Introduction
The FY 1996 budget for the Division of Correction is $410,850,394 and promises to grow significantly as more and more institutions and facilities are built and go "on line". Fully 80% of this budget is spent either on the category known as "Salaries, Wages and Fringe Benefits" (SWFB) or "Contractual Workers". Since about 1991, DOC has been experiencing budget cutbacks, freezing or elimination of positions, and incorporation of new facilities without concomitant and commensurate funding. In addition, DOC experiences varying levels of turnover resulting in vacant positions and increasing use of overtime. In some regions, there is difficulty recruiting and hiring certain job categories. For these reasons alone, it is indicated if not imperative that a more detailed analysis of the SWFB be performed for the sake of improved management and improved planning.
However, upon examination of the personnel data in the "Budget Book", with the exception of dividing and classifying the data by facility cost center, the data appeared not to be in any particular order, whether alphabetic, numerical or by subclass. It was not possible to differentiate or evaluate within a facility cost center or across facility cost centers. It was not possible to compare facilities from one region to the next. It was not possible to compare one region to the next. Limitations of Scope
According to the data presented in this Manual alone, $564,667,805 will have been spent for the three year period ending in Fiscal Year 1996. I am told that this data reflects only the base salaries of permanent employees. Thus about $60 million per year or $180 million in fringe benefits and other costs are outside the scope of this Manual. Also, while SWFB accounts for about 65% of the overall budget, another approximate 15% is devoted to Contractual Workers. This, too, is beyond the scope of this Manual. In fact, the FY 1996 budget for SWFB is $276,080,294 while the data presented here only accounts for $207,221,592. Also not possible to detect from this data and outside the scope of this Manual is the rate of position vacancies, turnover, vacation or sick leave, overtime, shift differential, Social Security, health insurance, retirement plans, worker compensation, unemployment insurance and so forth and so on. Finally, no advanced computations, comparisons or any other numerical analyses have been performed or presented with this initial presentation. Method and Major Objectives
It was noted that the Personnel Detail in the "Budget Book" issued by the Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning (DBFP) appeared to be suitable for analysis using the "line sort" function of any word processor software. For all these reasons, I contacted DBFP in the hope the "Budget Book" data could be converted to personal computer form.
The data was provided by the DBFP by downloading output from a mainframe computer in "ASCII" (i.e., generic, also known as "DOS Text") format and placing the resulting files on a diskette suitable for a personal computer. In this particular instance, three files representing the entire personnel detail for the Department of Public Safety were generated. Once these ASCII files were in hand, they were converted to Word Perfect version 5.1 format amenable to the "line sort" function.
Though a great many computations, such as averages, medians, unit salaries and so forth, could be made using this data, this Manual was specifically designed to rely on one type of software, a software in common use and readily available. It is one of the major objectives of this Manual and accompanying computer diskettes to demonstrate that an inquiry of this nature can be extended to any number of State agencies using similar data output. It is also a major objective that managers and analysts can utilize this data in whole or in part to conduct inquiries of their own perhaps crossing this data with other data such as population or supplemental financial data or by importing or exporting to other types of software. Finally, it is hoped that this Manual and diskette will prove to be a starting point eventually leading to a much broader scope than is now possible as it now exists. Word Processing Aspects
This inquiry tested the limits of advanced functions of Word Perfect 5.1. Among the techniques which had to be utilized were Search and Replace, Line Sort, Math, Macro Programming and so forth. Coding of positions and coding of facilities had to be geared to use the line sort function as discussed below. The facility codes eventually adopted were not only useful within files, but in the naming of individual files in their directory themselves.
This inquiry also tested the limits of a 486DX personal computer running at 33 Hz and with 8 MB RAM. Although the machine performed adequately for almost all of the files which ranged in size from about 10 MB to 50 MB, delays were encountered when the file size reached 175 MB. Of note though, even a six column line sort could be performed in the space of less than 30 seconds and certain macros could be performed on all 30 or so files in the directory by a recursive routine that retrieved, modified and saved in about 2? minutes. Organization and Coding of Elements
Being confronted by the sheer quantity of data elements presented by the data, first it was decided to limit the inquiry solely to the Division of Correction and not the entire Department of Public Safety. Second, it was decided to use as a model an organizational chart which had been developed by me working with a DOC resident several years ago. It was thought the model could be adopted to a form conducive to the line sort mode. Details were worked out and attached herewith is the model and the codes finally developed.
The model originally was thought only to apply to a prison facility yet, as work progressed, much the same categories were found could be applied to Headquarters and State Use Industries with good results. The existing Headquarters organizational chart had been last updated in 1986 and was obviously not reflective of the 1996 Allowance positions. For this reason, the existing Headquarters chart was disregarded in its entirety.
The result of the use of the institutional model ("Model of a Typical DOC Institution") was consistency and clarity throughout the Division. It is also possible that persons working with the data could develop their own models for different reasons and different purposes as the need arises. For example, as presently organized "Security Staff" is not inclusive of Dietary or Maintenance officers, even though they are all in fact also uniformed security personnel. If that total is wanted, all that needs to be done is add "Security Staff" to "Dietary" and "Maintenance" or, in the alternative, go back through the data, recode those particular elements and resort using selective block and line sort. This is but one example where consistency in coding permits easy adaptation to other uses. Organization and Coding of DOC Facilities
Codes for DOC facilities have been known and used for many years. These codes, all alphabetic (e.g., MCIH, RCI, ECI, etc.), are familiar and recognizable within the Division and other State agencies. Yet, it was my objective to introduce a regional designation and to be able to sort by region and within a region. Unfortunately, the letter codes for the regions did not array themselves in any logical order upon line sort. It was necessary to combine numbers with the letters to achieve an orderly result. The earlier, alphabetic designations of facility and region were retained in a combination so as to be understandable to persons familiar with the Division while numerical designations were added in supplement. The resulting combinations were thus made suitable both from a numerical sorting view as well as a recognizable and readable alphabetic view. All facilities came within 8 characters in length, making it possible to use the same codes to name DOS files in a DOS directory. In that way, ordering of files was automatic and printing and other operations could be performed as a batch without any other effort.
Miscellaneous Observations
Conclusions