Prisons Management System good to go in 20 jails

Pilot project at Camp Jail has been successful, says Prisons IGP.

LAHORE: After the success of the pilot project at Camp Jail, the Prisons Management Information System (PMIS) is set to be launched at 20 prisons in the province which house more 2,000 inmates each. The system will enable prison officials to store the history, thumb prints, images and details of remissions, bail and records on a computerised integrated system.   

Inspector General of Prisons Punjab Mian Farooq Nazeer told APP on Sunday that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Home Department had signed an MoU on July 2, 2014, to computerise prison records in the province under a phased programme.

Nazeer said the pilot launched at Camp Jail had been successful in developing a database of more than 3,000 inmates by using an automated finger/palm print identification system.

He said addresses and identity card numbers of 17,000 inmates and visitors at various police stations had been added to the system for reference. This had helped policemen facilitate visitors through fast-track registration of interviews and expeditious redress of grievances.

Nazeer said that the PMIS would also help police ensure that under-trial prisoners were produced in court according to schedule. He said it would help prison authorities manage day-to-day affairs of prisons. The PMIS would also include complete details of transfers, postings and records of leaves availed by the staff including superintendents of jails, deputy and assistant superintendents and wardens.

The IGP said they were looking to record particulars of prisoners including the name, aliases, gender, caste, district, province, country, father and grandfather’s name, date of birth, marital status, number of children, name of spouse, permanent address, identification mark, scars, status, category, class, nature of offence, barrack number, thumb prints, address, education, the law they were sentenced under, the nature of offence, the FIR number, name of police station, name of the trial court, appeals, medical and criminal history and behaviour.

Camp Jail Superintendent Shahram Tauqir Khan told APP that the project would be useful in that prisoners could easily be identified by the name, thumb print, image, date of admission, FIR and date of conviction. To a question about whether the prison staff had been trained to use the PMIS, he said that wardens had been trained for that purpose on directives of the prisons chief. He said Lahore Deputy Inspector General Mubashar Ahmad Khan monitored the project at least once a week.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2015.