Report 2019-116 Recommendation 14 Responses

Report 2019-116: Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act: Weak Oversight Has Hindered Its Meaningful Implementation (Release Date: May 2020)

Recommendation #14 To: Kern County Probation Department

To accurately assess the effectiveness of its programs, Kern should determine how to accurately identify in its case management system the JJCPA programs and services in which each individual participates or should enhance its system to provide this capability.

1-Year Agency Response

The current CMS system is within the county-wide Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) which is over 30 years old, with limited functionality and limited enhancement capabilities. For several years, the County has been working toward a replacement for CJIS with a CMS component with no success at this time. Kern County continues to research options toward obtaining a fully competent CMS solution. In the interim, Kern developed an application, Juvenile Data Management (JDM), to replace the previous contact manager system utilized by supervision officers. The new application tracks participants in the JJCPA and YOBG programs and retains historical data until a new CMS is implemented. The go-live date for JDM was October 6, 2020. All supervision cases were entered into the system as of December 31, 2020.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

Through video conferencing, Kern was able to demonstrate the capabilities of its Juvenile Data Management application to track individuals who are participating in the JJCPA programs and services. Although the application is relatively new, Kern asserted that its Research, Analysis, and Data unit was involved in developing the application and will use the application in the future to evaluate the JJCPA-funded programs and services.

6-Month Agency Response

The current CMS system is within the county-wide Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) which is over 30 years old, with limited functionality and limited enhancement capabilities. For several years, the County has been working toward a replacement for CJIS with a CMS component with no success at this time. Kern continues to research options toward obtaining a fully competent CMS solution. In the interim, Kern has developed an application, Juvenile Data Management (JDM), to replace the current contact manager system utilized by supervision officers. This application tracks participants in the JJCPA and YOBG programs and retains historical data until a new CMS is implemented. The go-live date for JDM was October 6, 2020. In October 2020, probation staff were trained on this application and have started migrating case information over to this new application. All supervision cases need to be entered into the system by December 31, 2020.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

The current CMS system is within the county-wide Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) which is over 30 years old with limited functionality and limited enhancement capabilities. For several years, the County has been working toward a replacement for CJIS with a CMS component with no success at this time. Kern continues to research options toward obtaining a fully competent CMS solution. In the interim, Kern is developing an application, Juvenile Data Management (JDM), to replace the current contact manager system utilized by supervision officers. This application will track participants in the JJCPA and YOBG programs and retain historical data until a new CMS is implemented. The anticipated start date for using JDM is September 1, 2020.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2019-116

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.