Press Release

  

Operations in 20 Prisons of Punjab  are getting Computerized and Automated

Seminar at the launch of Prison Management Information System (PMIS) in Prisons of Punjab

Lahore, 10 August 2016 - The number of prisoners are increasing due to the increased crime rate, present security challenges and bulging population in Pakistan and the current issues of over-crowding in prisons, mixing of high risk and low risk prisoners, out of date legislation, out of date rules / operating procedures, lack of electronic record keeping system, lack of prison staff training and capacity building. For this the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Pakistan, in collaboration with Punjab Prisons Department designed a Prison Management Information System (PMIS) to computerize and automate the prisoner's related matters and day to day operations in Prisons. 

UNODC, today, hosted a Seminar at the launch of Prison Management Information System (PMIS) in 20 prisons of Punjab, where stake holders from international community (Donors and representatives from the civil society) and government officials were present and were given the opportunity to have awareness on the new computerized automation system. 

The PMIS is designed to facilitate the Prisons Administration in the operations like Admission and Release, FIR, Under sections and warrants administration, Prisoner's Housing Management, Daily Court Production Management, Court Decisions and Sentence Management, Remission Management, Appeal Management for convicted prisoners, Management of Medical Treatments, Visitors Management and other miscellaneous Features like Prison Offense Management, Cash Ledger, Belongings Management, Children Log etc. This system also includes a reporting module which is used to extract several reports to be utilized and presented at different levels. UNODC is also providing PMIS to Punjab Prisons Departmentalongwith necessary equipment including computers,biometric systems, networkingetc. 

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

While addressing the participants Ms. Anne Bergenstrom, Officer in Charge UNODC, thanked Mr. Azam Suleiman Khan, Home Secretary Punjab, Mr. Shoaib Akbar, Special Secretary Home, Mr. Mian Farooq Nazir, Inspector General Prisons and Asad Ullah Faiz, Additional Secretary Home , and all participants from the government of Punjab and the international community for Supporting the important initiative to implement Prison Management Information System (PMIS) in Punjab. She also said it is time and need of the hour to move forward towards digitalization of the Prisons data.  She also informed the participants, what steps UNODC has been taken for the capacity building of prison department.

  • More than 17 training sessions for lower, mid and upper rank prison officials on 17 specialized modules
  • Training of Trainers courses for Prison officials
  • PMIS in 20 Prisons of Punjab
  • Draft Prisons Rules for Punjab

At the end, she assured that UNODC will continue its support to enhance the capacity of Prisons department and thanked the generous support of the Kingdom of Denmark and Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) USA.

For further information and confirmation please contact Ms. Rizwana Asad, Communications Officer, cell: 0301 8564255, email: rizwana.asad@unodc.org 

UNODC Islamabad

10 th August 2016