By C1 Staff
MARION COUNTY, Indianapolis — An Indianapolis county jail currently being scrutinized for a record number of mistaken inmate releases received some advice from a professor on how to fix their inmate management system.
FOX News reports that the Marion County Jail had ten mistaken releases in the past year, five of which were clerical errors. The numbers are comparable to years past, according to Col. Louie Dezelan, who says that ten releases is a drop in the bucket compared to the 63,000 inmates they incarcerate every year.
The jail switched to a new management system named Odyssey in June at the same time the sheriff’s department was adopting a new Offender Management System.
Dr. Jon Padfield of Proffer Brainchild applied the Six Sygma analysis process to determine why the offenders had been cut loose. The process included looking at what happens at initial booking, how inmates move through the court and then when the order is given to release and how that order is carried out.
They focused on bottlenecks and where duplicates were happening.
After two days of analysis with stakeholders, Padfield came up with 26 recommendations for smoothing out processes, including a reduction in paperwork or the redundancy of multiple advisements regarding an offender’s case status.
Some recommendations are being implemented immediately, while others are slated to go into effect Oct. 1.
Padfield recommended all agencies within the county undertake a similar analysis.