In the news:
How the State of
Washington Dept of
Corrections failed to follow
IT best practices
“Prison-term fix delayed 16 times”
The story:
!
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More stories follow:
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What happened too the Request For Change?
?
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Problem: A “software glitch” shortened the term
for some prisoners and allowed their early
release.
Prisoners typically get “good time” credits that
lead to an early release. The maximum sentence
reduction allowed by law is up to 33% of a
prisoner’s sentence. The software glitch allowed
58% reduction + credited hard time!
This was discovered 13 years ago!
The DOC IT staff finally submitted a Change
Request in 2002 to the software vendor, SierraCedar. The application is called OMNI, Offender
Management Network Information
Over 1,100 Washington State RCWs affect offender sentence
structure, sentencing enhancements and time accounting for
incarceration and community supervision, making it one of the
most complex systems in the nation. Any modifications made
to OMNI without a thorough understanding of the State of
Washington’s correctional model and/or the functional
components within OMNI would adversely affect the integrity of
the system and call into question sentencing calculations.
Erroneous sentencing calculations would result in
offenders being released prematurely, thereby
compromising programming and rehabilitation efforts, or
offenders being remanded to DOC custody beyond their legally
required sentence, thereby denying them their rightful liberty. In
either case, liability would fall squarely on DOC for failing to
meet legislative mandates and court orders.
“Hard time” and “Sentence enhancement”
If the conviction includes a weapon like a gun or knife
(“armed robbery”), the sentence will have added time
called an enhancement.
The enhancement must be served as “hard time” or time
never reduced by good behavior.
The bug in OMNI not only over-credited good behavior but
mistakenly credited hard time or enhanced sentences.
Who is at fault? Sierra-Cedar? Dept of Corrections?
Who is Sierra-Cedar (formerly Sierra Systems)?
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Animation: Right-click, and click Play.
What is OMNI?
?
“As of August 2008 the Department of Corrections (DOC) is directing access to the
Felony Offender Reporting System (FORS) (also known as the Offender Based Tracking
System (OBTS)) through the Offender Management Network Information (OMNI) webbased system.”
"The successful implementation of OMNI is a critical milestone in our strategic plan to
improve public safety for Washington's citizens," said Melanie Roberts, Deputy
Secretary of Administrative Services for DOC. "We are delighted to be working with a
private sector partner who has our complete confidence."
“The contract value is not to exceed US $14.5 million. Sierra Systems will assume
full responsibility for the successful execution of the project including project
management, specifications, design, and development.”
* Note: the FORS system ran on an old main frame computer
Managing Information for Safer Communities
March 23, 2007
Managing Information for Safer Communities
What is OMNI?
The Offender Management Network Information (OMNI) system is a
new web-based, offender tracking system being developed by the
Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC).
OMNI is expected to improve DOC’s ability to manage offenders as they
progress thorough the correctional system by providing efficient, easy
access to comprehensive information about an offender's:
 Confinement status
 Rehabilitation programming
 Treatment
 Sentencing
 Movement
 Discipline
 Community supervision
Managing Information for Safer Communities
OMNI Components - Release 3.1
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Chronos
Notifications
3.1 Shared Services
3.1 Records
Synchronization
3.1 Interfaces
Managing Information for Safer Communities
OMNI Components - Release 3.2
Sentence Structure and Time Accounting
3.2 Records
Case Management and Field Movement
Bed Capacity Management and Prison Movement
Prison Discipline
Field Discipline
Prison Custody and Facility Plan
3.2 Shared Services
 3.2 Interfaces
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Is there an SLA? Service Level Agreement?
A service-level agreement (SLA) is simply a document describing the level of service
expected by a customer from a supplier, laying out the metrics by which that service is
measured, and the remedies or penalties, if any, should the agreed-upon levels not be
achieved. Usually, SLAs are between companies and external suppliers, but they may
also be between two departments within a company.
There should be an SLA between the DOC and the DOC’s IT department and an SLA
between the DOC and Sierra-Cedar, the software vendor. Such an SLA is not public
information.
Problem root cause: Failure to use IT Best Practices. Additional cause of this
failure: No enforceable Service Level Agreement between the DOC and the
DOC’s IT department. ITIL to the rescue! DOC IT staff should be in this class!
January 5th memo re: correcting the problem
This is a software maintenance memo. The DOC purchased software rather than a
service
Click the icon to read the memo:
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