What is Offender Management?
Offender management administrative functions assure the Commission’s internal and external partners that the ICOTS data contains information that is accurate, valid, and reliable. Per the ICOTS Privacy Policy, states must have established policies and procedures to ensure regular review and cleansing of ICOTS data is done in a timely manner. Moreover, since the compact states are the ‘owners’ of the information that is submitted to ICOTS, the compact states are responsible for the accuracy of the data and should conduct regular self-auditing of data. Offender management responsibilities include correcting offender data elements as well as cleaning up junk and duplicate records.
What Offender Management Issues Exist?
While a prior ICOTS enhancement to the ‘Offender’s Tab’ decreased the frequency of users creating duplicate and junk offender records, the failure of many ICOTS state administrators to properly review records and implement offender management procedures (Move, Merge and Delete) in the correct and timely manner continues to be problematic. When instructions are not followed by state administrators for set-up and review/approval of offender management process, this results in incorrect assignments of records, the removal of the offender’s primary address and the inability to submit various ICOTS activities.
Common deficiencies are:
- Failure to review records prior to using/approving offender management functions.
- Failure to use (move, merge, delete) in accordance with published instructions.
- Reassignment while pending offender management processes exist.
- Timely processing of offender management functions.
- Move/merge of ‘junk records.’ Junk records should be deleted instead.
- Clean up of identifying information (when users create cases on the WRONG profile)
What Objectives for Successful Offender Management Should States Consider for their Policies and Procedures?
- Ensure processes and procedures are established for users to report junk and duplicate records. Not all junk records are duplicates.
- Proper training conducted prior to tasking staff with responsibilities.
- As a state administrator, when creating OR approving offender management action, records should be thoroughly reviewed to ensure proper action is being taken.
- Establish at a minimum a weekly expectation to ensure any offender management items are processed (including a plan to coordinate and communicate with other state when pending items need to be processed by other states.)
- Accountability/corrective action for state administrators who fail to follow written instructions.
- Delete 'junk' or duplicate records. Never Merge/Move a 'junk' record. On your state's list of possible duplicates but inability to delete due to no activities sent to your state? DO NOT attempt to Move/Merge. As no activities were transmitted on these cases, the records should be deleted. Reach out to the originating sending state to delete the record. Note too, any offender records without a compact case should be sent to the national office for deletion as no state assignment exists on those records.
- Use Merge only for historical records. When approving merge review record to ensure no new cases have been created.
- Use/approve Move with full understanding of who the 'supervising user' is for the records AND ensure the 'supervising user' is not reassigned (or changed via NOD/NOA) while the Move is pending. If reassignment or change in supervising state is needed, disapprove the current Move request, creating a new request choosing the new 'supervising user' to ensure proper assignment.
- Audit offender identifying information when processing Moves/Merges or by using the Active Compact Cases report.
- Remove 'junk' data (for example 999999999 social security numbers, incorrect FBI #'s, State IDs, incorrect photos)
- Notes:
- Only the supervising state administrator can edit demographic information via the administrator's tab
- Users assigned to cases can add various demographic information at any time via the offender but are not able to delete
- To remove a case entered on wrong profile, use Move Case. Be sure to clean up any incorrect data left on the profile as described above
What Resources Exist for Offender Management?
Reports Available
ICOTS Duplicate Offender List Report
ICOTS Pending Merge & Delete Report does NOT include pending Moves
Possible Duplicate Offender Report
Training Demos for Possible Duplicate Offender Report
New Report! Junk Offender Records
This report will also be utilized in Q3. READ the training notes before using this report and NEVER use Move or Merge for Junk Records!
Training
Q1 Offender Management Kick-off
July 7th, 8th & 9th
OnDemand 350 Compact Staff Duties
Workaround to allow for a case closure after bad Move/Merge
Preventing Duplicate Offender Profiles
Editing and Deleting Incorrect Demographic Information
Shared State Policies & Procedures
Washington: In an effort to reduce creation of junk records, a direction was sent out to WA ICOTS users not to enter any new profiles for offenders whose transfer requests will be completed and submitted by the compact office unit. Additionally, new instruction packets for the felony and misdemeanor offices were distributed in an effort to reduce errors with ICOTS data.
Have Policies or Procedures to Share? Email mspring@interstatecompact.org
Q & A
Q: Is it possible in the future to add the delete function right from this report (Possible Duplicate Offenders)?
A: As the dashboards use external data and is not connected directly to ICOTS, it would not be possible to create a delete process directly from the report, but it may be possible to add a shortcut to the administrator functions. Other solutions through an ICOTS enhancement may also be possible to accomplish this.
Q: Is there a way to remove offenders from this list that are not duplicates but show up on this list?
Q: Is it ok to have duplicate offenders on our list, even after we have reviewed and realized they are in fact different people? It doesn't look like there is a way to remove them from the list.
A: The ‘Possible Duplicate Offender List’ identifies possible duplicate records based on matches with first name, last name and date of birth or social security number. There are some possible duplicates that match on first and last name as well as date of birth that are not actually duplicates. There is currently no way to remove them. However, the national office can research future enhancements/programming to the reporting capabilities to identify a solution for states to better manage duplicates.
Q: Is there additional programming that could be developed to alleviate the ability to create a duplicate? I just saw one of our PO's create a duplicate offender with the same DOB and SSN.
A: Programming changes were made in 2015 to lessen the likeliness of users to create duplicate offender profiles. This enhancement removed the ‘Add Offender’ button and prior to allowing the addition of a new offender record, ICOTS requires a search be performed searching criteria displaying any matches to Name, DOB, SS#, etc. Users can still add a new record but requires them to attest a record does not currently for the individual. See this support article for details on that enhancement and training article for preventing duplicates.
https://support.interstatecompact.org/hc/en-us/articles/4403961256215
Q: Why is FBI # not used as matching criteria in the Possible Duplicate Offender Report?
A: It certainly can be added as criteria for this report. Any requests for changes to dashboards can be made in writing by a state’s Commissioner or DCA on behalf of the Commissioner.
Q: If Merge should only occur with historical records and Move should move a historical case (source case) to a profile with an active case (destination case) how should states handle situations where both profiles have active cases? For example, my state is bifurcated and we have a dual supervision where one profile has the probation case and the other profile contains the parole case.
A: If caught early, it is best to delete one profile and re-enter that case on the other profile with the other existing case record. Move case may be utilized but states will need to coordinate with one another, carefully and timely processing the move and designating who should be assigned the ‘supervising user’ for the profile.
Q: How different is this dashboard report vs the ICOTS Duplicate Offender Report?
A: The criteria for each report should be the same (matches on name, DOB or Social Security number) and identifies whether the record is involved in an offender management process. The ICOTS report is real-time versus the Dashboard report loads data once a day. The Dashboard report provides export options to Excel and both reports can be saved/exported to PDF format.
Q: Can we delete a junk profile that is pending with a Transfer Request that was not submitted without asking the agent to delete that pending Transfer?
A: Yes, junk records can be deleted with pending activities, and it is recommended to not involve the agent (other than ensure they report errors/junk records in the future) to save time.
Q: When reviewing outgoing transfer activities on a new case (Transfer Request/Reporting Instructions Request) and upon discovery of incorrect or junk identifiers (FBI#'s, SS#'s DOB, etc.,) should we send those back to the field for corrections?
A: No, although the user should be aware. Once an offender is created in ICOTS, those identifiers are 'locked down.' Only an administrator can update/correct core data elements (sex, race, FBI#, etc.) and users (both assigned users in either the sending or receiving state) can add other demographic data elements (DOBs, SS#'s, pictures, etc.) but incorrect data can only be deleted by an administrator in the 'supervising state.' The 'supervising state' is listed on the profile.
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