US Monitoring Database Reaches Limit, Quits Tracking Felons and Parolees

An anonymous reader writes "Thousands of US sex offenders, prisoners on parole and other convicts were left unmonitored after an electronic tagging system shut down because of data overload. BI Incorporated, which runs the system, reached its data threshold — more than two billion records — on Tuesday. This left authorities across 49 states unaware of offenders' movement for about 12 hours." As the astonished submitter asks, "2 billion records?"

Comments

Now..

[Anonymous Coward]

They just need to upgrade it so they can track the other 4 billion properly.

Damn sick criminals! ALL OF THEM.

Re:Now..

[h4rm0ny]

I'm getting this scene in my mind like Austen Powers, where Senator McCarthy is unfrozen and keeps rubbing his hands with glee saying "We'll track one million US citizens." His NSA assistant coughs politely. "Uh, [i]billion[/i], sir".

Re:Now..

[gmack]

I really doubt space was the actual problem because TFA says "BI Incorporated, which runs the system, reached its data threshold - more than two billion records - on Tuesday. " The max value of a signed 32 bit int is 2 147 483 647. It is much more likely that someone set an index value on the database to int years ago and then forgot about it.

Re:Now..

[hairyfeet]

To quote some lyrics from one of my favorite bands "Ain't it funny how the school doors closed, round the time that the factory doors closed, round the time that 100,000 jails cells opened up to greet you, like the reaper". Considering in this country one can be busted for a sex offense for pissing on a bush, sexting pics of your own body to your GF/BF if you are under 18, or even words on a page or drawings in a comic book, the fact that we allow private contractors to do these jobs (thus giving an even greater incentive for bribery and worse laws) just makes me sick.

Re:Oh dear oh dear oh dear

[Ironhandx]

And you are clearly completely unaware of the accounting world.

I have yet to meet an accountant that knows much of anything about access or any other database system. On the other hand the majority of them have complained about the 65000 line limit in excel.

They ALL do this. You're telling thousands of accountants to change how they do things, and honestly, not for the better. They know how to use excel and know how to make things balance with excel.

A large portion of them took accounting because it was supposed to make them a lot of money, these people don't even use 1/10th of the functionality provided in excel, lets not try to make them learn another entirely different software skill set, ok?

Even if you're currently working in IT and are like "Oh, no, our accountants have access to all this stuff in our system and they would never do that". Trust me, they do. It all ends up in an excel sheet somewhere eventually.

Maybe the answer isn't better software

[assertation]

Maybe the answer isn't better software, but fewer criminals to fill up the database with.

I keep seeing articles here and there how the U.S. has more people imprisoned than China. A large chunk of the prison population are inmates convicted of drug crimes and a large portion of that set of people were convicted on marijuana laws.

I don't smoke, but as a tax payer I would rather see the government make marijuana into a tax revenue generator instead of a huge expense to paid for with taxes.
 

Re:Maybe the answer isn't better software

[WinstonWolfIT]

The Chinese use a simpler, more lethal solution to prison overcrowding.

Re:Oh dear oh dear oh dear

[schon]

And you are clearly completely unaware of the contracting world.

I have yet to meet a contractor that knows much of anything about screwdrivers or any other tool than a hammer. On the other hand the majority of them have complained about how hard it is to drive screws with the hammer.

They ALL do this. You're telling thousands of contractors to change how they do things, and honestly, not for the better. They know how to use a hammer and know how to drive nails.

A large portion of them took contracting because it was supposed to make them a lot of money, these people don't even use 1/10th of the functionality provided by a hammer, lets not try to make them learn another entirely different tool skill set, ok?

Even if you're currently working in contracting supply and are like "Oh, no, our contractors have access to all this stuff and they would never do that". Trust me, they do. It all ends up pounded by a hammer somewhere eventually.

Re:1 in 31 US Citizens in custody or parole

[tverbeek]

25% of federal inmates are in there for drug possession. I bet you a good amount of these people wouldn't rob you at gunpoint.

Not before their incarceration, no. But after surviving lock-up in a Darwinian environment in which "fittest" equates to "most dangerous", then re-entering a society in which convicts are denied the right to a good job, there's a pretty good chance they will. We have a criminal justice system that develops criminals.

You have it backwards.

[fyngyrz]

There is no authorization in the constitution for laws that control what you do personally or consensually. The criminals, as Mark Twain told us, are in the legislature.

And as long as the government is out of compliance with the constitution, the government is a criminal organization. Law-breakers and oath-breakers, both.