Maryland 2019 NCHIP

The goal of the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP) is to improve the Nation's safety and security by enhancing the quality, completeness, and accessibility of criminal history record information and by insuring the nationwide implementation of criminal justice and noncriminal justice background check systems. BJS provides direct financial and technical assistance to the states to improve criminal history and other related records and to build their infrastructure to connect to national record check systems both to supply information and to conduct the requisite checks.

Under the 2019 NCHIP award, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services will conduct two (2) projects:

Project #1: Automation of Deceased Fingerprint Card to Process for Submission to the FBI. In an effort to automate this process, MD DPSCS will develop an interface so fingerprint cards can be scanned into the system at the morgue. It is critical for CJIS to receive deceased fingerprint cards so they can be submitted to the FBI and the criminal history can be marked deceased and closed. This new service will allow remote facilities to scan in fingerprint cards and submit them electronically to CJIS. This is to replace the current manually process of physically mailing the fingerprint cards to CJIS.

Project #2: Expungements Tracking System Upgrades. The DPSCS has a legal mandate to expunge criminal history record information within 60 days of a judge issuing a court order. The Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) – Central Repository receives expungements from 23 counties and Baltimore City, which includes 48 courts. In order to meet the 60-day legal mandate, DPSCS has created an in-house tracking system for each step of the expungement process. This system is called the Expungement Tracking System (ETS). The ETS is a semi-automated system and can be accessed by CJIS staff only. It enables CJIS staff to facilitate the tracking and verification of the expungement process. Funds will be used to implement the following upgrades to the ETS to meet the state's legal obligation:

A. Expungement Interface Development for DOC (Department of Corrections) and DPP (Department of Parole and Probation);

B. CCH Interface to Automate Court Ordered Expungements;

C. MAFIS II Interface to Automate Court Ordered Expungements;

D. Automation of Police Department letters related to Court Ordered Expungements;

E. Automation of the Certificate of Compliance Letter to Petitioners;

F. Automation of the Routine Letters to the Police Departments.

(CA/NCF)