Prison management system

��Case Study: Prison Management System�

Case Study:

Prison Management System

(Implementation�at�Arthur�Road�

Prison�and�way�forward�for�

implementation�at�other�Prisons�of�

Maharashtra)�

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Submitted�by:��

Rahul�Singh,�Sr.�Consultant,�KPMG�


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Abstract

Prison Department, Government of Maharashtra has implemented Prison

Management System (PMS) at Mumbai Central Prison and Mumbai District Prison,

in the year 2010 on pilot basis, with a vision to scale up PMS to all prisons across

Maharashtra. However, due to certain challenges the department is in the process of

evaluation of different options/solutions available to computerize different prisons

across Maharashtra. This case study provides experiences/learning from the pilot

project, snapshot of various available PMS options/solutions and brief on the way

forward for implementation of PMS at various other prisons across Maharashtra.


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1 Background

The Prison Department is an independent Department under the administrative

control of Home Department of Government of Maharashtra.

At present there are 9 Central Prisons, 28 District Prisons/Jails, 5 Open Prisons, 1

Open colony and 172 Sub- Prisons/Jails exists under Maharashtra Prison

Department.

Prison Department is headed by the Inspector General of Police (Prison) and it is

divided into four regions. Each region is headed by a Dy. Inspector General of Police

(Prison).

Prison Department has implemented Prison Management System (PMS) at Mumbai

Central Prison, Arthur Road Mumbai and Mumbai District Prison, Byculla Mumbai.

The implementation started in the year 2010 on a pilot basis, with a vision to

implement it at various Prisons across Maharashtra depending on the success of

Pilot Project.

Arthur Road Jail was built in 1926 and is Mumbai's largest and oldest Jail/Prison. It

houses most of the city's prisoners. It was upgraded in 1994 to become a Central

Prison and given its current official name, but it is still popularly referred to as Arthur

Road Jail. The jail has an area of around 2 acres and the average number of

inmates around 2000 at a point of time.

2 Challenges

The broad functions of a prison or a jail is to keep record of inmates,

establishment/administrative functions, visitors management, court cases related

functions, record of work allocation to prisons, record prisoners personal belongings,

hospital/dispensary management etc.

In order to perform the above mentioned functions efficiently and effectively there is

a need of an IT system at jail or prison level. In view of this Maharashtra Prison

Department has initiated implementation of Prison Management System at Mumbai

Central Prison, Arthur Road Mumbai and Mumbai District Prison, Byculla Mumbai as

a pilot project in year 2010.

The PMS application is implemented to maintain record of inmates, automate

establishment/administrative function and functions of other sections of prison. But

there are certain operational problems/issues while using the PMS system as

reported by the officials of Mumbai Central Prison these are listed at Annexure 1

On the other hand there are certain issues highlighted by the implementation agency

(M/s Aims Global Limited), these are listed at Annexure 2


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Overall the challenges/issues in the existing PMS may be due to lack of initial

support to the development agency resulting in partial/incomplete requirement

analysis by the development agency, not providing possible inputs and interventions

at the time of application development and, lack of project management and hand

holding support by development agency.

3 Solution implemented

The Mumbai Central Prison has signed contract with the consortium of M/s KBS

Computers Pvt. Limited and M/s Aims Global Limited (M/s AGL) to provide the

necessary hardware, system software licenses and the PMS software developed by

M/s Aims Global Limited.

Overview of the system implemented at Mumbai Central Prison:

• It is a client server based system deployed at the prison premise with no/limited

access to internet due to security reasons.

• M/s KBS Computer Private Limited has provided at the all hardware components

such as servers, desktops, multifunctional printers, system software licenses etc.

at present the contract of M/s KBS Computer Private Limited is nonexistent hence

no hardware support is provided.

• The PMS application is developed by M/s AGL, and automated various functions

such as record of prisoner right from entry to exit, establishment section, lab,

pharmacy, OPD, canteen ration and cloth management. However it may be

inferred that automation of existing process has been done without considering

process reengineering prior to automation of the process/sub-process. As per the

contract the IPR is owned by M/s AGL and the annual maintenance contract was

recently renewed and there was a period when no support was provided by M/s

AGL.

Initially, it was envisaged that if the PMS system is successful, then it would be

scaled up and may be implemented at various prisons across Maharashtra. But due

to various reasons the implementation at Mumbai Central Prison is not considered a

fully successful system. The list of problems in the PMS software as identified by the

prison officials are listed at Annexure 1 and the problems as identified by the team

of M/s Aims Global Limited are listed at Annexure 2.


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In view of this, the Prison Department considered other options for computerization

of major prisons across Maharashtra, during the month of November 2012 Prison

Department has evaluated Prison Management System of M/s Goa Electronics

Limited (GEL) and National Informatics Limited (NIC). A comparative analysis of

these two solutions along with PMS of M/s AGL is enclosed at Annexure 3.

Prison Department is keen to implement M/s GEL’s system at Yerwada Prison, Pune

and one more relatively small prison, but with customizations in the available

system/software. But issues related to support (M/s GEL not having a local office),

provisioning of funds (who will bear the cost), handholding and continuous training of

the staff are few of the major concerns.

4 Benefits realized

Although, no major process reengineering was undertaken before development of

various modules of the PMS implemented at Mumbai Central Prison, hence the

benefits realized are in terms of availability of data. At present the data entry of

details of prisoners and visitors is done by the prison staff resulting in development

of database of prisons and their details. In the manual system it was difficult to track

the details of a particular prisoner such as amount of money he brought initially,

money spent at canteen, when was the prisoner sent to court on trial, medical history

etc. At present these details are available in the PMS system provided the data entry

is done by the concerned staff.

5 Awards and recognitions

M/s Aims Global Limited has presented the solution at multiple forums such as

Bureau of Police Research and Development, Ministry of Home Affairs and to the

representative of other major prisons across various states.

6 Conclusion

At present the Prison Department envisages to computerize all prisons/jails across

Maharashtra and evaluation of various options/existing systems is under process. At

this juncture it may be prudent consider the experiences of Mumbai Central Prison.

Also, decision is needs to be taken by the Prison Department to go ahead by giving

the project to some identified vendor on nomination basis or to consider adoption of

formal tendering process.


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7 Acknowledgement

The information is based on discussions held with the officials of Arthur road prison

and team of M/s Aims Global Limited and the documents shared by M/s GEL.

8 Appendix

Annexure 1: Problems/issues with PMS as identified by officials of

Mumbai Central Prison

a) The prisoner number (sole identity of the prisoner) is not assigned incremental

manner as a result the system may have different prisoner number than the

actual number assigned.

b) At the time of entry the details of prisoner are captured, but during bail again the

entry of all the details have to be done in a separate module and in case of the

release the initial entry does not get deleted automatically, resulting in

discrepancies. This problem is due to lack of integration between various

modules.

c) Provision to update the prisoner details is not there, due to this if a prisoner is

returning (post bail or parole or in any other case) a new case/prisoner detail has

to be entered.

d) Admission register and release register has proper entry, still the system shows

wrong total of inmates

e) Date wise entry report of prisoner is not available

f) In case of the medical visit of the prisoner, medical details are not shown in the

reports

g) In case of ration and cloth module even if shortage/excess is entered the stock

figure in the system does not change

h) Date of conviction/punishment is entered during capturing initial details but it is

not available in the reports

i) In the Prisoner Private Cash Management Module have problems with respect to

auto update of cash balance at all places.

j) Problems are being faced with the hardware/computers, LAN setup provided.

Annexure 2: Problems/issues as identified by the team of M/s AGL

a) Lack related to lack of continuous training and proper record of training resulting

in staff deliberately highlighting that no formal training session is conducted

b) Lack of manpower (for operating PMS and data entry),

c) Continuation of manual system resulting in duplication of work at the ground level

by the prison staff,

d) Non continuation of annual maintenance contract for hardware and software,


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e) Issues related to hygiene factors, backup and access procedures at the prison

premise

Annexure 3: Snapshot of the three systems

Functionality PMS at Arthur

Road Prison

PRIMS of M/s

GEL

Integrated Prison

Managements of

NIC

Prisoner Information

management � � �

Prisoners Property

Management Module � � �

Prisoners movement tracking � � �

Prisoner Cash Management

Module � � �

Prisoner Pharmacy/Medicine

inventory Management

Module

� � �

Prisoner Medical details


Visitor Information


Prisoner Work Allocation and

Monitoring Module � � �

Remission Management

Module � � �

Gate Management Module � � �

Victim management Module � � �

Parole Management Module � �

Canteen Management Module � � �

Under-trail Detention Alarm

System � � �

Staff Duty Register � � �

Victim Compensation Fund � � �

Correctional Program

attended Information � � �

Court information

management module � � �

Ration and Cloth Management � � �

Grievance Redressal � � �

Escape Management � � �

Automation of

Establishment/Administrative

section

� � �

MIS Reports � � �


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Functionality PMS at Arthur

Road Prison

PRIMS of M/s

GEL

Integrated Prison

Managements of

NIC

Capturing Biometric Details of

Prisoners � � �

Videoconferencing � � �

Technology Client Server

(Browser based) Web based Client Server

Touch Screen Kiosks � � �

LAN Setup � � �

Prison management system

Law

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