North Carolina Department of Correction - MIS

North Carolina Department of Public Safety

Management Information Systems

History of OPUS

Before OPUS, prisons had one records system for offenders sentenced to prison and probation had one for offenders sentenced to probation.

When Structured Sentencing was passed in 1993, it was too complex to integrate into the old offender records system. The old system already had been complicated by incorporating numerous changes in sentencing law and was written in computer code that was nearly 20 years old.

Looking at other states systems, North Carolina was attracted to the new technology of the Tennessee system and the number of functions supported by the Florida system. The Florida system's computer code was in the public domain and the company which helped to write it was willing to work with North Carolina to build a new system.

The system came on line in phases.

Initial introduction	November 1994
Prison	May 1995
Probation, parole, Parole commission	November 1995
Work release system, Inmate banking, Inmate Activities, Inmate control status, Inmate custody classification, Inmate monitoring and transfer, Medical services, Dental services, Administrative health services, Investigative tracking, Parole Commission actions, Court ordered payments	1996-1997
Mental Health services was the final piece	November 1997

Management Information Systems