Bump
State Auditor Suzanne Bump in this file photograph.
(The Republican file photo )
Anyone interested in obtaining up-to-date information on the Massachusetts prison population or grant funds going into the state's various sheriffs' departments might be in for some frustration.
An audit conducted between 2013 and 2015 by the office of State Auditor Suzanne Bump found Massachusetts Sheriff's Association "did not provide the public with sufficient transparency about inmate populations in various counties, and the Legislature and other state agencies had to expend time and resources to obtain information."
According to the audit, released Wednesday, the association "did not post required inmate population information on its website and did not promptly submit required reports regarding inmate and financial information, or in some cases did not submit them at all, to the state House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means and to various state agencies."
Established in 2004 to coordinate the reporting of information among the state's 14 sheriffs' departments, the MSA still falls short of its original purpose, the audit found.
In a press release, Bump said, "Our audit found that while the MSA was set up to help facilitate communication between Sheriffs' departments, the Association did not have the tools or the policies and procedures in place to do so," Bump said.
She added, "At a time when there is an increased focus on improving our criminal justice system, essential information about the county corrections experience is not being made available. This makes it more difficult for policymakers and the public to make informed decisions."
The shortcomings came in part because the MSA lacks formal processes to serve its original function.
The audit ultimately said the MSA needs access to a server "to ensure that it can properly disclose the required inmate information on its website."
As a result of the audit, funding to create such a computer system was provided to the MSA, which responded to the audit by assuring it would establish policies to comply with reporting requirements in the future.