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DOCR pushes multi‑year IT overhaul, cites high monthly ITD charges; security upgrades also requested
Summary
DOCR described a multi‑phase client management system project, ongoing IT data processing costs and a suite of security upgrades including PLC replacements, intercom upgrades and body scanners. Agency officials said the facility case-management system is at end‑of‑life and modernization would be phased across biennia.
DOCR presented a package of information‑technology and security requests to the Appropriations — Human Resources Section, saying a major multi‑biennium project is required to replace aging systems and support operational needs.
Amy Boracek, DOCR chief administrative officer, described the client management system (CMS) project as the highest‑profile IT ask: phase 1 (the facility side) is a $5.6 million request for the next biennium. Boracek said the department currently runs two separate case‑management systems — one for in‑facility operations and one for community supervision — which requires duplicate data entry and complicates medical and reentry coordination. She said the current facility system (referred to as “elite” or legacy system) is end‑of‑life and an upgrade alone would have cost the state about $3.6 million.
Boracek and Jesse Wetsch (NDIT technical business manager) walked the committee through recurring IT bills and hosting costs. They reported DOCR’s monthly ITD bill was approximately $477,000 in January and about $510,000 in February; Boracek rounded to “about $500,000 a month” in testimony. She said the department maintains roughly 154 applications and recently completed a server migration that raised average biennial server costs by about $500,000.
DOCR also presented several public‑safety hardware and maintenance requests: replacement of an aging programmable logic controller (PLC) in the North Unit (the South Unit was replaced this biennium), $250,000 for spare parts stocking to respond to frequent lightning damage, intercom and sick‑call upgrades at NDSP West Unit (life‑safety upgrades), desk/monitor/flooring work in JRCC control rooms, and fence/fence‑line parts replacements. Jesse Wetsch advised the committee that some PLC parts date to the 1980s and are difficult to find.
Other IT and public‑safety asks included continued funding for the recidivism/analytics contractor, robotic process automation pilots, document management (DocuStarr) maintenance while the agency migrates to a new CMS, a Power BI dashboard and AI/cobrowse pilots. Boracek said many items would be phased as the new CMS comes online across multiple biennia.
On medical IT, DOCR reported an imperative to upgrade the Avatar electronic health record (EHR) backbone in parallel with Department of Health and Human Services, and requested ongoing funding to maintain recently‑added Avatar modules; the agency said Epic‑level options were cost‑prohibitive and that DOCR shares an EHR backbone with HHS today to reduce costs.
Ending: Committee members asked for more documentation on monthly IT charges and for clearer multi‑biennium cost estimates as the phase‑1 CMS ask proceeds through procurement.
