Code Release 33.3.0 - ICOTS Enhancements 3/7/18

On Wednesday, March 7, 2018 four new enhancements will be launched in ICOTS. Most of the enhancements are relatively minor, but will provide an improved user experience. 

This is the fourth of several enhancement releases to take place during FY 2018.

The descriptions of each change are as follows:

1.) Create email notifications for case notes – Currently, the only case notes that generate an email notification are case reassignments via Manage Case Load. If a user enters a text-only case note, no other user associated with the case is notified. This enhancement will notify all users associated with the workflow on a case (within the same state) when a user creates a text-only case note on any compact case. Meaning, if the sending state PO adds a case note, it will notify the Supervisor and Compact Office within the same state of the user who entered the activity.  This is an example of an email notification:

The email notifications will have the following format:

From: ICOTS Notification [mailto:icots@globalnotifications.com]
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2018 4:15 PM
To: {User's Email Address}
Subject: A Case Note for {Offender Name} ({Case Number}) has been added.

This email is a notification that a Case Note for {Offender Name} ({Case Number}) has been added. Please log into ICOTS for more information.

____________________________________________________________
Offender Name: {Offender name} 
DOB: {DOB}
ICOTS Offender #: {Offender number} 
ICOTS Case #: {Case number} 
Supervision Type: {Case supervision type} 
Special Status: {Offender special statuses}
Offender Profile: {Offender profile url}
____________________________________________________________

2.) Add 'Confidential Record' label to offender profiles that have been excluded from the search results of the ICOTS Public Web Portal – As soon as an offender is added to the list of offenders excluded from the search results on the ICOTS Public Web Portal, their offender profile will display "Confidential Record" in large red letters under the offender photo area. 

*Administrators exclude offenders from the public web portal (which also marks the record 'confidential')  via the offender management tab

3.) Add 'Financial Obligations' to the plan of supervision tab of the offender profile - Currently, the financial obligations for an offender are entered on the transfer request activity, but are not displayed anywhere on the offender's profile. This enhancement will add any financial obligations entered on a TREQ to the plan of supervision tab on the offender profile. 

4.) Add new OVR recommendation & response for offenders 'unavailable for the retaking' – Beginning March 7, 2018 when the availability status for an offender is marked as "not available" for retaking on a violation report or using a violation report addendum, the recommendation section of the OVR will include the option "When advised that the offender is available for retaking, we will request/issue a warrant."  The response in turn will include an option "Warrant will be requested when offender is available for retaking."  

When or once the offender's availability status is set to "Yes," the above noted response option will not appear. 

**Training Note:   This particular enhancement was approved several years ago before the 2017 changes were made to the ICOTS Progress Report & ICOTS Violation Report.  As new arrests and most situations where offenders are NOT available for retaking should now be submitted using the ICOTS Progress Report, please be sure your compact staff reviewing outgoing Violation Reports give special attention before transmitting the activity to the sending state using these new options.  Until your state has 'determined' the behavior requires retaking, DO NOT use the ICOTS Violation Report Requiring Retaking.  This activity was specfically designed to manage retaking and is ONLY to be used when the receiving state is invoking a Manadatory Retaking Rule outlined in Chapter 5 of the ICAOS Rules.  The 'Location' & 'Availability' elements of the addendum to the Violation Report allow both states to manage the retaking process.