Law passed at 2 a.m. picks ‘one specific vendor’ for prison software, agency says
The state Department of Public Safety actively opposed a $1.8 million allocation for a new prison management software program that it says was designed to “select one specific vendor.”
The provision was tacked onto an unrelated purchasing and contracting bill, House Bill 902, and passed through the legislature at 2 a.m. in the final hours of June’s session.
Gov. Roy Cooper has since signed the bill into law, despite the objections from his cabinet agency and “no” votes from a handful of House Democrats.
Sen. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan, developed the legislation to create the Prison Software Management Pilot Program, which would overhaul antiquated software used for inmate information at two prisons — effectively a test run to roll out software to all prisons. Steinburg said he learned about problems with the current technology system, known as OPUS, in visits with prison leaders across the state.
“The OPUS system is a safety problem for them, and they’re unable to have vital information on inmates that they desperately need,” Steinburg said. “I think it will help with the tracking of COVID. It’s a system that is absolutely in need of repair and a 21st century do-over, that’s the reason for the pilot program.”
The new software will be used at Bertie and Pasquotank correctional institutions in Eastern North Carolina, which have seen deadly inmate attacks on corrections officers in recent years. “We thought that was symbolic to try this pilot program in those two prisons first,” he said.
HB 902 lays out a nine-point list of requirements for a vendor to receive the contract. The vendor will have to already have software in “at least three active and fully functional installations within the state.” And it will need to provide “proof of current contracts with North Carolina sheriffs’ offices for local jail management and record management software services.”
Tyler Technologies
A company that appears to fit the bill, Texas-based Tyler Technologies, recently gave a presentation about its services to the Senate prison safety committee that Steinburg chairs. The presentation included several recommendations for lawmakers, including “fund a technology initiative that provides the capability to aggregate data” and “require and fund the modernization of offender management systems.”
About 200 criminal justice agencies have contracts with Tyler, according to the PowerPoint presentation. A lobbyist for the firm, David Collins of Walk West, could not be reached.
John Bull, a spokesperson for the Division of Prisons, said DPS “didn’t ask for it” and the legislation “essentially selects one specific vendor.”
Rep. Yvonne Holley, D-Wake and a sponsor of the original version of the purchase and contracting bill, called on House members to oppose the final version because the prison software program was a last-minute addition to her bill and “favors one vendor in particular.”
Thirteen other Democrats and one Republican in the House joined Holley in voting no, while the Senate vote on HB 902 was unanimous.
But Sen. Jim Perry, R-Lenoir, who worked with Steinburg on the bill, said the language “doesn’t pick a vendor, this says ‘you guys get a consultant and you make the decision.’” The goal of the vendor requirements is to ensure it’s “somebody who’s got a track record,” he added.
The prison system is also voicing other concerns about the project, including deadlines that require the new software to be up and running by Oct. 15. Bull called the deadlines “unrealistic and impossible to meet.”
“Working on this pilot will require significant IT resources,” he said in an email. “During the pandemic, it will require us to designate a team to try to implement it, which will take staff away from their main duties at a time when we are already struggling to retain staff and combat fatigue.”
Because the pilot program would only be in two prisons, DPS would have to keep the OPUS system running simultaneously. Perry downplayed the agency’s concerns about a tight deadline. “I don’t think anybody is going to get in trouble by missing a date,” he said.
Global TransPark, pool liability added to bill
The prison software program is one of several unrelated provisions tacked onto the purchasing legislation during conference committee negotiations on HB 902.
One of the others will allow operators of community pools to have liability protection if they reopen and someone sues over COVID-19 exposure. And another would exempt businesses locating at the Global TransPark in Kinston from certain insurance and state government construction requirements.
“When the legislation was written years ago for the Department of Administration, I don’t think it really thought of a world where you’d have a combination of public buildings and private buildings in a public area like that,” Perry said, adding that the changes could “speed things up” for new companies locating at the TransPark.
Holley complained that the conference committee process in the final hours of session turned her bill into a “Christmas tree.”
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