Going Paperless Through the Juvenile Offender Tracking System - Essay Example

Going Paperless Through the Juvenile Offender Tracking System Introduction Juvenile delinquency is a common, although not part of the normal cycle, problem of adolescents since teenagers go through an “unquestionable time of transition” and are “vulnerable to a host of external determinants” (Siegel & Welsh, 2009). Beating juvenile records has been the concern of the security sector especially in the welfare of the strayed teens. It is a standard procedure to keep criminal records of felons intact, but the paper records hold a lot of inconveniences for the office and the officers.

Keeping juvenile records holds the same importance with the records of adult offenders since it is necessary to keep track of those estranged teens. The new Juvenile Offender Tracking System provides a new way of tracking juvenile offenders with the use of technology. The Technology and the Estranged Teens Although there has been a decrease of juvenile offenders in the Harris County (Harris County, 2010), there is still a need of keeping the records and tracing juvenile offenders; though there are only a few of them left, the community’s safety should not be risked.

The Juvenile Offender Tracking System (JOTS) is the technology used by the Harris Country Juvenile Records Department in keeping track of the youth offenders in their jurisdiction. According to a report by the Justice Information Management System in Harris County (2002), the said technology is used to track misdemeanor by juvenile offenders and keep records of their acts since the first of January 1996. JOTS tracks, specifically, those whose age is “older than 9 and less than 17.” Texas is not the only state that uses technology as a way to keep an eye of their records.

Internet has surely embraced by the justice system. Advantages of the Juvenile Offender Tracking System Compared with the keeping the records on paper, there are several advantages of JOTS among other techniques. Unlike the records on paper, the JOTS is a database, which means that it is less prone to losing data, saves office space, and immediate accessibility of the records on file since the program would “[store] information that is easily queried and retrieved” (“Juvenile Data,” n.d.).

Through this device’s feature, one can easily monitor juvenile offenders and consequently report them if they are in the wanted list. This would also provide the citizens of Harris County a warning and further awareness of the community’s current criminal justice system. Harris County is not solitary in using the technology. Other criminal justice systems in other states are already using the technology of the same kind. In Illinois Department of Corrections Offender, the juvenile offender tracking system is also adopted with other “6000 terminals and PC workstations with access to the system” (Illinois Integrated, 2009).

Conclusion The JOTS is a useful tool in eliminating the presence of juvenile delinquency-related crimes. Increased accessibility and convenience would detect offenders and warn other citizens about them. Although this is a good step of the government, nothing beats prevention of the problem. The JOTS can improve the county’s standing with regard to criminality, but it does not mean that it disregards the role of the parents as primary regulators of their children’s behavior. References Harris County leading the way.

(2010, July). Harris County JDIA, 2 (2), 1-4. Retrieved from http://www.hcjpd.org/JDAINewsletter/Newsletter%20July%202010%20Final.pdf Illinois Integrated Management Systems. (2009). IDOC offender management systems. Retrieved from http://www.icjia.state.il.us/iijis/public/i ndex.cfm?metasection=strategicplan&metapage=sjis_idoc Justice Information Management System. (2002). Juvenile offender tracking system. Retrieved from http://www.hctx.net/CmpDocuments/98/JIMS-Regular/jot.pdf Juvenile Data Offender Tracking Software for Windows. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.

juveniledata.com/products.html Siegel, L.J., & Welsh, B.C. (2009). Juvenile delinquency: Theory, practice and law. California: Cengage Learning.