Devastating Prison fire…Inmate Management System to assist in reproducing lost records
Jul 22, 2017 , http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....ducing-lost-records/
One of the outcomes of the massive destruction to the Georgetown Prisons more than a week ago was the destruction of records on prisoners that were held at the facility. However, with the use of the Inmate Management Information System, the Prison Service will be able to reproduce the records that were lost in the fire.
This was explained by Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels yesterday during a press conference at the Ministry of Public Security.
At the first press conference following the fire, Samuels was asked about the state of the records that were held at the Camp Street location. At that time, he said that about 97 percent of the warrants and 85 percent of other records were retrieved. He had explained that the warrants present a clear description of the person, their age, offence, and where the offence was committed.
He had said too that there were biological data that the prison service was able to capture from questioning the prisoners. According to Samuels, this, coupled with the warrants, can see the necessary records being reproduced.
Asked yesterday what is the status of rebuilding the database of records, Samuels said that the process has been started.
“I must say today that we do not have much work to do because most of our records were entered into our Inmate Management System, and fortunately for us, the hard drive is secured, so we will be able to retrieve from that almost all of the information on the prisoners.”
When asked how often the database is updated, he said that it is done daily from Monday to Friday by a special team of clerks that have been employed to so do.
During the last media briefing, Samuels had indicated that the back-up system for the computer database is not as functional as it should be, but improvements have been budgeted for in terms of enhancing the capabilities.
Immediately following the fire, concerns were raised regarding whether all the prisoners could have been accounted for. Family members had turned up at the Lusignan Prison demanding to see their incarcerated relatives or at least confirm that their loved ones did not perish in the blaze.
Samuels had explained in an earlier press conference that all prisoners, upon admission to the prison, are admitted with a warrant that possesses specific information about that individual. He said that a number is assigned to that person; a photograph is taken which is then matched against the description documented on the warrant. He also said that the only records that were not affected as a result of the blaze were the remand records, which are stored separately.