Wisconsin Department of Corrections

Previously, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) shared offender information with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) via batch files once a day. Information was sometimes up to 36 hours old—a risk when law enforcement needed up-to-date information to make decisions on public and personal safety. With funding from the National Crime Information Center Information Sharing Act and in partnership with DOJ, DOC completed two projects to better identify offenders and share real-time information. Offenders are identified through the Synchronization Process, which sends fingerprint images taken by DOC agencies to DOJ and DOC at the same time. Now, DOJ receives all alias names, active offenses, and rules of supervision—data elements that couldn’t have been shared with the old batch files. This improves efficiency for the law enforcement community and saves money for the DOC Monitoring Center and agents, since law enforcement no longer needs to call them for the information.