NCIEN

Nationwide Corrections Image and Information Exchange over Nlets

Funded by The National Institute of Justice and
The Department of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate

Summary

Law enforcement (LE) and public safety officers need data maintained by correction facilities to protect the public, as well as for their own safety. In the 1994 National Recidivism Study of Released Prisoners, an estimated 67.5% of released prisoners were arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within three years.

Nlets users will utilize corrections photos to help ID individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system. Department of Corrections photos will also be used to prevent identity fraud. This is also a way to ensure the data is of sound quality. Such images may also be used to assist LE in locating someone of interest.

The electronic availability of DOC photos helps improve the efficiency of the justice system by improving the ease with which LE can ID an individual. This functionality will also provide users with information concerning an individual’s status under the supervision of a DOC, the supervising agency, and the expected date of release from supervision. This information can be useful in determining whether certain lawful acts may be a violation of an individual’s conditions of supervision.

Overview

The purpose of the NCIEN project is to make correction photos available to law enforcement and public safety officers over the Nlets network.

Some states have implemented access to correction photos to law enforcement in their own states, but resource constraints prevent making this information available to other states. Using Nlets will ensure the information is provided to those who need it regardless of what jurisdiction makes the inquiry.

Correction photos will include pictures of inmates, and, where possible, images of scars, marks and tattoos, all of which will be supplemented with supervision requirements. Currently, state and local jail systems collect a myriad of information including photos; however, this information is not available to the roadside officer. As a result, law enforcement agencies are handicapped in their ability to protect and serve.

Objectives

The NICIEN project will begin with Phase One of a larger, long-term effort to expand corrections photo exchanges nationwide. Phase One will involve implementing corrections photo sharing in up to three states.

Phase One objectives include:

1. Implement NCIEN capabilities in up to three states
   
   • This will include the capability to exchange inmate photos, which, at a minimum, will include inmate entry or exit images; and, may include images of scars, marks and tattoos where it is technically/financially feasible
2. Create image standards limited to image size and resolution that can be implemented within Nlets’ infrastructure
3. Update existing technology standards, policy and procedure

Benefits

Public safety employees will be provided the capability to share corrections images within and outside their jurisdictions which, in turn, provides the following benefits:

• Immediate, positive identification
• Access by participating states to photographs of previously incarcerated offenders and subjects involved in current criminal investigations that do not hold driver’s licenses
• Immediate access for law enforcement to offender photographs in interstate searches for escapees or wanted persons
• Potential access to other corrections agency photographs by corrections agencies in states lacking centralized or integrated systems

Development of image standards that will be enforced at the Nlets message switch therefore making it unnecessary for each participating state to modify their infrastructure to accommodate corrections photos from other states.

Status

The following map portrays the current NISP and NCIEN implementation status.