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Nevelle Jones is the Division
of Prison’s Chief of Classification. He has been one
of the department’s leaders in putting new
technology to work for employees. Jones drafted a team of
prison managers to help build the initial OPUS prison
records. "When OPUS started, we wanted significant
user input into developing it, so the division identified
a number of people to come in and work," said Jones.
"First they sorted forms to see what we used, then
they tested systems for MIS. From there, a group of
people answered calls giving phone help and designing
training." Many of the people he invited to work on
the project for a "few weeks" in 1994 are still
part of the DOP Operation Support group. More than 150 people have been a part of the
division’s efforts to develop OPUS. As many as 65
prison employees were working on the project at one time.
They were borrowed from different facilities and offices.
Their work helped to build OPUS and has helped the
division train 14,000 people in a little more than a year
to use it.
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Richard Burkhart joined the
department in 1986 and was a program director at Anson
Correctional Center. "I had
developed a computer application and had sought Mr.
Jones’s approval to use it," Burkhart said.
"When Jones pulled the first working group together
for OPUS, he called me." That first meeting was at
the end of December 1993. Today, Burkhart heads up the
Operational Support group.
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Mark Marshall joined the
department in 1994 as a correctional officer at Central
Prison and later moved to program staff. He joined the
OPUS help desk in February 1997. "My hobby is
working on computers. I built the computer I use at
home," Marshall said. "I know HTML, the
language used to build pages for the world wide web and
am working to learn java script, another web tool."
Marshall answers questions about OPUS prison records. He
also helps division staff who request remote access to
the NC DOC internal web page. So far, 57 employees have
remote access. |
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Irene Hemby’s voice
is familiar to people who call the Randall Building.
She’s answered calls there for the last six years. She is the newest member of the Operational
Support group and will be answering calls now for the
help desk.
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Kathy Sledge has worked almost
21 years for the department. She started at Fountain
Correctional Center for Women where she worked as a
program assistant and assistant unit manager. She moved
from there to Tillery where she worked as a program
supervisor. Since she joined the
OPUS team, Sledge has led the team that wrote the
curriculum, set up the training centers and prepared the
trainers. "When we first cut OPUS on, the screens
were blank," Sledge said. "We had to design
nearly 1,000 different screens and then teach people how
to use them." The first section of OPUS was released
in December 1994 and Sledge has been busy training prison
employees since then.
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Gary Parks (right) and Jim
McElroy helped write the curriculum for OPUS
training. Over Parks’ desk is an Oakland Raiders
pennant and on McElroy’s computer screen is a
message about the Dallas Cowboys. Though he’s never
been to Oakland, Parks remembers watching the Raiders on
television when he was five years old. And he’s
loved them ever since. McElroy
grew up in Washington, D.C., home of the Redskins and,
despite that, learned to love the Cowboys. McElroy worked
in programs at Polk Youth Institution until he joined the
OPUS help desk. From there, he moved to curriculum
development.
Parks is a former Halifax County news
reporter who went to work at Caledonia Correctional
Institution in 1988 as a personnel assistant. In addition
to writing lesson plans for OPUS, Parks and McElroy are
now training staff for the department’s first
computerized fingerprint machines. One of the machines
has already been put to work at the N.C. Correctional
Institution for Women.
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Cathy Zalascek runs the OPUS
training registration desk. She’s been with the
department for almost six months. Her job is to register participants for training
and to keep a training schedule current on OA and the
internet. Persons sign up for classes by calling, faxing
or sending her an OA message.
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