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Moving Towards Purging the Paper Trail

BY Jaimie Banks, Communications Officer, Information Management Services

The project team works toward electronic solutions. Left to right: Karen Kelly, Gerry MacDonald and Suzanne St.Georges-Trépanier. Absent: Heather Dagorne

Imagine the situation: you are a parole officer in charge of 25 offender cases. The information that exists to help you in your role of overseeing these offenders in the community has been stored in several different areas. Half of the files are jammed into heavy filing cabinets and the other half are in applications and documents on your computer. As you are reviewing your cases, a nagging feeling hangs in the back of your mind: What if something is missing? What if something has been overlooked? What if I am not seeing everything there is?

What you really need is one easily accessible file, containing all pertinent information on any given offender.

It is with that idea in mind that the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is now developing a strategy to implement integrated electronic offender files that will provide CSC staff with the ability to store, access and share all relevant offender information in an electronic format — from only one source. CSC, which currently uses both paper and electronic formats, must continue to move away from paper-based systems in order to align itself more closely with its partners and Government of Canada (GoC) policies.

“We won’t be changing the information that is available,” explains Information Management Services (IMS) Director General Richard Harvey. “Instead, we will simply be gathering all the pieces together to make the most effective and comprehensive system possible.”

Aside from allowing CSC to comply with GoC policies, guidelines and directions when it comes to information management practices, this will also put the organization in a better position to share vital information with its partners in the criminal justice system.

Though CSC currently holds records for all offenders in the electronic Offender Management System (OMS), not all information is integrated into those records, often making it necessary for front-line workers to consult multiple sources when searching for information. With the electronic offender file, CSC hopes to eradicate this practice. The new electronic files will be a virtual one-stop shop for all the information available to manage the case of any given offender.

“It is a matter of moving forward with the amazing technology now at our disposal,” says Harvey. “Technology is designed to make our lives easier, and that is precisely what we hope to do for our front-line workers.”

CSC will be spending the summer and fall wrapping up an analysis of the project. This process involves legal consultations, defining requirements and needs, analyzing current offender file banks against legal requirements, and comparing paper documents to what is already available in OMS. Information that is duplicated could then be phased out of the paper environment.

This initial analysis will also assess how best to meet CSC’s needs for requirements such as file tracking, electronic signatures, information sharing, forms design and management, to name a few. Eventually, applications like the Police and Court Information Management Module (PCIMM) and document information management systems will be integrated into OMS to form a more comprehensive tool. IMS will be working closely with other CSC business areas on this initiative to ensure that all operational and legislative requirements are covered.

In the end, it all comes down to making the job safer, quicker and more efficient for staff members who have the arduous task of managing offenders and making decisions throughout the administration of their sentences. If CSC can provide staff with a single window through which they can view all the pertinent information, then we can be sure we are helping to make their jobs a bit easier and, consequently, the country a bit safer. ♦