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Data Program At
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Data Program At | |
By Julie
Wernau
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“There's an ongoing
investigation and the program has been shut down in the meantime,”
Department of Correction spokesman Brian Garnett said Monday. “The DataCon
program at Garnett said so far an
investigation has not found any wrongdoing. He said the program was shut
down Thursday and will remain closed until the investigation is complete.
According to a DOC brochure
about the program, state agencies are permitted to purchase services from
DataCon without a bid process, regardless of the amount. Approximately 50
female inmates provide optical imaging of documents, data entry, mailing
services and microfilm conversion at the prison.
DataCon's mail-service handlers
process more than 20,000 documents per month for a labor charge of $7 per
hour, according to the brochure. “Our workers maintain the
highest standards of confidentiality both in and outside the office,” the
brochure states. “DataCon workers are also subjected to the Department of
Correction's highest level of background checks and intensive security
standards.” According to the Department of
Correction, DataCon provides data-entry services for a large number of
state agencies as a way to prepare inmates for data-entry jobs that are
available in the private business sector. The Department of Correction
did not provide a list of its clients or specific information about what
kind of personal information those inmates are handling.
An employee at York, who did
not have authority to talk about the matter and asked not to be
identified, said the program's coordinators were taken into separate rooms
at the warden's quarters when they arrived on York's campus Thursday. The
coordinators were guarded for approximately five hours and questioned by
the DOC's security division. The source said the employees have not
returned to work since the incident. “We're seeking an explanation
from the Department of Correction,” said Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal, “and we will investigate under our whistleblower authority
along with the auditors for public accounts if the facts warrant.”
Garnett said inmates who were
working for DataCon worked a portion of the day at their jobs and are no
longer working at the computers. The program is part of the Correctional
Enterprises Unit, which provides employment to inmates for pennies per
hour. During the 2006 fiscal year,
the unit provided employment for 336 inmates on an average daily basis and
made $6,539,519 million dollars.
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