Days 20-23: Maybe One Sigma?

The industry I work takes process improvement very seriously. We've adopted the Six Sigma methodology and apply it from basic widget production up through our business processes like widget supply chain management. Even "soft" processes like on-boarding new employees gets smacked with DMAIC methodology.

So one of the ways I amuse myself in prison is to map in my head some of the processes that could use some improvement. Well, which means, just about all of them.

The most wasteful and inefficient process I've seen is prisoner-to-cash. As I've mentioned before, I am required to bring in a certified check along with my direct deposit notification. Here is what happens after I hand it to the CO:

1. CO drops it in a locked check box.
2. Work Release Administrator takes the checks form the box and sends them to a different office (next business day).
3. The funds are split: first to the prison for their cut; second to the County for fines and costs; third to my prison account (next business day).
   
4. Statement updates are prepared by the outsourced Commissary and financial service provider (same day).
   
5. The statement is sent from the office to the Work Release Administrator (next business day).
   
6. The Work Release Administrator hands it to the on-duty CO (same day).
7. The CO distributes it back to the prisoner.

So the processing of cash is 3 days, when in the real world, this process would take about 2 seconds. But it gets better! Now I want to send my balance back out to Brenda, so I can use it to pay my bills:

1. I request a Check Request Form from the CO.
2. CO says he is out and will get some soon (repeat for approximately one week).
3. Fill out Check Request Form and return to CO, with addressed and stamped envelope.
4. CO sends to Work Release Administrator (next business day).
5. Administrator approves or denies request, and if approved, sends to office (next business day).
6. Office processes and issues check, mails in envelope (2-3 business days).
7. Envelope arrives (2-3 days).

Recall my offer to just write, up front, the prison a check for their full 90 day cut of my pay, and pay my fines in full? That was, of course, denied, as it is against the rules (as an aside, the reason something is against the rules in prison is because "that is the rule" - the answer I keep receiving when I ask why). So bottom line, the process from prisoner pay check to cash back in all parties' hands is about two and a half weeks.

The general request process follows the same model, with the required form processed at best in one day. But the blank forms frequently run out. Apparently the COs can not be trusted with access to a photocopier.

This pattern repeats itself in all aspects of prison life. There are the occasional modern innovations bolted on to the antiquarian paper-based processes, like an art student's junk yard sculpture. Commitment was completely paper based except for a brand-spanking-new LG Corporation retina scanner. Which, doubtless, was used to print something that was stapled to the other forms. Commissary orders are done using scantron sheets, but after they've been sorted and packaged by the service provider they are all dumped together into giant bins and then hand sorted again.

Prison is an excellent example of how a government-run operation can go horribly awry. I am not advocating prison privatization by any means, but our legislatures ought to require prisons to adopt some process improvement exercises and efficiencies which would benefit the prisoners.