Long Range Plan for Information Technology in the Federal Judiciary FY 2009

Probation and Pretrial Services

Objectives
Probation and Pretrial Services Success Stories

Probation and pretrial services officers interview defendants before trial; investigate defendants’ backgrounds; prepare and file detailed reports to assist judges in deciding on conditions of release or detention of defendants before trial and on sentencing of convicted defendants; and supervise offenders who are sentenced to probation. Those officers work out of 490 locations throughout the United States and its territories. Technology is allowing a largely mobile workforce of probation and pretrial services officers to become more effective and efficient by allowing access to case information from virtually anywhere.

Objectives

• Provide officers with information technology tools that improve effectiveness and efficiency.
• Continue to refine the national case management system by focusing on officer needs while capturing key outcome measures that identify best practices.
• Continue to strive for complete remote access from the field, including electronic document management, which also serves to provide continuity of operations in the event of a disaster.
• Expand the use of appropriate technologies such as global positioning systems, geographic or mapping information systems, electronic kiosks, voice recognition, and computer telephony to assist officers in their work inside and outside the office environment.
• Expand the use of video-conferencing technologies for interviewing defendants and offenders located a significant distance from the office.
• Develop integrated systems to maintain accurate and consistent data collected from multiple courts.

Probation and Pretrial Services Success Stories

Mobile Technology
Nearly all probation and pretrial services offices around the country now use some form of mobile technology, including laptop and tablet personal computers, as well as smartphones to access information from virtually anywhere. These devices allow officers to access case information, criminal history records, location monitoring records, and drug test results, as well as e-mail, calendars, and nearly any other information as if located in their offices. Through mobile technology, the traditional fieldbook containing offender and defendant notes, including chronological records, is becoming obsolete.

PACTS Server Consolidation
The Probation and Pretrial Case Tracking System (PACTS) supports the supervision and investigation of defendants and offenders. The consolidation of PACTS servers improves delivery of service to probation and pretrial services offices by streamlining the administration of hardware and software and by providing superior continuity of operations in the event of a disaster. All 94 districts now house their PACTS systems at the Chantilly, Virginia hosting center.

Improved Public Safety and Welfare
Technology contributes to improved public safety through better coordination with law enforcement agencies. Pretrial officers can rapidly check to see whether detainees are wanted elsewhere. Credit checks help determine whether a detainee is delinquent on child support.

National Directory
The National On-Line Probation and Pretrial Services Directory is a searchable source of information about each probation and pretrial services office. It includes a list of officers, telephone numbers, counties served, and special instructions. This system comes in two versions. Probation and pretrial services offices use the internal intranet version, and law enforcement organizations, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Prisons, use the internet version.

Access to Law Enforcement Systems
The Access to Law Enforcement Systems (ATLAS) application has enabled officers to obtain criminal histories much more efficiently than was possible using similar systems provided by state police organizations. Most of the state-provided systems were installed on one computer that had to be shared by all employees in the district. ATLAS increases the effectiveness of probation and pretrial services officers by allowing them to retrieve criminal histories directly from their desktop or laptop computers in the office, field, or home. Officers no longer have to wait in line for one computer or for an assistant to obtain criminal histories. ATLAS can be used with any web browser and does not require the installation of additional software, so local systems staff are not burdened with an additional system to maintain and upgrade.