Abstract:
Prisoners registration systems in the United States are government-controlled networks, holding publicrecords that are critical for the safeguard liberty. The current report investigated validity, verification,and security concerns pertaining to the Los Angeles, California, online Inmate Information Center.Hundreds of entries were sampled and about half of the entries were found invalid. In particular cases,access to the arrest and booking records – public records by California law - was requested. Access wasdenied. Neither were invalid records corrected upon request. Therefore, it was concluded that invalidrecords posted online were not the outcome of inadvertent errors. Similar deficiencies were found inthe prisoners registration system of Marin County, California. Solutions are proposed, based onstructured programming and certified, functional logic verification, which must be mandated in suchsystems. Data mining will remain a civic duty – in the US and worldwide - to safeguard human rightsin the digital era.
Key words:
Functional Logic Verification; Relational Databases; Case Management Systems; Human Rights;Prisons and Prisoners; Register of Prisoners; Los Angeles; California; United States; Justice System;Law; Fraud; Corruption; False imprisonments.
Bibliographical note(s) of author(s):
Professor Zernik served on the faculty of the University of Connecticut, University of SouthernCalifornia, and University of California, Los Angeles.In 2010 he founded Human Rights Alert (NGO), dedicated to discovering, archiving, anddisseminating evidence of Human Rights violations by the justice systems of the State of Californiaand the United States in Los Angeles, California, and beyond. Special emphasis is given to the uniquerole of computerized case management systems in the precipitous deterioration of integrity of the justice system