJIS legal team was approximately 5-7 business days. Average response times for other types of record requests ranged from 2-10 weeks. All other entities, including individuals, had to request criminal record data via a paperbased process. A form was downloaded from the internet, completed by the individual, notarized, and then mailed to the DCJIS. A staff member in the CORI Unit would key the data from the form into the system, view a candidates list of possible matches, either select No Record or select the individual s record, print the results, send the criminal record to the Legal Department for screening if required, package the results in an envelope, and then mail them back to the individual. The average response time for an automated record which did not require screening by the DCJIS legal team was approximately 5-7 business days. Average response times for other types of record requests, including those that had to be screened and those which had to be retrieved from microfilm, ranged from 2-10 weeks. In addition to the struggle of processing thousands of paper requests, the DCJIS also had to deal with data quality issues. The criminal record information disseminated by the DCJIS is a copy of the probation database maintained by the Office of the Commissioner of Probation (OCP), a division of the Massachusetts Trial Court. The 3

4 database contains data on more than 16 million arraignments which have occurred at the various courts throughout the Commonwealth. Prior to the effective date of the new CORI law, the information provided by the OCP was sufficient in almost all cases to respond appropriately to criminal record requests. However, the new statute based dissemination not just on the final case disposition, but also on factors such as incarceration date and final release date. These data did not exist in the OCP database and were, therefore, not readily available to DCJIS staff. With just a little more than twenty months available to build the new web-based criminal record system required by the law, the DCJIS, in conjunction with the Executive Office of Public Safety s Office of Technology and Information Services (OTIS), established a contract with a local company which specializes in developing critical criminal justicerelated systems and services. The project was launched in September of 2010, and the system to be developed was dubbed icori. Over the next several months, the contractor and DCJIS staff worked to identify all of the business requirements that the new system would need to satisfy. A major component of the business requirements was the development of a matrix which identified all of the potential record requestor groups and the criminal record data each group was able to obtain. This matrix would form the heart of the business logic used by the system to register organizations as well as to automatically screen criminal record information. Once the business requirements were identified, documented, and agreed to by the DCJIS, the contractor began building the icori system. At the same time, a second major effort began to classify each and every Massachusetts criminal statute. Because the new system would have to distinguish between misdemeanor and felonies, the DCJIS Office of the General Counsel was required to review each and every possible criminal charge and indicate which were felonies, which were misdemeanors, and which were punishable by imprisonment. That information was then used by the contractor to build classification rules which were then run against the entire criminal record database. The result of this process was the setting of database flags which would be used by the icori system to determine if and when an arraignment would be included in a criminal record response. In addition to building classification rules, the DCJIS also worked with the vendor to develop rules which served to screen each arraignment in the criminal record database and determine eligibility for dissemination dependent upon the level of access available to the requesting party. Finally, a third major effort was required to address the data quality issues known to exist with the criminal record data. Because dissemination of criminal record information beginning May 4, 2012 would be controlled not only by crime classification and final disposition but also on sentencing and incarceration data, the DCJIS had to begin the process of finding the data that did not already exist in the database, a process that was called a correlation. 4

5 Although tedious and time-consuming, this effort was critical to reducing the number of records which would require manual intervention and screening once the icori system went live. To assist with this data correlation, the contractor developed a correlation application which DCJIS staff used to review criminal records one by one and fill in any missing information. Over 1.6 million records required correlation. On May 7, 2012 the icori system was launched. The web-based application allows virtually all of the DCJIS s non-criminal justice customers to register online for access. Once the registration steps are completed, a process which takes approximately minutes, the registrant can begin submitting requests for criminal records immediately. Most responses are returned within seconds and are placed in an online queue available only to the requestor. The results are held in the queue for six months, but they can be deleted by the requestor at any time before that. Section 4: Significance Prior to the implementation of the icori system, criminal record requests were a mix of online submissions via Web CORI and paper submissions. The paper submissions needed to be handled by a DCJIS staff member at every step of the process. Even submissions made electronically via Web CORI required manual processing in those cases where record screening was required. Prior to Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09), the DCJIS s CORI Unit, which is responsible for handling non-criminal justice record check requests, consisted of permanent staff augmented by a small army of student interns. However, beginning in FY09, state budget realities forced the DCJIS to terminate its paid intern program. The remaining full time staff were then unable to keep pace with the ever increasing number of criminal record requests. As a result, processing times for requests increased by weeks, and customer complaints skyrocketed. Attrition in the CORI Unit only served to exacerbate the problems. With the implementation of icori, the DCJIS has been able to enhance its service to its non-criminal justice constituents while reducing operating costs. The vast majority of criminal records requests are now submitted via the icori system, reducing the number of paper-based requests by ninety percent (90%). When a request is received by the system, the subject s name is automatically searched against the database, any criminal record information is automatically screened by the icori system, and the results are returned to the requestors queue. In those cases where either no record exists or the system is able to screen the entire contents of the criminal record automatically, results are returned to the requestor in 10 to 15 seconds. More than seventy five percent (75%) of all requests fall into this category. In addition, the reduction in requests requiring manual processing has allowed the DCJIS staff to concentrate their efforts on those requests that cannot be processed 5

6 automatically by the icori system. These requests include those records which require manual screening and those which require a search of the DCJIS microfilm archives. This has led to a significant decrease in the amount of time required to process these requests. Records requiring screening are now processed and returned in approximately 2-3 business days. As a result of the service enhancements brought about by the icori system, customer complaints have fallen off sharply. After a year of service, constituents now expect results in a matter of seconds, and many calls are from those now wanting to know why they did not get an immediate response. Businesses and other organizations are now able to conduct background checks on their employees in seconds not days. The same holds true for social service and education-related agencies. Even individuals benefit because they no longer need to request records via the old paper-based process and they are no longer required to obtain the signature of a notary. Instead, the icori system cross-checks their drivers license numbers with the Registry of Motor Vehicles in real time to verify identities. Alignment with Priorities Highlighted by NASCIO icori aligns with key priorities highlighted by NASCIO, including legacy application modernization and management of records. Section 5: Benefit of the Project The icori system provides extensive benefits for the Commonwealth, the DCJIS, and for our non-criminal justice constituents. For the Commonwealth, the implementation of the icori system has led to increased revenues. Before the implementation of icori, government agencies and non-profit organizations were the primary customers; the majority of which do not pay for records requests. The access for employers made possible by icori has allowed employers from across the business spectrum to begin using the system extensively, both improving their ability to screen potential employees and enabling the icori system to become self-funding. The new CORI law established a fee of $25 for a large number of record check requests; requests made by citizens (public access requests) cost $50. A portion of the fees collected are placed into a retained revenue account, making icori completely self-sustaining. Since the icori system enables those in the fee-paying categories to easily request criminal record data and receive near-instantaneous responses, the number of fee-required transactions has increased steadily. The DCJIS s non-criminal justice customers benefit from the ease of use and instantaneous response features of the system. Almost all of our constituents can 6

7 register for access online and can also submit their requests from the comfort of their offices or homes. Responses are received, in most cases, within 10 to 15 seconds. The results are also available for use for up to six months, so a requestor does not have to make repeated requests. While private individuals comprise only a small proportion of icori customers, the process has been dramatically streamlined for them as well; paper forms and notary signatures are no longer required. Finally, the DCJIS has experienced a tremendous positive impact on its operations. The small number of full time CORI Unit staff have been able to keep up with the remaining paper-based requests, enabling the agency to delay the backfilling of two positions and the hiring of two new full-time equivalents (FTEs) for the past two fiscal years, a savings of approximately $335,035. Furthermore, since most record check requests are submitted and responded to electronically, the DCJIS has been able to save on printing costs and eliminate the maintenance and support on four laser printers. 7