Washington Prison Management Software Setting People Free Too Early, Keeping Other People Locked Up Too Long

from the on-average,-it-works dept

All this technology is getting in the way of justice being served. For the second time in five years, Washington's Department of Corrections is dealing with issues created by its prisoner management software. Four years ago, this happened:

For three years, state Department of Corrections staff knew a software-coding error was miscalculating prison sentences and allowing inmates to be released early. On Tuesday, Gov. Jay Inslee gave the damning tally: up to 3,200 prisoners set free too soon since 2002.

For thirteen years, officials knew there was a problem with the software but did nothing about it. It wasn't until the state's governor got involved that anyone at the DOC started caring about its malfunctioning code. The code was supposedly fixed but new problems arose, affecting both sides of the jail walls.

A software problem has caused at least a dozen Washington prison inmates to be released too early — or held too long — and has sparked a review of as many as 3,500 cases.

Department of Corrections (DOC) officials are scrambling to determine whether the other inmates’ sentences were miscalculated and are still working to gauge the scope of the problem.

The previous bug miscalculated "good time" credits, resulting in thousands of premature releases. This time around, buggy code is screwing up calculations for inmates who have violated their parole. A few have benefited from the problem. But most of the cases being reviewed involve inmates who have been jailed for too long.

The previous calculation error resulted in two homicides by an inmate who was released too early. This time around, it's far more likely inmates who have served their time aren't being released. Either way, there's life and liberty on the line and the Department of Corrections is showing little sense of urgency when addressing these problems.

If there's a silver lining, it's this: with enough votes, the state's convoluted sentencing laws will be simplified, potentially making the calculation of sentences easy enough any human can do it.

[State Representative Roger] Goodman has proposed legislation, House Bill 1495, creating an 18-member task force that would review and recommend simplifications to the state’s sentencing guidelines, with a final report due by the end of 2020. He said his committee also may ask DOC leaders for a public briefing and explanation of the latest sentence-calculation problems.

Of course, this could take as long to fix as it took the state DOC to fix its original software problem. No answers would be expected for another 18 months, by which point new bugs in the DOC's software may surface and start handing out get out of jail free cards to some inmates and go directly to jail cards to others who've already served their time.

And if it's not working now, there's a good chance the DOC's software will never function properly. Part of the problem is the legislature itself, which complicates sentence calculations by adding new wrinkles with each legislative session. According to the Seattle Times, at least 60 bills in the pipeline could affect sentencing guidelines, increasing the chance of new calculation errors developing.

Software may be the only way to handle a job this complex. But those overseeing the software's deployment have shown they're not too interested in proactive maintenance of this complex system. Problems are eventually solved, years after the fact. That sort of responsiveness is unacceptable when guidelines are being constantly altered by new legislation.

Filed Under: department of corrections, inmates, mistakes, prison management, software, washington

Florida Dept. Of Corrections Sued For Screwing Inmates Out Of $11.3 Million In Digital Purchases

from the you-don't-own-what-you-overpaid-for dept

Last fall, the Florida Department of Corrections decided it needed to enrich itself at the literal expense of its inmates. It signed a new contract with new provider of jailhouse entertainment, instantly making $11.3 million in purchased digital goods worthless. You don't own what you paid for, even at inflated prison prices.

The new contract with JPay rendered the purchased content unusable. Even the players purchased by inmates aren't technically theirs and must be returned to the vendor. Not that keeping the players would help much. The licensing agreements covering the content are only valid if the previous contractor is providing the service. Since it's not, the mp3s and ebooks can't be transferred to JPay devices.

Unsurprisingly, inmates are furious. So are their families -- the ones who paid extortionate rates to give their imprisoned family members a little music to enjoy. The DOC recognized this was a problem and created a portal for the filing of complaints related to this disappearance of purchased digital goods. That portal is going to be very useful in the upcoming lawsuit against the Florida DOC for screwing inmates out of their purchases. (h/t Boing Boing)

The Florida Department of Corrections is facing a potential class action over recently forcing inmates to forfeit millions of dollars worth of mp3 and other multimedia files purchased under a since-axed media player contract.

William Demler, a 74-year-old incarcerated man at South Florida Reception Center is the lead plaintiff in the case, which was filed in the northern U.S. District Court on Tuesday with the backing of the nonprofit legal firm, the Florida Justice Institute.

The lawsuit [PDF] says the Florida DOC violated its own contracting guidelines when it decided to prioritize its profits over the inmates' purchases.

As part of this bidding process, both the FDOC’s Invitation to Negotiate Contractual Services, as well as the FDOC’s Request for Proposal for Contractual Services, explicitly stated that compatibility with the FDOC’s prior vendor was a mandatory requirement of the contract, in order to ensure that prisoners would not bear the cost of the transition between vendors:

[T]he proposed system must allow for inmates who currently have a device and/or songs purchased from the current Contractor to transfer and/or obtain updated equipment and/or music compatible with the successful contractor’s Digital Music Player Program. It is the intent of the Department that the implementation of a new Digital Player Program to have little or no financial impact on inmates presently participating in the Department’s current program.

Obviously, that's not what happened. A new contractor was picked based on prison profit margin, disregarding the standards the DOC set for itself. On top of that, the previous contractor offered up its own false assurances about the longevity of purchased digital content.

In addition to touting the qualities of the digital media players themselves, at least one widely-distributed advertisement, which appeared on the digital media player order form itself, also touted various qualities of the Digital Music Player Program, including the following representation:

Browse, search and preselect songs from updated music catalogs holding millions of song titles representing a wide array of music genres. You have the ability to purchase and listen to unlimited music utilizing the re-download feature free of charge. Once music is purchased, you’ll always own it! (emphasis supplied).

The only concession the new vendor has made is one that solves none of the problems created by the new contract. For a fee, inmates can have their mp3s transferred to a new device or CDs, but those copies can only be sent to friends or family members who can hold onto the purchased content until the inmate is released. This means every inmate wishing to access the music and books they thought they owned will have to not only repurchase the content again, but the devices and accessories needed to access them.

The suit is probably a long shot, but it does highlight the bullshit engaged in by companies selling digital media that relies on a thicket of licensing to make its way to the end user. Promising anyone that their digital purchases will be around "forever" is so out of touch with the reality of the situation it should be considered fraudulent on its face. In this case, the planned obsolescence was accelerated by the DOC's desire for a better profit margin. If there's any justice, those profits will go towards replacing the purchased goods it took away from the inmates it houses.

Filed Under: copyright, department of corrections, digital goods, florida, inmates, mp3s, music, ownership
Companies: jpay

Missouri Judge Shuts Down Department Of Corrections' Attempt To Move The Goalposts During A FOIA Lawsuit

from the still-always-a-few-minutes-before-sunrise-in-most-govt-agencies dept

You can't tell the players without a program and, apparently, you can't get your public documents without a lawsuit. Freedom of Information laws -- both at federal and state level -- were supposed to make the government more accountable to its citizens. In practice, this has often taken the form of withholding requested information until ordered otherwise by a judge. Not exactly transparent and not exactly a brand new level of accountability. It bears more resemblance to a three-year-old being forced to relinquish whatever's currently being clenched in a tightly-closed fist.

The three-year-old in this case is the Missouri Dept. of Corrections. And not only did it have a tight grip on some documents, it also wanted to make up the rules as it went along.

While plaintiff Allaedin Qandah was being held at one of its facilities, his copy of the Quran was damaged during a cell search, something he alleges was done intentionally. The ACLU, representing Qandah, requested documents pertaining to "copies of any and all records relating to [Qandah's] IRR # NECC 11321 - property damage."

The Missouri DOC found 14 responsive documents but refused to surrender any of them.

On May 17, 2012, Heather McCreery, Legal COunsel for DOC, replied in writing to Hill denying the request for the records. In her letter she cited Federal Regulation 28 CPR. 40.10 as grounds for denial pursuant to Section 610.021(14).

So, the ACLU sued for the release of the documents. The DOC filed response to the lawsuit suddenly added even more exemptions, none of which had been contained in its original denials.

DOC modified its position in its First Amended Answer to claim three additional reasons for closing the records besides the one claimed in McCreery's letters. DOC now claims "[t]he requested records are exempt from disclosure under 610.021(14) and 217.075.1(3) RSMo" and as "internal administrative report[s] or document[s] relating to institutional security." DOC also asserts that "[t]he Requested Records are Exempt from Disclosure under 610.021(13)" as "[i]ndividually identifiable personnel records, performance ratings, or records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment." Finally, DOC states that "[t]he requested records are exempt from disclosure under 610.021(10)" because they "relate [l]egal actions, cause of action or litigation involving a public governmental body and any confidential or privileged communication between a public governmental body or its representatives and its attorneys."

The Court wasn't too impressed with the DOC's last-minute goalpost shifting and called it out for its actions, pointing out that allowing this sort of behavior would subvert the intentions of "sunlight" laws and further discourage citizens from requesting public records.

The legislature has mandated that if a custodian denies access to public records, the custodian must, upon request, specify the legal basis for the denial. Permitting Defendant to assert additional reasons for denial after litigation commences, as it attempts here, renders superfluous the statutory requirement of notice of the reasons for denial... It would also discourage citizens from retaining attorneys (or litigating pro se) to challenge the exemptions claimed by a government entity that withholds documents, if, after a lawsuit is filed, the government could cite additional exemptions. This is also contrary to public policy.

The DOC also tried to claim that regulations might permit it an exemption under federal Sunshine Law statutes (rather than Missouri's statutes) but the judge quickly dismantled this argument as well, pointing out that the quoted federal statute had been repealed and is no longer "a valid authority on which the DOC can rely to close the requested records."

All in all, a pretty satisfying takedown of disingenuous acts by a government entity. According to Courthouse News, the DOC is also paying all of the ACLU's legal fees.

The average citizen does not have the resources to challenge Sunshine Law denials, and it was unfair to allow the government to pile on exemptions after a lawsuit is filed," Tony Rothert, Legal Director of the ACLU of Missouri, said in a statement. "The judge's ruling helps level the playing field for the vast majority of citizens who do not have the resources to hit a moving target.

The government spends a lot of time and money keeping records out of the public's hands, doing as little as it can to stay within the letter of the law and avoiding the spirit of the law entirely whenever possible. Unfortunately, successful Freedom of Information requests are more and more frequently being routed through various courthouses before responsive documents are obtained.

Filed Under: department of corrections, foia, missouri