Integrated Prisons Management System

Sunil Kumar Barnwal 1. Goals & Objectives

The main purpose behind the implementation of the Prison Management System (PMS) was to enhance the administrative capabilities of the jails in terms of monitoring and security of the prison while improving the efficiency and productivity of the Prisons. The main goals of the project are enunciated below: To ensure proper monitoring of the prisons by the top officials To ensure that the discipline and decorum of the jails is maintained by both the employees and the prisoners To ensure compliance with the Jail Manual with respect to the visitors and their frequency To ensure that no impersonation of the prisoners happens by proper validation and authentication of the prisoners identity To ensure that assistance could be provided to police stations in real time if the need arises To reduce the costs and the risks associated with the production of the prisoners in the court To improve the productivity and efficiency of the prisons so as to facilitate the usage of the available work force for sensitive work while leveraging technology to reduce the mundane workload of the employees To ensure the availability of data in digital form for preservation, analysis and reporting. The nature of project is such that outcome of project could be quantitatively measured only for few parameters such as Automatic detection of duplication Automatic refusal to visitor meeting a prisoner at interval less than prescribed Immediate generation of report on categorization of prisoners on basis of their cases, period of confinement etc. Automatic calculation of Remission to be granted to a convict prisoner for good behavior, discipline etc. Reduction in the cost (Saving of resources) of physical production of prisoners in Courts.

2. Spread of Project service users

The project serves the following stakeholders: prisoners and their family members and visitors through facilitation of visits and meetings as per the regulations and laws Police by ensuring that the rules are followed while prisoners meet their relatives and to keep a track of the visitors and number of visits

Judiciary by eliminating the need for the physical production of prisoners in the court; the prisoners may be produced electronically through video conferencing. This also saves time, money and time of police force.

3. Services provided
The project is primarily delivering G2G services with mixture of G2C services. Some of the key services that are being facilitated are: Complete record of prisoners individual and family details with health and educational background Complete record of activities performed by prisoner for the purpose of grant of remission by jail superintendent and Inspector-General as well as for inflicting punishment for breach of jail discipline. Updated record of Correctional program attended by Prisoner Record of wages kept in prisoners account for work performed in Prison Prisoners case details, dates of production in different jails Biometric features of prisoners Prisoners history ticket Complete record of visitors meeting prisoner Automatic refusal of visitor to meet a prisoner having visitor at frequency more than that provided in Jail Manual Web based MIS in offline mode with data being pushed everyday using SWAN.

4. Geographical spread of project implementation

The project is successfully implemented in all the 22 districts of Jharkhand.

5. Project Timelines and milestones

This project has been initiated in January 2007 to automate the management of the Prisons in the state. Initially the project was launched in the Birsa Munda Central Jail, Hotwar, Ranchi on pilot basis. The experience was also used to customize the software jails of Jharkhand. In March 2008, the software was implemented in all the Jails of the state. Next aim is to make deploy the Jail software in the 3 tire architecture and have the centralized database for all the Jails of the state. Training was provided to all the concerned in a phase wise manner. This has helped us in implementing the software.

6. Direct cost and time savings to avail services

This is a government centric project and no services to citizens at large are as such delivered through the project. However, the consistency of the visitor management system ensures that the visitors are allowed to visit the prisoners as allowed by the prison rules. This is a government centric project and no services to citizens at large are as such delivered through the project.

7. Direct cost and time savings to deliver services

No third party agency study has been undertaken. However, the project has lead to major cost and resource savings for the prisons. Previously the prisoners were taken physically to be produced in courts; this has now been eliminated due to the use of video conferencing for the purpose. This is safer also these visits to judiciary could be used by the criminals to escape. No third party agency study has been undertaken. However, the project has lead time savings for the police officials who would previously accompany the prisoners when they had to be produced to the judiciary. This is now accomplished by video conferencing for the purpose. This ensures that the staff does not need to be deployed for taking and then bringing back the criminals for production in courts.

8. Replication
This project has been replicated across all the prisons in the state of Jharkhand.

9. Implementation model
The project has been conceptualized, implemented and funded by the state government. The software has been developed by the National Informatics Center, NIC.

10. Technologies
The software is running in two tire architecture. a. Client Server environment b. SQL Server 2000 as data base c. VB is used as front end.

11. Capacity building

The project has been a success due to the various capacity building efforts taken up by the project team. Work shops were organized to apprise the prison staff of the changes and the benefits that would accrue to them through the use of technology. Further, training on the new system was imparted to the concerned officials so that they are comfortable using the system.

12. Process Reforms

Capturing visitors details at the entrance of the Jail Digital identification of the prisoners. Capturing Thumb impression of all the prisoners. Capturing prisoners detail digitally.

The MIS website is used by the authorities to know the details of the prisoners for better decision making. The site also helps the jail authorities to manage the jail in uniform manner. Amendment of Cr.P.C. to allow production of prisoner through video-linkage

13. Project Financials/Sustainability

The project is fully funded by the Government of Jharkhand.

14. Project Teams and Leadership

Given the complexity and breadth of this project, interdepartmental teams composed of senior level officials had to devote time on the project. The organizations involved in bringing the project to fruition included DoIT, Law department, Home department, NIC, JAP-IT etc. Some of the key individuals who participated from these organizations were: Mr. R.S.Sharma, Principal Secretary, Information and Technology Deptt. He sanctioned Video Conferencing units between prison and court apart from the concept of RVJIS Mr. Sudhir Tripathy, Secretary, Home Department He approved the project and the allotment of resources for the various modules of the project Mr. Prashant Kumar, Secretary, Law Department He initiated the legal amendment of the Cr.P.C. i.e. process reengineering Mr. Sunil Barnwal, Inspector-General of Prisons and Addl. CEO, JAP-IT I was closely involved in all aspects of project implementation right from project conceptualization Mr. Shahid Ahmad, SIO, NIC He supported the project by using his team of software professional to develop the web enabled software for the project.

Further, as all the projects are prison oriented, all the prison Superintends, Jailors and Officers at the prison headquarter, particularly Mr. Deepak Kumar Vidyarthi, A.I.G. Prisons were keenly involved. Likewise, the video conferencing system at the Court end for the production of prisoners from jail required the involvement of District and Session Judge and concerned Chief Judicial Magistrate. The Acting Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court, Mr. M.Y. Iqbal, took keen interest in the said project.

15. Key project Outcomes

The project has been a great success. Some of the key services of the project are Complete record of prisoners individual and family details with health and educational background Complete record of activities performed by prisoner for the purpose of grant of remission by jail superintendent and Inspector-General as well as for inflicting punishment for breach of jail discipline. Updated record of Correctional program attended by Prisoner

Record of wages kept in prisoners account for work performed in Prison Prisoners case details, dates of production in different jails Biometric features of prisoners Prisoners history ticket Complete record of visitors meeting prisoner Adherence to Jail manual in terms of number of visits by visitor to meet a prisoner Web based MIS in offline mode with data being pushed everyday using SWAN. Some of the benefits that have accrued to various stakeholders due to this project are: Benefits to Prisons o Saving time and money on the movement of criminals for production in courts o Adherence to service levels in terms of number of visits to the jail by visitors to prisoners o Records of the criminals including their biometrics which ensures that the prisoners are not duplicated / someone else does not take place of a criminal in the jail while the criminal is allowed outside. O Information and MIS reports available to the top officials for planning and taking timely and informed decisions. Benefits to Prisoners and Visitors Adherence to jail manual means that the visitors and prisoners rights are not violated Capturing of the records of the criminals and also the progress in terms of correctional intervention ensures that there are better chances of the criminals being absorbed in the mainstream once they are out of the jail.

16. Service users Feedback Mechanism

The Government intends to institute third party audits for the measurement of satisfaction levels of the users. Though no study has been done till now to determine the satisfaction levels of the users, the information on the ground suggests that prison staff is happy with the implementation of the system as it helps them in doing their job effectively. Further, the top officials are satisfied because this system helps provides them with better information and records are available instantly. Further, the resource crunch in the prisons has also been alleviated to a certain extent as the prison staff that had to be deployed for producing prisoners in the courts can now be deployed for other tasks as the prisoners are produced using video conferencing facilities provided by the system.

17. Implementation Challenges

Technical difficulties and interdepartmental coordination in such large scale networking and computerization Solution: A highly competent team of professionals was mobilized to ensure that the complex and challenging tasks of networking all the prisons is managed properly. Further, to ensure that there is coordination amongst the departments an interdepartmental committee was formed with secretaries of the concerned departments as its member. This ensured timely resolution of all issues amongst the stake holders. Challenge

Cultural change to ensure that the employees support the system Solution: Workshops were conducted along with a general awareness campaign about the project and the benefits that would accrue to the respective stakeholders. This ensured that the employees supported the system implementation and cooperated for the same. Challenge Lack of computer skills amongst employees Solution: Extensive training of the employees for using computers and the application developed for the project was undertaken to ensure that the system once function could be used effectively. Challenge Convincing the government regarding the project Solution: The project team did extensive investigations on the ills of the manual system and communicated the benefits to all stakeholders due to the implementation of the project. Along with the persistence of the project team and support of related stakeholders such as courts, police etc. support for the project was mobilized.

18. Key Lessons learnt

With proper change management, departmental employees are happy to cooperate in ensuring the success of the e-Governance initiatives Doing a pilot before rolling out the project extensively ensures that no major disruptions happen due to the introduction of a new and untested system e-Governance projects are not only helping in saving time and money but also help in better adherence to the rules which in the manual system were easy to violate

Project Contact Details

Sunil Kumar Barnwal , IAS Inspector-General of Prisons (Dept. of Home) T. A. Division Building, HEC Campus, P.O.-Dhurwa, Ranchi-834004, Jharkhand skbarnwal@gmail.com