State Corrections Term Contracting, 2012
Published: July 19, 2012
Justice/Public Safety & Homeland Security
Corrections term contracts are increasingly prevalent with electronic monitoring, commissary accounts, inmate phones, kiosks, and video arraignment/visitation being the prime technologies procured.
Deltek research has found governors are keenly interesting in controlling corrections costs, which have been the second fastest growing line item of state budgets after Medicaid. Term contracting has been one means of containing costs in this area with IT being no exception.
Key drivers of corrections term contracting include:
- Keeping per-unit acquisition costs in line with inmate population
- Encouraging vendors to offer better volume discounts via longer-term contracts (at the risk of losing money)
- Boosting the productivity of understaffed corrections workforces through the use of IT
- Utilizing technologies that are paid for by the inmates rather than the departments to help keep costs low
Corrections costs will remain a significant pain point for state governments into the foreseeable future, making term contracts a staple of the Justice/Public Safety IT market. This report will help vendors gain awareness of the most popular technologies and the states with skewed corrections costs calling for IT-enables savings.