TECHNOLOGY IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM.

TECHNOLOGY IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM.



Introduction

Law enforcement has always been a dataintensive industry. Investigating criminal activity, implementing problem-oriented policing, processing court cases, and managing correctional facilities are all heavily dependent on information for their successful operation. Until recently, however, implementing integrated information systems to better manage available data has typically been beyond the technical and fiscal reach of most organizations within the criminal justice system. Not surprisingly, the technical and fiscal constraints experienced by the criminal justice system are similar for many other organizations in the public sector. (William 2004)

In the early twenty-first century, however, the technical, fiscal, and management barriers to implementing integrated information systems are falling dramatically. Both hardware and application software are becoming less expensive and easier to manage, and they provide greater performance. Equally important, de facto standards have emerged over the last decade that have significantly reduced the fiscal and technical management costs of data communications (e.g., TCP/IP, HTML), operating systems (e.g., UNIX, Windows) and applications software (U.S. Department of Commerce 2000). All these factors are converging to offer new opportunities for systems development and integration for public sector organizations. (Walker 2005)

The need for information technology in the management of the criminal justice system

The criminal justice system runs on information. There is information about criminal incidents and information about potential defendants. There is information about people who are incarcerated either serving their sentences or awaiting trial. There is information about the court process including scheduled events and outcomes of past events. All of this information affects the way people are treated in the system and perhaps impacts the final outcome of any individual case. The quantity, quality, and timeliness of information are crucial to participants in the system. (Walker 2004)

Information flows can also affect the way the entire system works. The efficiency of the system and the quality of justice dispensed are highly inter-related. Criminal justice administrators must be able to understand the flow of cases through their system. (Samuel 2004)

Potential reasons for computerization

The consistent leader in expenditure and maintenance costs for technology is the “means of mobility.” These technologies increase rapid and flexible means of patrol. The focus is on the capacity to allocate officers to areas, and poise them to respond. The role of material technology has changed little since the 1930s, except for increases in the speed, number, and types of available vehicles. This cluster of technological advances grew in popularity with the recent emphases on presence, availability, and satisfying citizen demand. As a result, the car and driver is the core material technology of modern policing: a mobile office, an insulated compartment, a retreat and a work setting, a place in which patrol officers may spend from eight to twelve hours, a focus of conditions of work and union contracts. The costs of random, uniformed patrol are the fundamental and abiding costs of modern policing, and it is estimated that it costs $600,000 a year to maintain a car and driver in operation for a ...