DeKalb fires computer firm, restarts Y2K jail upgrade By Ben Smith III, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution DeKalb County's effort to upgrade its computerized jail management system before 2000 may come down to the hard wire in December with the firing Monday of the company contracted to do the work. Acting on a request by Sheriff Sidney Dorsey, the DeKalb County Commission on Monday voted unanimously to terminate the jail's $1.1 million contract with Epic Solutions Inc. of San Diego. "I'd hate for us to be sitting around on Dec. 31 waiting for a Y2K-compliant product," said DeKalb County Sheriff's Department Capt. William Hallsworth in a presentation to the board. But the company hired to replace Epic isn't likely to finish the job much earlier than that. Syscon Justice Systems Inc., a Canadian-based company, said it could have the new system in place by Dec. 13, for $267,000 less than Epic. The jail management system keeps track of all inmates in the facility, listing their housing assignments, offenses, scheduled court appearances, release dates, dietary restrictions and medical conditions, among other things. Just like officials at every government agency in America, DeKalb officials are worried that those computerized records will fall into chaos on midnight Dec. 31 because they aren't programmed to recognize the year 2000 in their internal clocks. Hallsworth told the board that Epic officials couldn't give the Sheriff's Department a firm date for the completion of the work. Originally Epic officials had said they'd have the new system up and running in April, but that was put off until July. Then the installation of Epic's "Book'em2" program was beset by a series of other technical problems. According to Hallsworth, the system repeatedly crashed and could only be used on a limited number of computers. Jail officials said they will attempt to recover at least part of the $435,000 already paid to Epic. John Gleason, Epic's president and chief executive officer, refused to comment on the county's talk of seeking a refund. But he acknowledged that the project had suffered unforseen delays. "We certainly don't like to lose a client," Gleason said. "We pulled out all the stops. We had a team of people in DeKalb for quite a few weeks installing hardware and software and providing training. "We wish them well as they go forward," Gleason said. Atlanta Journal-Constitution 1 sep 1999