LAHORE: The Home Department and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) signed a MoU on July 2; 2014 after which Punjab Prison Department successfully completed computerization of information from different jails with the help of Prison Management Information System (PMIS).
This system was launched at Lahore’s District Jail on March 17, 2015 and has successfully developed database of more than 3,000 inmates by using an automated finger/palm print identification system a reliable source revealed to News Lens Pakistan.
PMIS is now launched at 20 prisons including Central Jails of Multan, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad and Mianwali having more than 2,000 inmates detained in each prison. Since its launch, the system has collected data (identity cards, addresses and thumb impressions) of 17000 inmates and their relatives.
The Inspector General of Punjab Prisons Farooq Nazir told News Lens Pakistan” PMIS has helped us ensuring prisoners are produced in court as per schedule and managing our day-to-day affairs of prisons. PMIS also include complete details of transfers, postings and records of leaves availed by the staff including superintendents of jails, deputy and assistant superintendents and wardens.”
The IGP while talking to News Lens Pakistan said that,” PMIS has helped us in collection of basic to complicated data of prisoners including his/her name, aliases, gender, caste, district, province, country, father and grandfather’s name, date of birth, marital status, number of children, name of spouse, permanent address, identification mark, scars, status, category, class, nature of offence, barrack number, thumbprints, address, education, the law they were sentenced under, the nature of offence, FIR number, name of police station, name of the trial court, appeals, medical and criminal history and behavior.”
A senior official of Prison Department on condition of anonymity admits to News Lens Pakistan that, ”PMIS faced problems in implementation due to lack of trained employees. In order to launch PMIS at 20 jails, a demand of 300 computer-trained staff was given to Punjab Government which was accepted immediately and the staff was provided.”
