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Idaho Department of Correction seeks ongoing funding for Recidiviz tools and digital legal/transparency services
Summary
The Department of Correction asked the Joint Finance Preparations Committee to fund ongoing subscriptions and staffing tied to Recidiviz case‑management tools and inmate access/transparency platforms, arguing the systems automate staff work and are leveraged by philanthropic matches.
The Idaho Department of Correction asked the Joint Finance Preparations Committee on Feb. 4 for ongoing general‑fund support to continue and expand its data‑integration partnership with Recidiviz and to maintain digital platforms that provide inmates access to court resources and support public‑records processing.
Noah Peterson, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the committee the Management Services Division is asking for ongoing appropriation “for recidivism case management software” and described prior one‑time federal and other funding used to build tools now in active use in probation and parole. Director Josh Tewalt told the committee Recidiviz is “probably the most transformative partnership we've entered into as an agency in my entire tenure there.”
The department described two purposes for the Recidiviz partnership: automating time‑consuming back‑office tasks for case managers, and producing near real‑time outputs that can inform classification and supervision. Tewalt said the nonprofit helps aggregate data across disparate legacy systems and that “every penny we spend is leveraged against private philanthropic dollars.” Noah Peterson told the committee prior Recidiviz work in 2021 and 2023 cost about $1,500,000, largely from federal funds. The current request would shift that functionality into an ongoing funded tool for prisons and case management.
Committee members pressed for performance information. Senator Cook asked for return‑on‑investment data; Peterson said he did not have hard figures on hand and offered to obtain them. Representative Tanner asked for dashboards and visualizations; Tewalt said the agency would provide regularly used dashboards to the committee but cautioned about interpreting officer‑level outcome comparisons without context.
The Management Services Division also requested a package of transparency and legal‑access tools totaling about $668,100 in operating costs, including: ongoing subscriptions to a public‑records management system (govQA), LexisNexis access for inmate legal research, a digitally accessible “access to courts” database (ATC), and Power Apps/Power BI licenses to support internal reporting. Tewalt said govQA helps the agency track “over 6,000 public records requests we get every single year” and that LexisNexis replaced recurring costs to update paper law books.
Committee members asked whom Recidiviz compares Idaho against and whether the department controls its data. Tewalt said the state controls the data and data‑sharing agreements protect it; Recidiviz extracts data from agency systems rather than recreating or manipulating records. He also said Recidiviz matches state expenditures with philanthropic funds, multiplying impact.
The committee did not take a vote in the hearing. The department agreed to provide requested ROI figures and dashboards to committee staff for follow‑up.
