SALISBURY – A $10,000 grant is expected to improve electronic communications between the Wicomico County Department of Corrections and other criminal justice agencies in Maryland.
On Tuesday, the Wicomico County Council approved a request from the Wicomico County Department of Corrections to accept a $10,000 grant from the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention to participate in a Justice Information Sharing Solutions Project.
George Kaloroumakis, director for the Department of Corrections, said the project will allow the department to share offender information within their jail information system with other participating jails, detention centers and law enforcement agencies using a Maryland Criminal Justice Dashboard.
“This is a grant that will take our information from our jail information system and share it with 272 criminal justice agencies via an electronic dashboard …,” he said.
The system currently used by the department allows the export of data during the booking process. Kaloroumakis said the $10,000 grant will primarily be used to establish and maintain an interface that will allow the department to share offender data, including their risks and behavior, once they have been committed to the detention center.
“It’s a federal grant through the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention,” he said. “It’s been in the works for several years. They brought three local facilities online. Now, this year they are trying to bring everybody else online. We elected to participate.”
Councilman John Hall asked if the $10,000 was part of a matching grant.
“This is a matching grant, right?” he said.
Kaloroumakis clarified the county would provide an in-kind match in the form of personnel. He said a staff member from the department will help to establish the electronic sharing system.
With no further discussion, the council voted 6-0, with Council President John Cannon absent, to approve the Department of Corrections’ request.
