New Prison Records Management System (PRISM)

Sopra Group was chosen by the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) to design and implement its new Prison Records Management System (PRISM).

A single-integrated database was designed to replace the existing multiple IT and paper-based systems to provide NIPS officers with up-to-date information at the click of a mouse.

Under the terms of the contract Sopra Group was asked to deliver a complete in-house project managed service.

Background

As an executive agency of the Northern Ireland Office (NIO), the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) is committed both to the use of new technology and the need to integrate and share information more efficiently and securely with various bodies within the Criminal Justice System.  NIPS is responsible for the care of more than 1,400 prisoners and employs some 2,000 people in five sites across the country.

NIPS identified a need to introduce a new Prison Record & Inmate System Management (PRISM) application to provide staff with up-to-date and reliable information to help manage prison inmates more efficiently.  It had become clear that using a mix of different IT and manual information management systems was outdated, unnecessarily time consuming and had resulted in the duplication of records, which meant that staff had a lack of confidence in the information currently provided.

The business case for developing PRISM was based on 3 principal requirements:

• The need to automate a number of existing manual practices to make them more efficient and cost effective.
• The need to improve the way in which existing IS/IT services were provided through the rationalisation and integration of existing systems to avoid duplication, and produce more meaningful and accurate data.
• The need to enhance the quality and scope of the existing services and transform the way in which they were delivered in accordance with the requirements of the NIO.

Solution

Because of its flexible approach to applications development and end-to-end capability – including specialist testing and security skills - Sopra Group was chosen by NIPS in 2002 to deliver the seven-year multi-million pound PRISM project.  Sopra Group's prior experience of developing IT systems for state psychiatric hospitals in Carstairs and Ashworth was seen as particularly valuable, and since the beginning of the PRISM project Sopra Group has also developed and implemented the Scottish Prison Service's Prisoner Records System.

One of the key aspects of the project was the security of the sensitive information that would be stored within the system.  Consequently, information security experts were involved from the outset, and at the integration stage a final IT health check of the entire system was undertaken to certify that it was compliant with the required "Confidential" classification.

A Sopra Group team was based on site in Northern Ireland and worked closely with NIPS throughout the duration of the project.  The system was built using Sopra Group's flexible delivery model with testing being carried out offshore.  When implementing the system, data migration was carried out from the existing systems and user manuals were drawn up to help train key users.

Benefits

The new system enabled NIPS to manage inmates throughout their life in prison from committal through to final discharge by providing the following:

• Real-time information – providing every user with online, real-time access to relevant and job-specific information.
• Removal of duplication – dispensing with the numerous and cumbersome old paper records to provide more up-to-date and reliable information.
• Elimination of tasks – removing or simplifying many tasks which used to be complex or error prone.
• Standardisation – developing processes in PRISM that are now standard across all establishments, but are flexible enough to deal with the specific needs of each establishment from the Young Offenders Institute to High Security Prison.

Feedback from PRISM users has been very positive so far, and the implementation of the system has had a real impact on easing prison staff's day-to-day workload.

Current And Future Developments

In line with the move towards joined up justice, some of the information stored on PRISM will be shared with other Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Organisations through a programme called Causeway.  This joint enterprise involves 6 agencies including the Police Service, Prison Service, Probation Service, Court Service, Forensic Service and Public Prosecution Service.  The Causeway Programme seeks to improve the speed and efficiency of the criminal justice process within Northern Ireland by permitting all Criminal Justice Organisations to exchange information electronically - this requires changes both to the PRISM application and NIPS business practices. 

Sopra Group will work closely with NIPS and the Causeway Team throughout each of the project's three phases to ensure successful execution of the programme:

Phase 1 – Case preparation between various Criminal Justice Organisations.

Phase 2 – Court and prison committals.

Phase 3 – Release, probation and sex offender information.

NIPS is currently involved in phases 1 & 2 of the project, and Sopra Group has implemented the system changes required to enable the integration between the PRISM and the Causeway central systems, which are now in User Acceptance Testing.

"Faced with one of the biggest ever changes to our IT systems, we were looking for more than a systems implementer with the right technical skills, we were looking for a partner we could trust.  Sopra Group not only provided the expertise we required but were a fully-integrated part of the NIPS team.  We found them to be very accommodating and they went the extra mile to ensure that the system met our extensive requirements."

Walter Dunlop, PRISM Project Manager