Nestled in the heart of Connecticut along Interstate 84 is Waterbury, a city with a storied history as the nation’s leading brassware manufacturer. Head to “the Brass City” and you’ll also find the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles, responsible for making sure each of the state’s 3.6 million residents is treated fairly. That’s no small task, but parole supervisor Tara Brooks is up to the challenge - and her unit is working to transform the future of pardons in Connecticut.
Brooks has worked for the State of Connecticut since 1999, when she began with the Board of Paroles. That board merged with the Board of Pardons in 2004 - which, at the time, “was overseen by a single attorney serving as secretary on a part-time basis, and who kept all the files in his basement,” said Brooks.
As you can imagine, this system had notable limitations: a part-time secretary with files in a basement can only get so much done, and everything was on paper. This made tracking residents who had been granted pardons almost impossible. By 2016, the situation was getting dire, with the Board two years behind in processing pardon applications.
When Brooks took over as supervisor of the Pardons Unit in 2016, she immediately advocated for a web-based system that would improve pardon application efficiency and tracking. Her advocacy ultimately led the Board of Pardons and Paroles to select Journal Technologies to assist, setting the stage for deploying what would become just the second web-based pardon system in the country.
Brooks knew the importance of mitigating any potential implementation issues, so she created a development workgroup that partnered closely with Journal Technologies to learn the system inside and out. This group consisted primarily of subject matter experts in the pardon process and in information technology, but also included individuals who operated outside the Pardons Unit - allowing them to see the big picture and identify new approaches those close to the existing processes might not as readily spot.
Given the novelty of this web-based pardon system, the implementation posed challenges Brooks needed to account for. “We speak our own language when it comes to workflows, which is not necessarily something the Journal Technologies team would understand at first,” she said. Brooks identified the constant and open communication between Connecticut and Journal Technologies as the key to resolving these challenges. The teams had weekly video conferences, and Journal’s implementation team flew out to Connecticut several times throughout configuration and testing.
When the Board of Pardons and Paroles went live with eSeries in January 2020, Connecticut continued to process paper applications for six months to allow time for training, which entailed hosting several rounds of user training and even creating their own video tutorials. Brooks highlighted the importance of celebrating successes during the implementation process and noted that internal and external announcements kept the team positive throughout the rollout; especially given it occurred during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
There have been plenty of successes to celebrate. The two-year pardon application backlog has been reduced to six months, which Brooks credits to increased efficiencies provided by the eSeries platform. Before the switch, Connecticut was processing about 1,400 pardon applications per year; that number has now grown to nearly 2,200 per year. The electronic pardon application is also collecting more accurate information - Brooks says there’s been a 30% increase in accurate submissions since the switch to eSeries.
Shifting to a web-based system also means when there is an inaccuracy, they don’t need to mail applications back and forth to make modifications. According to Brooks, the Board of Pardons and Paroles now saves at least $3,600 each year on postage alone. Instead, her team communicates directly with applicants through eSeries, saving paper and shielding their own direct email addresses.
As Brooks continues to focus on updating the system regularly and leveraging new possibilities, she notes that her team’s close relationship with Journal Technologies makes updating their system straightforward. “I can’t say enough about the support of Journal in assisting with eSeries and still being there for us,” she said. “When we have requests to upgrade, create new workflows, or add certain reports to the system, it’s easy to communicate that.”
This type of open communication has been one of the keys to the success of Connecticut’s eSeries solution. Brooks was open with her team about the need to move from files in a basement to a web-based pardon system, and that team was willing to share their language and workflows with Journal Technologies to build a better solution - a solution that will likely help the Board of Pardons and Paroles continue to grow and optimize.