Prison Management System Project Proposal

November
GPMS PROPOSAL BY MAK SYSTEMS

2, 2010
Executive Summary
1. Introduction
i. Executive Summary
ii. Project Charter
iii. Statement Of Purpose
iv. Goals
v. Project Description
vi. Recommendation
vii. Justification
viii. Scope
2. Project Work Break-Down Structure
i. Project Deliverables
ii. Major Milestones
3. Budget
4. Scope
i. Not in Scope
ii. Major Constraints
iii. Project Work Break-down Structures
iv. Deliverables
v. Major Milestones
5. References
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)
Nana Gyankumah Ghartey (B020907111)
Michael Kwaku Adongo (B020907008)
Nii Bonney Takyi-Mensah (B020907073)
November
2, 2010
The activities of the Ghana Prison’s Service in terms of records keeping has for a long time been
a huge problem to the service as there are no proper facilities in place to ensure that they are able
to store and retrieve information on prisoners very quickly. Records keeping are still done using
big-old files which have to be shelved once that file is full and then replaced with another and so
when the need comes to get information on prisoners, they will have to look through the old files
according to the dates they assume the information could have been stored and then go through
all files that were recorded during that period until the file is found. This very tiring and time-
consuming activity usually leaves them with no other option but to record the prisoner details
again the in the new file to avoid going through so much stress but which also calls for data
redundancies hence, data inconsistencies.
It is in this regard that MAK Systems, a Ghanaian based software development house has
proposed to develop a Prison’s Management System for the Ghana Prison’s Service to help them
ease up their operations. This Management System will ensure that there are no redundancies in
records hence checking for data integrity and also introduce a fingerprint capturing facility to
help them capture the fingerprints of prisoners. This will help deal with situations where jail
breakers change names and then when they are caught, the newly changed names are given as
their identity to prevent the prison’s service from knowing they have been in their records before.
This project, when completed, will have a graphical user interface to ensure that even the officer
with minimum knowledge in computers will be able to input data, view, edit and delete records
into the system’s database. It will also have a fingerprint reader which will be attached to the
system, to capture fingerprints of the prisoners and check against that of already captured
fingerprints to see if it matches any of them and then pop-up the record of the matching
fingerprint to enable the officers know who has been there before and who has records there
already which only has to be edited and not recorded wholly again.
The software is going to run on a distributed server which contains a centralized database to
which all other prisons connect through a Virtual Private Network(VPN) that is currently being
developed for use by only the Ghana Prison’s Service. This is to allow all the prisons across the
November
2, 2010
country to share a common database so that records of criminals in say, the Northern region is
made available even in Accra so when a criminal is brought from there, his information can
easily be accessed from here in Accra without any big folders having to accompany the prisoner.
The project is estimated to cost $180, 000. This figure includes the payment of staff to develop
the software, the purchase of computers and other accessories that will be used together with the
computer (such as the fingerprint readers), the transportation of research fellows to the various
prisons across the country and also training of staff of the prisons service.
The development of the system together with training of staff is estimated to take 7 months to
complete where 6 months would be used to develop the software and the subsequent month, used
to train staff of the service.
PROJECT CHARTER
PRISONS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

November
2, 2010
Project Title: Ghana Prison Management Application

Start Date: October 18th , 2010 End Date: May 5th , 2011
Project Manager: Nii Bonney Takyi-Mensah, +233 242 510 767, kwekutmen@hotmail.com
Project Objectives: Developing a Prison Management Application for the Ghana Prison Service. This is to
computerize the operation of this service and make it more efficient and effective.
Approach:
 Identify project Stakeholder

 Research on Prison Management System
 Data collection through (questionnaires with Prison Staff)
 Data collection through (interview with Prison staff)
 Observe prison operations
 Analyze data
 Develop Project Charter
 Develop Scope Statement
 Develop Prototype
 Develop Prison Application
 Testing functionalities
 Correct bugs found during testing
 Software Quality Assurance test
 Developing Technical and User Documentation
 System integration
 Training staff
 Project Sign-off
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY
NAME ROLE RESPONSIBILITY

Ghana Prison Service Sponsor Project Sponsor :Offer Direction to the project
Joel Koranteng Consultant Defining functionality and requirement of the proposed

November
2, 2010
Procurement Specialist system. Offer expert advice and also procures the required
material resources for the project, Settle bills related to
external consultation and outsourced software
Nii Bonney Takyi- Project Manager Plan and co-ordinate project activities. Monitor and control
Mensah System Analyst the project
Michael Kwaku IT Professional In charge of providing the required IT solutions to the

Adongo Programmer project, and also procures the required material resources
for the project, Settle bills related to external consultation
Procurement Specialist
and outsourced software
Nana Gyankumah Quality Assurance Ensures that metrics for measuring quality are adhered to.
Ghartey IT Professional Measures each deliverable against the stated metrics.
Sign off: (Signatures of all the above stakeholders)

Ghana Prison Service IT Director
Nii Bonney Takyi-Mensah
Joel Koranteng
Nana Gyankumah Ghartey
Michael Kwaku Adongo
Comments:
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The Ghana Prisons Service is an integral part of the Ghanaian penal system and is charged with
the responsibility of ensuring safe custody, welfare, reformation and rehabilitation of prisoners.
To ensure proper safe keeping of prisoners which is a core function of the prison service, there
should be a central monitoring system which will be based on proper records keeping. This is
because no significant analysis or projections can be made without reference to an underlying

November
2, 2010
guiding document. These are usually documents with integrity either as a result of its source or
how it is captured and stored. Paper based record keeping has no mechanism in place to ensure
that, data inconsistencies and redundancies are checked and so are usually very unreliable in
terms of making factual policies based on them. The proposed system, when developed will have
a database which has constraints put in place to check the integrity of data that is stored in it and
so information from the database can to a larger extent, be used for policy formulation and
forecasting as it will represent the exact figures that they prison service deals with.
Conditions in our prisons are getting worse and we believe that is based on poor planning and
policy formation which all emanate from the lack of accurate information to be used. Our prisons
are over-crowded and it is not clear what the exact number of prisoners in a particular cell and
the entire prison are. There is even a problem of knowing how many of them are males and how
many are females, the number of juveniles and that of adults. This information when accurately
given, can help the government and other agencies to support the service expand its resources.
Some of the problems faced by the prison’s service include:

 Loss of prisoner’s data because of improper records.
 Inaccurate records of prisoner’s data.
 Duplicate Information of Prisoners.
 Prisoners are placed in remand for a long time without trial because of loss of data.
The above problems will all be addressed by the proposed system when developed and deployed.
GOALS
The main goal of the proposed system is to automate the processes of the Ghana Prison’s Service
to improve their performance and also realize the need to advance to paper-based record keeping
to computerized operations. Some of the goals of the system are listed below:
 To create a distributed system that will be used by all the prisons across the country to share
a common database.

November
2, 2010
 To ensure that data capturing is done using computers for easy access.
 To add a fingerprint capturing facility to help the prisons service get biometric details of
prisoners so that they are identified once they are brought to the station.
 To view and edit records of prisoners in real-time so that accurate figures can be given as and
when needed.
 To keep all information about the prisoners such as their family details and background
information so that some knowledge is gained at least about the reasons why people commit
crimes and also the sections of people who usually fall into the criminal category as a result
of friendship or hereditary.
 Reduce the work load of the prisons officers in collating prisoner information.
 Manage large number of prisoner details collected in the database.
 Create statistical reports to facilitate the finance department’s work.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Objectives of the Proposed System:
The primary goals of this project is to computerize the Ghana prison service’s operations, turn
the manual into automated operations for easier management, speed up operations for better
record keeping and to help management make better decisions.
The objectives of this project has been outlined in the following figure

November
2, 2010
Figure 1.
Objectives Success Indicators

To Study the existing infrastructure and  Identifying all stakeholders
system in use so as to identify the current  Have a meeting with the
stakeholders. stakeholders.
 Placing each stakeholder in a
stakeholder matrix to manage
expectations.
To agree on a framework designed and  Senior Management Team
ready for implementation at the pilot site approval to proceed
(Nsawam Correctional facility)  Approval from Prison Director
Identification of a set of best practices that  Produce a document detailing

lead to an improvement of the current current problems and ICT
approaches solutions
To minimize the amount of paper work  Replace manual operations with

required, reduce operations cost. ICT technologies.
 Prison heads login and query

database for information.
To provide an automated channel for the
Prison heads to request information.
ICT Training and development  Skills analysis

opportunities identified for prison staff  Training prison staffs to use basic
ICT technologies.
 Training prison staffs to use
implemented technologies.

November
2, 2010
Recommendation
A prison management information system should provide factual information for decision
making in the service.
A good system for Prisons Service should be an automated management information system to
operate over time and for longer hours non-stop. The interface should make it possible for the
integrated system and the users to collect data, automate processes and formulate the work of
multiple decision makers from different levels in the service. The proposed system computerizes
the operations of the prison officers.
Justification
In recent year’s news report, radio debates and television shows have focused on the poor
treatment, policies and improper records of prisoners in Ghana. The Ghana prisons service
currently uses old traditional ways of recording and keeping relevant data about prisoners. The
growth of the prison population has required more complex management of the prisons.
This application comes to address these issues and provide proven and acceptable solutions to
these problems faced by the service and also importantly, reduce current operational costs being
incurred.
Scope
All of the functionalities have been grouped into three categories, these categories are explicitly
stated below for this project. They are:
Criminal Records Management
1. Complete record of prisoner’s individual and family details with health and educational
background
2. Record biometric features of prisoners
November
2, 2010
3. Record and view prisoner’s case details

4. Add Gang Affiliations (if any)
5. Update record of Correctional program attended by Prisoner
Prison Management System
6. Complete record of visitors meeting prisoner

7. Automatic refusal of visitor to meet a prisoner having visitor at frequency more than that
provided in the jail manual
8. Record of wages kept in prisoner’s account for work performed in Prison
9. Automatic allocation of prisoner cell numbers and prisoner numbers based on character
traits.
10. Record incident Log and disciplinary actions
11. Automated release diary generator
12. Parole register
Personnel Management System
13. Prison Officers’ complete details with health and educational background as well as rank
14. Record biometric features of prison officers
15. Assign and view departments and prison location.
16. Assign and view Duty Roster
Not in Scope
The Prison Management application does not include;
 Payroll functions for prison officers

 Transport Management System
 Prison Property Management
 Forecasting, Budgeting and Financial
 Procurement Management System

November
2, 2010
Method
Developing an application of this magnitude and importance needs the input of all stakeholders
before implementation is done. We plan using Nsawam Correctional as case study for the
application. We will first have an unstructured face to face interview with the prison service
departmental heads in other to familiarize ourselves with the current operations and the sort of
data that is being used. With this data, we will start analyzing what sort of data we need and this
will inform us about the questions we need to ask for the next phase.
The second phase questionnaires will be sent to prison officers in Nsawam to get more
information and see what they think about the having an information system deployed to help
their operation. Prison officer will be sampled based on ranks, position and gender and these
questionnaires will be shared and answered by only 30 personals. The structured questionnaire
will be a set of both closed and opened ended questions which makes it easy for analysis of the
data collected as opened ended questions allows the interviewer to probe further when
clarification is needed.
The next phase will be to observe and learn the basic operations involved in the prisons to see
how different shift occurs and see how prison officers monitor and control the service.
This next phase involves using analytical tools to analyze the data collected and getting clear and
informed information on what the application should do.
The development process adopted by the team is a waterfall model. The waterfall model
proceeds from one phase to the next in a sequential manner. First we complete requirements
specification based on our analysis. We then plan on exactly what has to be achieved at the end
of the project. We then proceed to the design phase where we determine how the goals set forth
are going to be met and how the deliverables are going to be achieved. This will be done by
making a blueprint for the designers (programmers and developers) to help them have a fair idea

November
2, 2010
of what is expected of the system and what should be included in it and what should not. When
the design is complete, an implementation of that design is made by coders.
In the implementation stage the application is actually developed based on the information
gathered from interviews, research, analysis and literature review performed in the previous
phases. The aim is to develop a Prison Management System that will eliminate the problems
associated with the existing system, improve the operations and eventually deliver the identified
requirements.
The major activities that will take place and when have been broken down in the figure provided
below for clearer understanding of the project activities.
Project Work Break-down Structures
Figure 2. List of project WBS
WBS# WBS Element Description Person Date

responsible
1 Project Management Activities and documents related to Project Director October
managing the GPMA project until the Consultant 18th, 2010
system is fully operational. Including Systems Analyst - May 2nd
project planning, execution, 2011
monitoring, and reporting.
2 Research phase In this period of time, the system will Project Director October
be familiarized, and any Consultant 18th –
accompanying documentation and Novembe
research papers will be studied. That Systems Analyst r 6th, 2010
is read books and other materials and
research on the prison structures and
operations

November
2, 2010
3 Identify stakeholders Locate all persons or groups that will Project Director 8th
be affected by the project. Consultant Novembe
r, 2010
3.1 Contact prison Communicate with the senior officers Project Director 9th
directors and heads and heads to know what they think Consultant Novembe
about the project. r, 2010
3.2 identify stakeholders, Communicate with other staff and Project Director 10th
place them in various identify them and place them in a Consultant Novembe
stakeholder matrix stakeholder matrix in other to r, 2010
categories manage expectations better.
4 Requirement Getting the user requirements that the Project Director 11th
Gathering GPMA must meet in order to be Consultant Novembe
accepted. r – 12th
Novembe
r, 2010
4.1 Operations observation Observe and watch everyday Project Director 15th
operations of the prison system Consultant Novembe
r, 2010
4.2 Interview sampled Send out questionnaires to prison Project Director 16th – 19th
stakeholder officers to verify some information Consultant Novembe
collected and get more information r, 2010
4.3 Analyze Requirement Here the project team studies the Systems Analyst 20th – 27th
gathered information gathered to better Project Director Novembe
understand what the project is about r, 2010
5 System modeling and Design, simulation and modeling of Systems Analyst 29th – 4th
specification the specification’s main system Decembe
components to verify layouts, r, 2010
hardware specification and
requirement.
5.1 Refine the Analyze the requirements and refine Systems Analyst 6th – 11th
requirements what the system is supposed to do Decembe
r
5.2 Project prototype Develop a very simple prototype as a Systems Analyst 13th -21st
proof of concept Decembe

November
2, 2010
r, 2010
6 Project construction Implement the functionalities as Development team 3rd
described in the requirements, January –
analysis, and design documents 18th
March,
2011
6.1 Testing functionalities Test the implemented functionality Systems Analyst 15th – 28th
Project Director March,
2011
7 Testing, Monitoring While project is being implemented Systems Analyst Througho
we will be monitoring to make sure Project Director ut project
we are on track also testing the duration
system when we are done
7.1 Software Quality Independent systems testing and Consultant 29th
Assurance quality assurance. Focuses on March –
verifying that the software meets the 4th April,
functional and technical requirements 2011
and the concept of operations.
7.2 System integration and Perform integration testing, system Development team 2nd – 4th
test testing, and acceptance testing Taking April,
Perform integration GPMA live but bit by bit replacing 2011
testing, system testing, the old system, while testing the
and acceptance testing. system.
7.3 Technical and User Documentation to operate, maintain Development team 5th – 18th
Documentation and use the GPMA system. April,
2011
8 Training Staff Teaching staff to use GPMA Development team 19th April
– 3rd May,
2011
9 System installation, Finally deploying the application and Development team 4th – 5th
commissioning and signing off with the customer Systems Analyst May,
handover Project Director 2011
10 Closing Project Documenting major deliverables, Project Director 5th April,
checking against the requirements 2011
and signing off the project.
Deliverables
November
2, 2010
Figure 3. List of project deliverables.
GPMS Deliverables
Deliverables Due Date
GPMS Project Plan 2nd May 2011
GPMS Concept of Operations 11th December
GPMS Deployment/Transition Plan 5th May, 2011
GPMS System Test Plan 28th March, 2011
GPMS User Guide V1.0 18th April, 2011
GPMS Training Plan 3rd May, 2011
Major Milestones
Table 4. List of major milestones
GPMS Major Milestones
Milestone Description Planned Date

Planning Phase Concept of Operations and GPMS plan 21st
Completed completed and software and consulting December,
services acquired 2010
Software Construction Software developed according to user 18th March,
Completed specification. 2011
Pilot Begins GPMS ready to begin deploying to one 2nd April,
location for testing purpose. 2011
Acceptance Testing GPMS software validated against 4th April, 2011
Completed requirements and accepted for operational
use
Full Implementation GPMS finally deployed in all the sectors. 4th – 5th May,
Begins 2011
Deployment GPMS users a full using the application for 5th April,
Completed the operations. 2011
November
2, 2010
Prepared by: Joel Koranteng

Role: PROCUMENT SPECIALIST
EQUIPMENT and SOFTWARES
Items
Quantity
Unit Price
(GHS)
Total
(GHS)
Laptop
• 2Gb RAM
November
2, 2010
• 250GB hard disk
space
• 256MB memory VGA Graphics Card
700.00
850.00
Fingerprint Device
300.00
1200.00
Visual Studio Team Suite 2008
50.00
200.00
Internet Connection
 Provider Tele data ICT

For 5 PC , 7 months
November
2, 2010
201.00
1206.00
Web cam
20.00
80.00
Printer
200.00
400.00
GRAND TOTAL
1,471.00
3,936.00
Personnel
Person
Income
Total for the duration
(7 month)
Project Manager
November
2, 2010
2,000.00
14,000.00
System Analyst
1,800.00
12,600.00
Programmer
1,500.00
10,500.00
Procurement Manager
1,000.00
7,000.00
Software Quality Controller
1,100.00
7,700.00
Consultant
1,500.00
10,500.00
System Tester

November
2, 2010
700.00
4,900.00
GRAND TOTAL
9,600.00
67,200.00
Others
Items Amount Total for the duration
(7 month)
Telephone 1.230.00 8,610.00
Office Supplies 1,190.00 8,330.00
Rent 500.00 3,500.00
Local Travel & Expenses 1,000.00 7,000.00
Copy/Printing 200.00 1,400.00
Transportation 1,500.00 10,500.00

November
2, 2010
Medical Services* 2000.00 14,000.00
GRAND TOTAL 7,620. .00 5,3340.00
Grand Total
Items Amount (per Total for the duration

month)
(7 month)
PERSONNEL 9,600.00 67,200.00
EQUIPMENT / SOFTWARES 1,471.00 3,936.00
OTHER SERVICES 7,620 .00 5,3340.00
GRAND TOTAL 18,691.00 12,4476.00

November
2, 2010
References
1. STATE OF MICHIGAN, RECORDS MANAGEMENT MANUAL FOR LOCAL

GOVERNMENTS, Records Management Services, July 27, 2010.
2. J. Douglas Walker Consultant, Knowledge and Information Services, National Center for
State Courts
3. Wexler, H., De Leon, G., Thomas, G., Kressel, D., & Peters, J. (1999). The Amity Prison
TC Evaluation: Reincarceration outcomes. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 26(2), 147-
167.
4. Alexander, J., and J. Austin. 1992. Handbook for Evaluating Objective Prison
Classification Systems. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute
of Corrections.
5. http://www.egovonline.net/articles-list/47-features/8109-prison-management-and-visitor-
management-system.html
6. Mugoya, B. F. Musumba, (2006). An integrated management information system.
7. RCM TECHNOLOGIES CANADA CORP. Case Study – Prison Management

Applications.

November
2, 2010
8. Isaac OTOO SIAW, MAWULI ADDO, WILBERFORCE PAUL, BENEDICTA

AGYEMANG BROBBEY(2009), AUTOMATED LIBRARY MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM Project Proposal
9. www.prisonministryghana.org/prisons.html
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prison&action=edit
11. Industrial Project Management (IEIM6004), Proposal Template
12. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Engineering and Construction Management Project
Plan for the Project Assessment and Reporting System (PARS II) Version 2.0a (Public)
April 20, 2009


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November

GPMS PROPOSAL BY MAK SYSTEMS

PRISONS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

Project Title: Ghana Prison Management Application

 Identify project Stakeholder

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY

NAME ROLE RESPONSIBILITY

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

Michael Kwaku IT Professional In charge of providing the required IT solutions to the

Sign off: (Signatures of all the above stakeholders)

Nii Bonney Takyi-Mensah

Nana Gyankumah Ghartey

Michael Kwaku Adongo

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

Some of the problems faced by the prison’s service include:

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

 Manage large number of prisoner details collected in the database.

 Create statistical reports to facilitate the finance department’s work.

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

Objectives Success Indicators

Identification of a set of best practices that  Produce a document detailing

To minimize the amount of paper work  Replace manual operations with

 Prison heads login and query

ICT Training and development  Skills analysis

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

Criminal Records Management

3. Record and view prisoner’s case details

6. Complete record of visitors meeting prisoner

Personnel Management System

The Prison Management application does not include;

 Payroll functions for prison officers

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

Project Work Break-down Structures

Figure 2. List of project WBS

WBS# WBS Element Description Person Date

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

Figure 3. List of project deliverables.

Table 4. List of major milestones

GPMS Major Milestones

Milestone Description Planned Date

Prepared by: Joel Koranteng

EQUIPMENT and SOFTWARES

• 250GB hard disk

• 256MB memory VGA Graphics Card

Visual Studio Team Suite 2008

 Provider Tele data ICT

Total for the duration

Software Quality Controller

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

Items Amount Total for the duration

Telephone 1.230.00 8,610.00

Office Supplies 1,190.00 8,330.00

Rent 500.00 3,500.00

Local Travel & Expenses 1,000.00 7,000.00

Copy/Printing 200.00 1,400.00

Transportation 1,500.00 10,500.00

Members: Joel Koranteng (B020907056)

Medical Services* 2000.00 14,000.00

GRAND TOTAL 7,620. .00 5,3340.00

Items Amount (per Total for the duration

PERSONNEL 9,600.00 67,200.00