DOC drops contract with technology vendor

OLYMPIA, Wash. — State officials announced Wednesday that the Washington Department of Corrections will not renew its contract with an information technology vendor developing software used to assess inmates.

During Senate hearings into the DOC's early prisoner release scandal last winter, questions were raised about the state's contract with Assessments.com.

"We were assured in Senate hearings that DOC would be examining that contract," said Sen. Steve O'Ban, R-Pierce County. "I'm pleased to see there's been some follow-through, but we still have concerns about how this contract originated."

This comes after an intense Senate investigation into how early release dates were miscalculated.

"Whether this procedure adhered to the letter of the law is one question, but it certainly didn't follow the spirit," O'Ban said. "This vendor had an extensive reputation for incomplete, low-quality work and was headed by a friend of Secretary Warner whose extensive record included arrests for cocaine use and violating a domestic order, and that makes the entire relationship inexplicable."

A DOC spokesperson says development of new software tools for inmate assessment will be done internally.

Cox Media Group