Q:How can JPASonline help me control overcrowding?
A:The NIC / DOJ publication, Preventing Jail Crowding – A Practical Guide, details the fact that jail overcrowding can be boiled down to just two factors: the average number of admissions to the facility and the average length of stay for each inmate in that facility. Voter demand for stronger law enforcement and stiffer penalties has caused each of these factors to increase in most counties. The result has been an explosion in jail populations.
In most counties, corrections officials cannot directly affect either the number of admissions or the length of stay. But, these officials do have contact with their facilities' governing boards, criminal justice coordinating committees and other county officials. A jail population analysis system, such as JPASonline, gives jail managers the ability to quickly identify the factors driving their overcrowding (i.e. increases in admissions, in average length of stay, or in both) and the ability to drill down into these factors to see what drives them. This information can then be shared with officials who set county policy. While JPASonline is not intended for access by the general public, information gleaned from the system can be communicated to voters to support jail initiatives that require voter approval.
A small sampling of the kinds of questions that JPASonline allows you to answer include:
• What is the trend in average length of stay for jail populations?
• What is the trend in daily admissions?
• What is the trend in recidivism?
• How does ALOS break down by facility?
• Which treatment plans have had a positive affect on recidivism?
• How effective are my classification schemes on predicting recidivism?
Q:How much data can JPASonline hold?
A:JPASonline was developed by Dataspace, a leader in the field of data analysis. In addition to county governments, Dataspace's clients include some of the largest companies in the world including a number of the Fortune 500. Just like the systems created for these organizations, JPASonline is capable of handling massive quantities of data. There is currently no known limitation to the quantity of data the system can hold and none is foreseen.
Q:How do I learn to use JPASonline?
A:Ease of use is a key design feature for JPASonline. Nonetheless, training can help users get the greatest value from the system. A number of resources are available in this area. To start with, JPAS comes with two days of free training at the customer's location. This training is broken into three classes which build on each other:
Executive Training: Executive Training is a two-hour program intended for casual users of JPASonline. Attendees learn how to log onto the system, view the daily dashboard and open reports in the report library.
Report User Training: Building on the concepts learned in Executive Training, Report User Training is a six hour class that teaches users how to modify and manage the reports in the report library.
JPASonline Report Creation: Intended for individuals who will be responsible for advanced data analysis, Advanced JPASonline Report Creation is a full day session that teaches users how to create customized reports and analyses from scratch.
Dataspace also offers public training classes at our offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Q:How does JPASonline get customer data?
A:The only task required by the IT department is to write a few small programs that extract booking data from your jail management system. Once these programs are written, they are set to run automatically. These programs use a secure file transport protocol (FTP) to transfer data to the central JPASonline server. From there it is processed and made available to users.
While most counties send data one time per day, JPASonline can accept data more frequently if required, thus providing access to data that is even more timely.
Q:How secure is the data in JPASonline?
A:JPASonline is created with security in mind. Among its security features are:
• User passwords
• Firewalls
• Encrypted data transfer
Q:What are the benefits of a web-based (SaaS) approach to jail data analysis?
A:No large up front investment: Because JPASonline is hosted by Dataspace in a secure facility, customers are not required to make large investments in hardware, software and services. There is a small setup fee and a low monthly subscription fee that is based on the rated jail capacity.
Reduced IT burden: Because Dataspace runs and manages JPASonline, the cost and effort involved in maintaining the system is virtually eliminated.
Frequent upgrades: As typical of the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, Dataspace will frequently upgrade JPASonline with new reports and functionality - which are covered by the subscription cost.
Customizability: To allow each county to get what it needs, JPASonline uses a feature called 'Standard Customization'. With Standard Customization, each county can customize the data captured by the system to their specific needs.
Best Practices: Very importantly, as new reports are built by Dataspace and by other JPASonline customers, the most valuable of these are made available to all subscribers - at no additional cost. Thus, the system gives its subscribers insights into the best practices used to address overcrowding issues in other jurisdictions.
In summary, the SaaS model allows organizations to share the costs of building and running systems. The end result is far more functionality at a lower cost and with far less effort than would be required under traditional computing models.
