A Jail Management System Rescue

The San Luis Obispo County Jail in California can house up to 800 inmates, with daily populations averaging between 450 and 500. Serving a county population of more than 280,000 residents, the County Jail is busy, with 157 correctional deputies and reportedly more than 8,200 inmates booked in 2024.

After relying on their Jail Management System (JMS) for more than 20 years, the Sheriff’s Office selected and began implementing a new JMS. Over the course of six years the project endured multiple project managers and staff turnover. When the new JMS went live, critical software features weren’t available, and staff were left with limited training and lots of workarounds.

“We were surviving, but not really improving,” explained Sheriff’s Deputy Director Victoria O’Keeffe. “It felt like we were in the same spot months after go live.”

The Sheriff’s Office tried to balance fixing the JMS while maintaining regular operations. A correctional sergeant was pulled off the floor to manage lingering issues, but this was

unsustainable for the agency. After surviving in what Business Systems Analyst Monika Reed described as ‘a state of okay-ness’ for about two years, the Sheriff’s Office realized they needed to bring in a fresh set of eyes and outside expertise.

Why National Public Safety Group?

Familiar with their reputation for rescuing struggling public safety software projects, O’Keeffe turned to National Public Safety Group (NPSG) for help. The Sheriff’s Office team knew that NPSG focused solely on public safety software projects and has a team with decades of public safety expertise.

“When NPSG came in to give an initial presentation, everyone agreed that this is the one piece we were missing — someone to take ownership, the responsibility, and with the experience of dealing with these types of projects,” said O’Keeffe.

An Expertly Guided Rescue Project

Implementing new public safety software is one of the most significant and disruptive projects an agency will ever undertake. And the majority of public safety professionals aren’t trained to manage these multi-million-dollar projects. Unfortunately, many agencies, like San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office, find themselves struggling with delayed go lives, compromised system performance, or even issues that jeopardize safety. This is where NPSG has developed a systematic and proven four-phase approach to helping agencies get projects back on track.

Phases I & II: Needs Assessment & Procurement Services

NPSG began with a comprehensive needs assessment to review operational needs, analyze where the JMS implementation had fallen short and identify unused system capabilities. Working closely with Business Systems Analyst Monika Reed, the NPSG team helped the Sheriff’s Office document gaps, identify unnecessary workarounds, and held the software vendor responsible for outstanding deliverables.

“Everybody here that was on the project was fatigued,” said Reed. “NPSG brought a fresh set of eyes that was able to help identify problems that we didn’t necessarily notice, and things that were easy fixes that could really streamline operations for us.”

NPSG also conducted a thorough independent contract review, dissecting the vendor agreement, tracking deliverables, and ensuring every contracted feature, training, and enhancement was honored.

Reed explained that there were things buried in the contract that the Sheriff’s Office team didn’t even know were available. The next step involved NPSG ensuring the agency got everything they paid for, this included valuable onsite training from the vendor at no additional cost.

The partnership also helped push two long-stalled critical software feature projects, the Local Warrant System integration and the Enhancement Qualifier, across the finish line after years of delay.

“Those projects had been sitting for months,” said Reed. “NPSG stepped in, worked with the vendor directly, and got them done.”

Phase IV: Project Management

Before the partnership with NPSG, the Sheriff’s Office had no clear roadmap for what came after go live. Balancing their focus on day-to-day operations with trying to fix their JMS system was leaving them in survival mode.

NPSG stepped into the project as the external JMS project manager: organizing weekly updates, tracking open issues, keeping communication flowing, and ensuring the vendor met deadlines and deliverables. With NPSG coordinating between the Sheriff’s Office and the vendor, Reed was able to focus on internal project management tasks.

“Together, we worked as a really good team,” said Reed.

Within months, the JMS project regained traction and confidence across departments.

A Partnership that Protects the Investment

After years of frustration and fatigue, the Sheriff’s Office is now operating with confidence and stability.

“The whole project went really smoothly for that year with NPSG,” said Reed. “We were able to get to an end place where everybody is actually really happy with the way it’s going right now, and it’s running smoothly.”

Looking ahead, O’Keeffe says the Sheriff’s Office won’t wait until they’re in rescue mode again. “Next time we consider a new CAD, RMS, or even JMS, we’ll bring NPSG in from the start. It’s the stability and confidence NPSG brings — knowing they’ve got it, and they’ll let us know what we need to do.”