Four weeks ago I sat in the Dallas County Juvenile Detention Center in Dallas, Texas. It was my third day on the job with TechShare. Fast forward five weeks and I’m at our Development Center in Austin, Texas for a luncheon in honor of the Juvenile program, also known as TechShare.Juvenile. A robust juvenile case management system, TechShare.Juvenile has been implemented in over 150 counties in Texas. In fact, the system will be live across the entire state by August 2015. For those of you who aren’t native to Texas (guilty as charged) or have long forgotten your Texas state geography, there are 254 counties in the state.
Let’s go back to Dallas for a minute. My head was spinning as I tried to keep up with the flood of new acronyms and legal jargon I’d need to add to my latest glossary of terms – unlike a plant, even if I refused to water it, it insisted on growing. Meanwhile, I sat in a meeting about drop down menus, I couldn’t help but think about the children and their families I saw on my way into the building that morning. Why are they here? What are their charges? What impact will this have on their lives?
How does this new system affect those classified as ‘juvenile offenders’?
Later that morning Rebecca Lewis, TechShare.Juvenile Resource Manager, gave me the Cliff Notes version of the program’s 10-year history. During that time I was also introduced to Karen Kerr, Dallas County Product Owner for TechShare.Juvenile. She explained to me the importance of the Juvenile justice system in that it aims to keep children from becoming adult offenders. Between the nurses, psychiatrists, police officers, probation officers, attorneys, and judges among others who come into contact with juveniles, the approach is holistic. In order for this to be successful, information about juveniles should be shared and made visible to those working with them.
A-ha moment #1: The traditional approach to managing juvenile cases keeps information in silos, which can have a detrimental impact on the outcome of a child’s case.
Now, back to the luncheon in Austin. Lisa Capers, Texas Juvenile Justice Department Senior Director of Administration & Training, shared a story about a juvenile case that linked an offense in one county to information about sex trafficking in another. She went on to say, “Having access to full information about a child and their family allows the counties to make the best decisions on their behalf.” Suddenly, Lisa had put into context a real life answer to the question I’d been pondering since my trip to Dallas five weeks earlier.
A-ha moment #2: It’s more than a system. It’s more than code, configuration, data, and case management—it’s about changing kids’ lives for the better.
Dallas County Commissioner Mike Cantrell also thanked the TechShare.Juvenile team and its stakeholders for developing a system “that’s made a real difference, that will impact hundreds of thousands of young people across the state.”
Charles Gray, TechShare Program Director, then closed with an analogy based on the show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? If you’re familiar with the show, you know that throughout the game, contestants are given a total of three “Lifelines” – 50/50, phone a friend, and ask the audience. Charles said to those of us in the room, “Ask the audience, they always get it right.”
A-ha moment #3: The reality is, this effort wouldn’t have been possible if the counties hadn’t asked the audience throughout the process. The audience is who uses and benefits from the system day in and day out. And the beauty of it is, they haven’t stopped asking the audience.
TechShare continues making adjustments and enhancements to the system to meet the needs of each of the counties because the counties partnered with TechShare to build an affordable, sustainable state-wide data sharing solution that’s good for kids.
Want to learn more about TechShare.Juvenile? Download a copy of our TechShare.Juvenile FAQ, including a product comparison between the Basic and Advanced versions of the system.
Melissa Hicks, Marketing and Communications Manager