The Massachusetts Department of Public Safety had piles of old bounced checks that needed to be destroyed. Instead of using a secure shredding company to do the job, they tried to save a buck and call the free labor force.

The checks were given to a group of prisoners at the Boston Pre-Release Center. An officer at the center thought the assignment was wrongheaded, but did nothing to stop it. Finally, the superintendent of the center became aware of the work and stopped the shredding.

It appears that identity theft is not the public safety that the Department of Public Safety is concerned about.

Patricia Keefe of Information Week has an interesting article about the increased pressure on business leaders and IT departments to solve data breach problems. Consider the uproar over the TJX data breach that is likely to result in legislative action in addition to public outrage and lawsuits from credit card companies and banks.