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Prison Management System (PMS) is a government to government (G-2-G) and government to citizen (G-2-C) application, which encapsulates the manual working-pattern of the prison rule book i.e. registration, movement within the jail and outside and release of the inmate.

It helps to generate more than 65 reports of administrative, performance and statistical nature.

It helps in dealing with over populous prison that is housing inmates, which are more than 3 times of the sanctioned capacity. It facilitate in monitoring the inmate movement (both inside / outside the correction home). It also facilitates, regulates and simplifies the processes of meeting between the visitors who are coming to visit their relatives and friends lodged in the correctional home. It is helping the prison authorities in identification / verification of the inmates using fingerprint based identification tools.

Background

ICT in prisons was initiated in the year 2002 at Delhi Prisons, Tihar. The Tihar Prisons Complex in New Delhi is the biggest prison complex in Asia comprising of 9 prisons and one District Jail at Rohini with a total strength of more than 11,000 prisoners against a normal sanctioned capacity of  6250 prisoners. In a year about 70,000 – 80,000 inmates remain lodged in these prisons for different duration and crimes committed by them.

Nearly 1700-1800 visitors meet their relative inmates everyday. There was manual system of booking ‘mulaqats’ (meetings) in each jail for its respective inmates. Centralised visitor record was not available. There was a lack of exchange of visitors’ information within jails and prison headquarters. No provision for identification / detection / verification of visitors was there. Keeping a tab on the movement of visitors / nefarious elements was difficult.

There was no control  either on multiple meetings with an inmate in a day / week or on number of visitors permissible to  meet with each inmate. It was difficult for the jail administration to keep a record of those prisoners whose meetings were stopped by the Hon’ble courts by way of punishment. There was  limited and unstructured recording of demographic details about the visitors. No provision to store visitors photograph was there. Lot of malpractices was mushrooming in the system.

Managing the prisoner record and monitoring of prisoner / visitor was always difficult since most of the records were normally maintained manually, so the concerned authorities were required to  go through all the registers to find out the details and status of the inmate as well as of the visitor.

Managing the prisoner record and monitoring of prisoner / visitor was always difficult since most of the records were normally maintained manually, so the concerned authorities were required to  go through all the registers to find out the details and status of the inmate as well as of the visitor.

Solution

In order to cope up with the increasing number of prisoners being lodged in, the Tihar Administration required a re-engineering and rationalisation of their key business processes and functions of prisoners related information and their computerisation in order to speed up the processing of information need of courts and various other national agencies.

As the technology evolution is taking place, there arose a need for centralisation of prisoner’s data  to facilitate information exchange and data sharing to the users of the prison. It shall reduce administrative overheads, speed up responsiveness to users, reduce risks involved in inmate’s custody, eliminated obsolete processes and reap cost-cutting benefits.

The National Informatics Centre (NIC) took up this task of automating and streamlining the process of prisoner / visitor movement at  Tihar Prisons. Followings are the accomplishment in this area of prison management:

Establishment of LAN: Estab-lishment of LAN connecting all prisons situated in a big wide spread complex using 5,500 meters of Optical Fiber Cable (12 and 6 core) operated with one Layer – 3 switch supported by 16 Layer – 2 switches in the entire jail complex. The network has 185 IOs and can be expanded to 300 nodes without any additions / modifications / disruptions to the existing infrastructure. Surveys were got conducted and laying of OFC was found to be the best suitable option;

Development and Implementation of PMS: Prison Management System (PMS) comprises of 12 primary functional modules. More than 65 reports of various types have been developed under Client / Server architecture. It has been developed, tested and implemented.

Biometric Tools: The PMS has been integrated with biometrics tools, which stores inmate’s biometric details at the time of entry and shall be used to authenticate him at the time of their movement. The biometric based verification and authentication system is installed in all 9 jails of Tihar Prisons Complex and at District Jail, Rohini, New Delhi with facility to store prisoner photograph. Tihar Prisons was the first prison using this technology for prisoner’s identification and verification along with the photograph;

Photo Pass for Visitors: Visitor Management System [VMS] is implemented at Central Public Relation Office situated at Gate # 3 and at Gate # 4 of the Tihar Prisons. All visitors coming to Jail to meet their relative prisoners are first being photographed and then they are issued photo pass. Details of the visitors are being kept in the database and this information is shared with police for the investigation purpose. The meeting slip is generated within 45 seconds. The booking is using the concept of call centre. ISO Certification has been obtained for this process;

Videoconferencing: The use of videoconferencing facility in prisons has drastically reduced expenditure incurred as compared to being physically producing the jail inmates in the courts. Physical production of an inmate require transportation, escort by armed police personnel, prevention of fights between inmates and nearly six hours of time wasted by each inmate. Fear of custody break is always there during the physical production.  By the use of videoconferencing, there is a check on all such incidents; and Cameras: Using analog and digital cameras security has been enhanced in the Tihar Prison complex. Cameras have been installed at strategic locations within wards, inside high security cells, at meeting points and at dheodi, where inmates are searched whenever they are escorted out of jail or are brought inside the jail complex. Each and every inmate can be watched from a video wall and surveillance brief is also sent to DG (Prisons) in real time. These video graphed shots are produced in case of any disputes.

Nearly 1700-1800 visitors meet their relative inmates everyday. There was manual system of booking ‘mulaqats’ (meetings) in each jail for its respective inmates. Centralised visitor record was  not available. There was a lack of exchange of visitors’ information within jails and prison headquarters. No provision for identification / detection / verification of visitors was there.Keeping a tab on the movement of visitors / nefarious elements was difficult.

Project Features

It is a G-2-G and G-2-C e-Governance tool. It has created a transparent, simplified and efficient

Prisoners’ Information Handling System for all Prisoners who are lodged in the Delhi Prisons and  Visitors’ Management and Monitoring System for visitors prisoners meeting system. Provisions are there to store Photographs of Prisoners / Visitors. It also stores fingerprint data of the prisoners for the authentication / verification / identification at the time of their release.

It improves efficiency,  performance and speed in decision-making process at all levels. Information about prisoner / visitor is readily available at any corner of the Prison complex. Provides Quick and accurate information for better strategic planning for administration. It helps in tightening the noose on the movement / meeting of nefarious elements with the inmates.

Lessons Drawn from the practice

Each project gives the implementing agency few lessons, which helps in better utilisation of resources.

In a changing business environment, the main stakeholder needs to be able to monitor key performance indicators. In order to support this when implementing the system, key decision makers and champions must be asked what key information they need in order to achieve high work/business performance. NIC discussed the software with DG as well as the warders and matrons of the jail and understood what they want. The software was made as simple as possible and each screen was not more than half page such that data entry was not cumbersome.

Installation and implementation were the critical phases of the deployment path of the PMS project. One has to ensure that the main stakeholder understands the steps they shall need to take to implement PMS Project, together with the resources they shall need to put into the project to ensure its success.

When dealing with new ICT technologies there are numerous problems that may arise, making it crucial for agencies to have a well-developed process for this phase of the project. It is the opportunity to test the system and should be approached thoughtfully and with patience.

Ultimately, implementation remains the user’s responsibility and it is the user who determines when application goes live.

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