2014 CTA Board Ballot
Here are our nominees for our 2014 Executive Board. Additional nominations can be made from the floor during the Technology Summit and write votes are allowed.
President-Elect
Rick Davis
Rick Davis has been the Chief Information Officer of the Virginia Department of Corrections since 2008, beginning his career as an analyst in 1986. He brings strong communication, management and leadership skills to his Department. As CIO he was instrumental in the implementation of VirginiaCORIS, enterprise offender management system.
Rick earned his Master’s degree in Public Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University. He first earned his PMP certification in 2003. Rick and his wife have one daughter and live in Powhatan, Virginia.
Secretary
Joyce Taylor
Joyce Taylor began her career in Corrections 23 years ago working her way through the ranks to Assistant IT Administrator for Applications Development with Arkansas DOC. She has been an active member of CTA since 2006.
She has been a key player in several recent Arkansas DOC technology initiatives, including the Electronic Offender Management System, biometric verification for visitors and staff, sex offender assessment automation, electronic health records and the Reduction of Sexual Victimization Program. She has presented several of these projects at previous CTA workshops.
Kevin VandeWall
Kevin VandeWall has been the Chief Information Officer for the Iowa Department of Corrections since 1998. He has almost 20 years’ experience in Corrections Technology. His current initiative is deploying wireless technologies (for both staff and offenders) in the 2 prisons currently under construction and implementing this solution into existing facilities.
Kevin is an inaugural member of CTA, contributing to the planning of this year’s Technology Summit as a Track Chair. Kevin earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems Management from Iowa State University in 1989.
14th Annual Technology Summit Phoenix, AZ just 3 Weeks Away
We are one week closer to the 14th Annual Technology Summit for the Corrections Technology Association in Phoenix, AZ on Sunday, June 2nd through Wednesday, June 5th! Our Executive Committee and track chairs are putting the final touches on a robust offering of sessions that are sure to address many of the technology issues facing you. If you haven’t already, government members and attendees be sure to sign up through our ONLINE REGISTRATION.
We are very excited to have Barbara Broderick, APPA’s Immediate Past President and Maricopa County’s Chief Probation Officer as one of our keynote speakers at this year’s Summit. Maricopa County’s department is the sixth largest adult probation department in the United States with over 1,100 employees and a budget of $80 million. She has more than thirty years of experience in the criminal justice system, serving both adults and juvenile offenders at the state and local levels in Arizona and New York.
Barbara has a unique blend of both technology and operations experience. She will discuss how valuable the technology industry is to the operational elements of corrections and community corrections and share her experiences in New York, where as the Division of Parole’s Chief Information Professional, she led the design of all of the critical Management Information Systems that helped restructure the agency to help meet its mission.
She will also delve into the importance of the need for a strong link between the technologists and business leaders as elementary to the success of a modern public safety agency and lead the charge to develop newer, better and affordable solutions to help public safety agencies better meet the needs of a public saftey agency in a world of shrinking budgets, increased staff turnover, an aging workforce and an increasingly needy and sometimes higher-risk client population. It is a presentation you won’t want to miss.
On the lighter side, the CTA Golf Tournament, Sunday, June 2nd, at 8:30AM at Lookout Mountain Golf Club, is once again going to offer a challenging course for our attendees and an opportunity to earn bragging rights! Golf Registration Form
The IJIS Institute’s Corrections Advisory Committee will hold their meeting over coffee and breakfast on Wednesday morning. This committee is focused on the advancement of information sharing standards among institutional and community correction and recently released the whitepaper; Value of Corrections Information: Benefits to Justice and Public Safety. This whitepaper is available in a previous CTA blog. If you are interested in learning more about these initiatives and how you may be able to contribute; plan on attending this meeting.
Our attendance rate is up this year and we have sold out of the initial block of rooms. We have been able to secure another block at the conference rate, but don’t wait too long to book or we may run out.
I look forward to seeing you in Phoenix, AZ June 2nd-5th, 2013.
Register today!
Douglas Smith, CIO
Florida Department of Corrections
President, CTA
CTA Announces Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio: Welcoming Remarks Speaker
The 14th Annual Technology Summit for the Correction Technology Association is less than five weeks away, Sunday, June 2nd through Wednesday, June 5th. Our sponsorship opportunities in the exhibit hall have completely SOLD OUT thanks to our business partners. Government members and attendees need to plan their travel and register now! ONLINE REGISTRATION
We are now able to announce that Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio will join us Monday morning for welcoming remarks. Joe Arpaio was first elected Sheriff in 1992 and has been reelected 4 times. He leads the nation’s third largest Sheriff’s Office which employs over 3,400 people and is responsible for over 8,000 inmates housed daily in one of Maricopa County’s six jail facilities, including the famous “Tent City”. You want to be present when “America’s Toughest Sheriff” welcomes CTA to Maricopa County.
Get there early if you would like to participate in the CTA Golf Tournament, Sunday, June 2nd, at 8:30AM at Lookout Mountain Golf Club. Visit our registration page for the golf registration form and complete details.
On Wednesday morning the IJIS Institute’s Corrections Advisory Committee will hold their meeting over coffee and breakfast. This committee is focused on the advancement of information sharing standards among institutional and community corrections and recently released the whitepaper: Value of Correction Information: Benefits to Justice and Public Safety.
Some of the initiatives this committee is planning to work on this year include the development of business cases to support agency investment in reentry standards, investment in criminal intelligence standards, and investment in SAVIN standards. The committee also has a long term goal of developing a conceptual enterprise architecture framework for corrections.
If you are interested in learning more about these initiatives and how you may be able to contribute; plan on attending this meeting.
We sold out of our first block of rooms and have acquired additional rooms from the hotel at the Summit rate. Now is a good time to reserve your room and register to attend if you have not yet done so.
There are a lot of things to do in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area from hiking, rock climbing, exploring the Sonora Desert, casinos, golf resorts, the award winning Phoenix Zoo, the Children’s Museum and the Science Center. Art lovers can visit Phoenix’s newest museum, the Musical Instrument Museum or take the Scottsdale Art Walk, tour Taliesin West (the historic home designed by renowned architect, Frank Lloyd Wright) or visit the Heard Museum, one of the nation’s premier Native American museums.
I look forward to seeing you in Phoenix, AZ June 2nd-5th, 2013
Value of Corrections Information: Benefits to Justice and Public Safety
The white paper linked below was published by the IJIS Institute’s Corrections Advisory Committee. Several CTA members serve on this IJIS Committee and contributed to this document.
The primary purpose of this white-paper is to provide a better 
understanding of the corrections domain and the value of vast amount of information available.
This white paper emphasizes the overall value of corrections Information, including:
* Why you should be interested (Why);
* The stakeholders and individuals that will benefit from corrections information (What);
* The major events that trigger information exchanges (When);
* The specific information elements that are often requested for information sharing (What); and,
* The attention to how the information can be shared identifying both the major corrections information sources, as well as major national initiatives supporting the further exchange of information (How).
Complete white-paper available here
Attendee Registration Now Open for Technology Summit in Phoenix, AZ
The CTA Technology Summit will be west of the Mighty Mississippi for the first time in five years! The 2013 Corrections Technology Association’s Technology Summit will be in beautiful Phoenix, AZ at the amazing Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort, Sunday June 2 through Wednesday June 5. Take a look at the resort, Phoenix and the surrounding area. You will want to bring your family to see Arizona and all it has to offer.
Online registration is now available here. This year’s workshop agenda may be the best we have ever offered. A big thanks to Tom Herzog and Track Chairs Kevin Vandewall and Rick Davis for putting together this compelling agenda.
Maricopa County’s Chief Probation Officer, Past President and current American Parole and Probation Association Executive Committee Member, Barbara Broderick will be our keynote speaker Monday morning. I am sure she will be able to tell us about what national trends and programs are proving successful in reducing recidivism and where the future focus of reentry should be.
Wednesday morning we are having what I expect to be a provocative general session on the jailhouse black-market of cell phones. Facilitated by Business Insider Reporter Vivian Giang, she will tell us about the market from the perspective of the inmates involved. Read more about her investigation at businessinsider.com.
In a previous blog post I announced that Doug Smith of FL is now CTA President with the retirement of Leisa Rackelmann of CA. The CTA Executive Committee has since appointed Tom Herzog of NY President-Elect. Most of you are familiar with Tom as he has been an active CTA member and Past President. We welcome his experience on the Executive Committee, but he has only agreed to fill the position as an interim.
We are looking for more volunteers from our membership. We need members to agree to be on the 2013 ballot for CTA President-Elect and for CTA Secretary. I recognize there are a lot of demands on your time, but if you have found value from your association with CTA over the years, then please think about giving a small bit of your time and serve on the Executive Board in one of these positions. There will also be other volunteer opportunities in the coming year as we look beyond our board members to represent CTA on committees of some of our alliance partners. Please contact me at past-president@correctionstech.org if you are willing to serve CTA in one of these roles.
Posted by Ed Raper, CTA Past President