Chuck Carroll: Does Kane County Need to Spend $10 Million for a Court Computer System?

Being in the big computer system business this caught my attention, both because of the price tag and the fact that it was part of a budget dispute. I asked a friend on the County Board what was going on and he really couldn’t answer, so I decided to dig into it. A founder of Jano Justice Systems provided some background.

Two facts came to light. DeKalb, Kendall, Madison, Sangamon, Will, Champaign and LaSalle counties use this same system (Jano Justice) as Kane, and all are satisfied with the software.

Secondly, Kane County has taken the unusual path of not subscribing to the maintenance and supportservices of the software provider and consequentially is not getting software updates or support. This always leads to dissatisfied users and an out-of-date system

In about 2002, the 16th Circuit Court licensed an integrated court system from Jano Justice Systems. The 16th District includes DeKalb and Kendall in addition to Kane County. The proposal was for the entire system to run on one server, supporting the three counties. Immediately that changed to three separate computers, one in each county. Kendall and DeKalb counties have successfully implemented the system and are satisfied. What happened here?

From the four articles published by the Daily Herald, I discovered several functional issues that are causing the perception of a need to change systems. The application has four modules supporting the four functional areas of the court system: probation, prosecution, courts and public defender. A document management application is at the foundation. My understanding is the system is in the clerk’s office and other functional areas are not getting the needed support.

Kane County Chief Judge F. Keith Brown wants a system that makes it easier to assign judges to courtrooms. Well, there is an app for that, just not correctly implemented.

State's Attorney Joe McMahon wants to track case loads and trends; Yep, there is an app for that.

Circuit Clerk Deb Seyller wants better reporting; Well, the database is ODBC compliant, meaning it could not be easier to extract data. And finally, she thinks the public access is horrible. Well, Kendall County uses the portal that came with the system and has received awards for ease of use.

One of the big initiatives for courts is the “e-business” capability of systems allowing for e-filing of court documents. This will be a substantial effort over the next few years. Madison County is leading the charge in Illinois and has Jano Justice as the foundation. This could be a substantial savings for Kane County if we stick with the system we have now.

I see large computer systems that are very capable being replaced for the same reasons all the time. It keeps people employed, but I don’t think we should be funding an employment initiative in Kane County. I do not have any relationship to Jano Justice Systems. Well, maybe I do. Like every other Kane County taxpayer, I paid for a portion of the initial purchase, and I am about to pay a lot more for its replacement.

There would be costs to fix the existing solution: negotiate a settlement for the last six years of unpaid maintenance, upgrade the application to the latest version and then train the users on what it can do for them. This would cost about 15 to 20 percent of a new system.

I say if the counties around us are happy with it, we can be too.