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10-06-03 PAPER # 1, DRAFT #2Running Title: Data mining of Los Angeles online prisoners registration
1. Introduction
Tradition long prevailed in courts and the justice systems originating from WesternEurope regarding conduct and management of prisons and correctional institutions.Concerns regarding possible abuse – resulting in deprivation of Liberty, which inturn could permit oppression of opposition to any regime, led to emphasis on careful,public, record keeping of prisoners held by the authorities.
1.1 Habeas Corpus – Imprisonment Must Conform with the Fundamentals of the Law.
The right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus was established in the EnglishMagna Charta (1215) – whereby any prisoner and/or others are permitted tochallenge his/her imprisonment by requesting that the prisoner be brought before a judge to review the legal foundation for his/her confinement, seeking a writ forhis/her release. The late US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (1856 –1941)referred to it as the greatest achievement of the English-speaking legal system –establishing Liberty by law. The late Justice William Brennan Jr (1906 - 1997),referred to it as the "Cornerstone of the United States Constitution". In
Fay v Noia
(1963), he wrote for the majority of the US Supreme Court:
Joseph Zernik, PhD *
*Human Rights Alert (NGO) , Los Angeles, California
Abstract:
Online registries of prisoners are a subset of social networks -government controlled and subject to particular laws. They hold public records,which replaced the
Index of All Prisoners
, critical for the safeguard of HumanRights – Liberty itself. Transition to digital records raised validity, verification,and security problems. Hundreds of entries were sampled in the Los Angeles,California, online
Inmate Information Center
, and about half of the entries werefound invalid. In particular cases, access to the arrest and booking records –public records by California law, was requested. Access was denied, neitherwere invalid records corrected upon request. Therefore, it was concluded thatthe invalid records posted online were not the outcome of inadvertent error.Ways and means are readily available to address the deficiencies currentlydetected. Regardless - transparency and constant data mining will remain acivic duty – to safeguard integrity of prisons and protect Human Rights.
* jz12345@earthlink.net
http://www.scribd.com/Human_Rights_Alert
Data Mining as a Civic Duty –Online Public Prisoners’ Registration Systems
Key words:
case management systems, prison, index of all prisoners, humanrights, Los Angeles, California, United States, justice system, law, fraud,corruption, false imprisonments
Digitally signedby Joseph Zernik DN: cn=JosephZernik, o, ou,
email=jz12345@earthlink.net,c=USDate: 2010.06.0317:01:38 +03'00'
10-06-03 PAPER # 1, DRAFT #2Running Title: Data mining of Los Angeles online prisoners registration
The basic principle of the Great Writ of habeas corpus is that, in acivilized society... if the imprisonment cannot be shown to conformwith the fundamental requirements of law, the individual is entitledto his immediate release".At minimum “conforming with the fundamental requirements of the law” entailsbasing the confinement on valid and effectual judicial records – a valid and effectualwarrant for the arrest and valid booking records establishing admission of anyprisoner into custody of the authorities, which refer in turn to respective, ongoingcourt cases, alternatively - to conviction / verdict when imprisonment is based on asettled case.
1.2 Prisoners’ Arrest and Booking Records - California public records by law
Obviously, no meaningful habeas corpus right could be practiced, if no access waspermitted to judicial records that form the presumed foundation for theimprisonments. Therefore, one must consider the habeas corpus right and the rightof public access to judicial records and to honest index of all prisoners – to inspectand to copy, as tightly related fundamental Human Rights – both of medieval origins.In the United States the right to access judicial records is considered a FirstAmendment right. In the British legal system it is deemed a Common Law right.State of California law defines the arrest and booking records of all prisoners asPublic Records (
California Public Records Act, California Government Code
§6254(f)). The
California Public Records Act
states:"…public records are open to inspection at all times during theoffice hours of the…agency and every person has a right to inspectany public record… [and to receive] an exact copy”In the past, conforming with such legal framework was accomplished through themaintenance by the authorities of constantly updated books named
Registers of Prisoners
, the maintenance of files holding the respective arrest and booking records,and matching of such records with routine counts of prisoners on location.
Figure 1.
Historic, paper-based
Register of Prisoners, City of Santa Monica, California
10-06-03 PAPER # 1, DRAFT #2Running Title: Data mining of Los Angeles online prisoners registration1.3 Registers of Prisoners in the Digital Era
With the transition to administration of the justice system based on digital records,the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department established a setup, which is routinelyfound in other parts of the justice system in California and the US: The records,which are deemed by the authorities as true judicial records are internally handledthrough a case management system – subtype of database systems. Public access isprovided through a separate, online public access system. Therefore, the two systemsmay be deemed as relational databases.
2. Objective
The study aimed to address the prisoners’ registration system of Los AngelesCounty, a government managed online public access system, as a sub-type of social networks, and apply data-mining methods to assess validity of recordspresented for public access by the Los Angeles, California, Sheriff’sDepartment. Further aims included an attempt to assess the role of suchsystem in compliance, or lack thereof, of the Los Angeles County justicesystem with
California Public Records Act
, and the safeguard of the HumanRights of the 10 million residents of Los Angeles County, California.Finally – the study aimed to assess the potential role of data mining andcomputing professionals in monitoring of government run social networksand protection of Human Rights in the digital era.
3.
The System
3.1 Online Public Prisoners’ Registration SystemsThe Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department established an online, public accesssystem for prisoners’ registration - the
Inmate Information Center
(IIC).
1
Figure 2:
The digital, online public access system of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department –
Inmate Information Center
(IIC)
2
3.2 Internal Case Management System for Prisoners’ BookingThe booking records themselves are produced and accessible through a networked,high-security system of booking terminals placed at various law enforcement stationsin Los Angeles County, California. The terminals are capable of capturing bookingdata including booking photographs and finger prints, and link them with warrant,
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