DNA Data Bank Oversight Panel
Minutes of meeting of March 13, 2024
The meeting convened at 9:32 a.m.
Participating in the meeting were Lab; Cheryl Carreiro, DESPP-Forensic Lab; Daniel Renstrom, DESPP-Forensic Lab; Megan Olt, DESPP-Forensic Lab; Mandy Young – DESPP; Lisamaria Proscino, Office of the Attorney General; Robert Meredith, OCPD; Regina Herbert, Judicial Court Support Services; Philip Chapell, DESPP, Sex offender Registry; and Michael Gailor, Division of Criminal Justice.
The minutes of the meeting on December 20, 2023, were unanimously approved.
The lab reported that as of March 1, 2024, a total of 135,753 convicted offender samples have been submitted to the lab; 756 since December 1, 2023. Of these samples, approximately 7563 were determined to be duplicate submissions. One hundred twenty eight thousand seven hundred sixteen are searching in CODIS. Approximately 100 convicted offender samples are waiting to be processed/entered into CODIS. There are approximately 24,000 profiles in the Forensic Index. The lab reported that 11,138 investigations have been aided so far by 11,708 confirmed hits. Approximately 145 candidate matches are under evaluation. The average time it takes to send out notification of the hit once it has been obtained is 12.5 days.
Regina Hebert reported that Judicial sent 396 letters to persons sentenced to a period of probation advising them to submit to the taking of a biological sample, 239 of the letters were first notices while 157 were follow up letters to individuals who had not provided a sample. In non-probation cases, Judicial sent 60 initial letters and 32 follow up letters. Judicial sent 6 memos to the Department of Correction advising them of the need to collect a sample. In total, Judicial collected 278 samples in the fourth quarter of 2023. Judicial reported that during the entirety of 2023, they sent 1091 letters to individuals needing to provide samples in probation cases and collected 1120 samples. They sent 20 memos to the Department of Correction asking for assistance in collecting samples and submitted 27 warrants to the State Police for individuals who failed to provide a sample.
The Sex Offender Registry Unit reported that added 88 new offenders to the sex offender registry and 231 new offenders to the deadly weapon registry from December 1, 2023 to March 1, 2024. The unit obtained 36 biological samples from sex offenders for the purpose of developing a DNA profile and 80 samples from persons on the deadly weapon registry.
The Department of Correction sent in a report indicating that it has collected 340 samples in the year to date, 373 since the last Oversight Committee Meeting on December 20, 2023. DOC also reported that 81 collections are pending and that 64 inmates have refused to provide a sample.
Discussion was had about the status of samples of persons who receive pardons. Because this issue was considered a short time ago, the Committee’s prior decision that such samples should be retained was not revisited.
The Committee went into Executive Session at 9:57 a.m. to consider matters related to individuals from whom samples had been obtained. Upon coming out of Executive Session at 10:07 a.m. the Committee reported the following:
Sample 12/20/23-B – Should be returned to the index pf profiles being searched.
Samples 3/13/24 A, B, C, D, E, G, H and I – Should be purged from the Data Bank
Sample 3/13/24 F – Consideration of the status of this sample was tabled until further information can be gathered.
The meeting adjourned at 10:08 a.m.