BENGALURU: With the state prisons department going high-tech, everything related to the prison, be it administration or details about the inmates, has gone online. Very soon, people can book their appointments online to visit any inmates in the prison.
The entire project has been implemented under the Digital India programme that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. However, the work of digitalising the functioning of prisons was on for a long time, when ADGP K.V. Gagandeep was heading the department.
Mr Manjunath, an official in the research wing and also in charge of the e-prisons project, has coordinated with the central government and introduced various online facilities in the state prisons, using software developed by the National Informatics Centre.
The prison department in the state is the first to go digital in the country. The facility will help the prison staff to easily maintain information related to prisoners and visitors. The medical details of the inmates and the status of their cases will also be online.
The details of the inmates will be updated based on personal bio, fingerprint, voice and iris. Also, the photographs of inmates will be updated on a regular basis. After their release, the police stations where cases are registered against them will be alerted through SMS.
Video conferencing
With the e-prisons project, the prison department can now hold video-conferencing between courts and the prison, which has been approved by the government. Going a step forward, the department has also planned to facilitate videoconferencing between inmates and their family members, relatives or friends.
“As people have to travel a lot to visit their family members in jail, we have planned to introduce video conferencing for them. But the government is yet to give its nod. It is also subject to release of funds from the central government, which is expected in a few months,” an official said.
Online appointment
The online appointment process will be fool-proof as the photograph, address, relationship with the prisoner, thumb impression, etc. will be collected from the visitors. It will be implemented in two months.
