Data of 34,352 under trial prisoners have been entered in the administrative module, ever since it has been piloted in Central Jail…

Seminar at Launch of Prison Management Information System (PMIS) in 20 Prisons of Punjab

Lahore, 10 August 2016. "There is a mark difference in entering the data electronically and manually, it saves time and is quick. Since 2014, we have entered data of 34,352 under trial prisoners in administrative module" said, Tujamal Hussain, Warder (Data Entry Supervisor), District Jail Lahore.

UNODC, hosted a Seminar at the launch of PMIS in 20 prisons of Punjab in collaboration with Prison Department of Punjab, where stakeholders from the international community (donors), representatives from civil society, and government officials were present; and were given the opportunity to learn about the new computerized automation system. 

PMIS is designed to facilitate the prisons' administration in operations such as Admission and Release, FIR, Under Sections and Warrants' Administration, Prisoners' Housing Management, Daily Court Production Management, Court Decisions and Sentence Management, Remission Management, Appeal Management for Convicted Prisoners, Management of Medical Treatment, Visitors' Management, and other miscellaneous subjects viz. Prison Offense Management, Cash Ledger, Belongings' Management, Children's Log, etc. The system also includes a Reporting Module for facilitating the several reports specified for presentation and utilization at different levels. UNODC is in addition providing the Punjab Prisons Departmentwith the necessary PMIS-related equipment including computers,biometric systems, networking,etc. 

Initially the system is being installed in 20 prisons across Punjab. The system was piloted at Camp Jail, Lahore and was replicated in 19 prisons throughout the province. Apart from this, basic training on PMIS is being conducted for prisons officials at the National Academy for Prisons Management (NAPA), towards better understanding and implementing the system in  their respective prisons. Training sessions on PMIS were also conducted for senior prisons officials of NAPA.

Building on the successful implementation of PMIS, the government of Punjab has approved a PC-1 of PKR 19 million for the enhancement of PMIS by including three more modules namely Human resources, Budgetary/financial and Inventory modules along with the required staff for PMIS. For the same an MoU has been signed between Punjab Prisons Department and Punjab Information Technology Board.

Addressing the participants Ms. Anne Bergenstrom, Officer in Charge UNODC, said it was now time, in fact the need of the hour, to move forward towards digitalization of prisons' data.  

She also assured the attendees of UNODC's continued support in enhancing the capacity of the Prisons Department; and acknowledged with thanks the generous support therein of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) USA.

 

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