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AUTOMATED PRISON INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Dept: COMPUTER SCIENCE File: Word(doc) Chapters: 1-5 Views: 3

Abstract

Automated Prison management information system in Nigeria has long been a neglected area and has only recently been included in the 20-20 vision document under the e-governance. Currently, prisoner's records are maintained in a very rudimentary way in the form of manual files and registers. This method of data management often results in human error, delay to retrieve information etc. The aim of this study is to design and implement a workable automated system for prison management, thus, an Online Prison Management information System was designed and implemented to manage prisoner's records for the Nigerian prison service. The methodology adopted for this study is OOADM and is best applied iteratively since there is no clear process involved, but each aspect where OOADM is applied is refined as it is reused. This is because major portions of the designs are based on the entire aspects of the system and on the entities rather than on individual functions and code. This project was don

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

The primary objectives of prison systems are to maintain the care, custody, and control of inmates in order to prevent escapes, in addition to ensuring both the safety of both prison staff and inmates. The primary goal of prison management is to incapacitate inmates while providing rehabilitation and programmes; however, the goal of maintaining control within the prison system takes precedence over rehabilitation and treatment Craig (2004). Prison management system not only has the responsibility of monitoring inmate behavior, but must also monitor employee behavior and abuses. Prison staff is responsible for the care, custody, and control of inmates, and can only carry out the mission, goals, and objectives of the prison facility through effective and efficient management and leadership. According to Boesche, (2000), every prison system is structured around a model which distinguishes security level. Most prison systems are identified as super-max prisons, maximum-security prisons, close security prisons, medium security prisons, minimum security prisons, and specialized prisons. Prior to placement, prison personnel initiate a classification review of the inmate. The classification review evaluates the needs and risk of the offender to determine the best placement within the prison system. The evaluation process assesses the prisoner’s level of danger, length of sentence, gang affiliation, physical and/or mental health needs, and available treatment programmes. In recent times, computers are being applied to prison management and this has given rise to automated prison management information systems. An automated system for prison management is a computerized software system that aids the capturing and management of prisoner’s information such that it can be easily updated and retrieved when needed, Alderstein, (2001).

When considering prison automation, it is important to understand that prison is the “hub” of the local criminal justice system. As such, the prisons’ information needs (both inmate-specific and facility operations), and the needs of the local criminal justice system are dependent upon the adequacy of the automated jail management system. In order to address many of the problems facing jail management and local criminal justice systems and to more effectively and efficiently manage and plan local corrections, you must first understand and quantify the problem(s) i.e. jail crowding, trends in population characteristics, lack of adequate staffing, increased budget, etc. There are several commercial software solutions which do a decent job of providing for user’s daily processing needs. However, few of these software solutions have been designed to adequately provide for the manager, administrator, or planner’s needs. In addition, with the automation technologies available today, it is imperative that the automated prison management information system have the capacity to easily share information with other criminal justice management systems. According to Cooper, (2001), generally, in the past, any interfacing of local criminal justice management systems requires sole-source contracting with a single provider offering an integrated criminal justice management solution, i.e. prisons, courts, probation, prosecutor, records management, etc. This requires comprehensive, reliable and accessible data.

Prison is an institution designed to securely house people who have been convicted for crimes. These individuals, known as prisoners, are kept in continuous custody on a long-term basis. Individuals who commit the most serious crimes are sent to prison for one or more years; the more serious the offense, the longer the prison term imposed. For certain crimes, such as murder, offenders may be sentenced to prison for the remainder of their lifetime. When individuals are accused of violating criminal law, they are tried in a court and either convicted (found guilty) or acquitted (found not guilty). A person who is convicted is then sentenced—that is, assigned a specific punishment. The sentence may involve fines, probation (supervised release), or incarceration (confinement). Judges may sentence first-time offenders to probation instead of incarceration. Offenders convicted of more serious crimes and those who have prior criminal records may be sentenced to incarceration in either a jail or a prison, depending on the nature of the crime, Cooper, (2001).

With the rise in the application of information and communication technology, there are commercial and privatized software solutions that can be adopted to manage prison information so that it is secured, easily stored and retrieved. A prison management information system guarantees efficient management of prison data/information as against the paper based or flat file organization commonly in use. This has given rise to the concept of prison management systems.