1 Mapping and Corrections: Management of Offenders with Geographic Information Systems By Jaishankar

The availability of geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) technologies to modern criminal justice agencies represents a quantum leap in operational management and strategic planning capabilities. With GIS and GPS, modern criminal justice agencies now have a new array of tools for combating crime and managing offenders (Blair, 2000). GIS technology is a relative newcomer to the field of criminal justice, having made its debut less than 10 years ago. However, the technology found a niche in crime prevention/reduction and criminal rehabilitation via crime analysis maps (Rose 1998). As applications of GIS have grown, corrections have begun to explore ways in which computer mapping can expand its analytical repertoire (Cadora, Swartz, and Stoe 2000). However, few applications of GIS have been identified for use in the corrections field (Rich, 1995; Harris, Huenke and O’Connell, 1998; O’Connell and Fleury, 1999). In recent years, U.S. correctional institutions have begun exploring ways GIS can assist their daily operations. California is one of the first states to create a GIS dataset [a part of the database] for corrections. It is a part of the California Environmental Information Catalog, which is a Web-accessible database of environmental data and information resources for California. It was developed through