RESEARCH DATA CONFIDENTIALITY POLICY

BOARD OF CORRECTIONS
RESEARCH DATA CONFIDENTIALITY POLICY
June 1, 2000

GENERAL POLICY

The data that the Board of Corrections receives from counties regarding individual subjects participating in local-county research is confidential. Unauthorized access to these data is strictly forbidden. Only the doctoral level researchers responsible for viewing and analyzing these data are allowed access. The data are password protected, and only those researchers authorized to view the data will be given passwords.

COMMON DATA ELEMENT RESEARCH

The Board of Corrections (Board) receives data regarding individual research subjects who are participating in local-jurisdiction research funded by the Board (such as the Challenge, Mentally Ill Offender and Repeat Offender Prevention Grants). The research is prescribed by the legislation that authorized the funds for the grants. Data on individual subjects is necessary to meet the legislative mandate to investigate the program outcomes.

The confidentiality of the subjects who participate in the research must be protected. The Board has taken the following steps to preclude the possibility of the identity of research subjects being revealed by:

1. Adopting a strongly worded policy that strictly prohibits any Board employee from revealing the research data to unauthorized individuals.
2. Restricting authorization to view and work with the data to the doctoral level researchers who conduct all the Board's research.
3. Storing all data files with password protection on the Board's computer server. Only the authorized researchers have access to the passwords.
4. Requiring that data be sent to the Board with research subjects designated by an identification number, and not by name. Upon receipt of the data, the Board researchers remove the local-jurisdiction identification number and substitute a new, arbitrary code number. The bridge between original identification number and the new code number is kept in a secure location by the Board's Senior Research Consultant (a licensed psychologist).
5. Replacing the name of the county and the original county code number with new codes, insuring the bridge between the county names and original code numbers and the new county code numbers is also kept in a secure location by the Board's Senior Research Consultant.
6. Requiring that Board reports based on the data contain no individual-subject data. Instead, only aggregate results are reported in a statistical summary format such as the mean and standard deviation.