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Success Story
Zebra and Sopra Steria Build Bespoke Solution for the Northern Ireland Prison Service to Better Ensure and Protect Prisoner Welfare
The Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS), tasked with managing over 2,000 prisoners across three facilities, must ensure compliance with the United Nations' Mandela Rules, which establish standards for prisoner treatment.
Zebra Success Story: Northern Ireland Prison Service
Overview: Public Sector Challenge
The Northern Ireland Prison Service needed a way to more accurately demonstrate and validate how prisoners in the prison care and supervision units were treated in relation to legally enshrined protections about time spent inside and outside cells. The solution had to work in accordance with existing technology like CCTV footage to provide a holistic overview of prisoner movements.
Benefits / Outcomes
- Increased overview of prisoner movements and condition accountability
- Interest in the same solution from other prison departments
- Reduced stress for prison officers
Customer
Northern Ireland Prison Service
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Partner
Industry
Public Sector
Solutions
About Northern Ireland Prison Service
The Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) is responsible for the operation and delivery of services within the Northern Ireland prison system. The aim of the service is to improve public safety by reducing the risk of re-offending through the management and rehabilitation of offenders in custody.
NIPS currently cares for over 2,000 prisoners across its three prisons: Maghaberry, Magilligan and Hydebank Wood Secure College and Women’s Prison, all of which include care and supervision units (CSUs). The units support prisoners who need to be kept apart from other prisoners and those who exhibit behaviours that may cause harm to themselves or others. When assigned to a CSU, (known as segregation unit in England, Scotland and Wales), prisoners may spend more time in their cells.
The Challenge
The Criminal Justice Inspectorate, which inspect prisons in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, completed an inspection of the NI CSUs in 2022, The subsequent report highlighted concerns that NIPS was not easily able to evidence meaningful activity and time offered to prisoners out of their cells when in the CSU.
The time a prisoner remains in their cell must be in accordance with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Nelson Mandela Rules. Under these rules a prisoner has protected rights and may not be confined to their cell for up to 24 hours a day.
The Northern Ireland Prison Service had remained within the Mandela guidelines as evidenced by CCTV and paper records detailing the movements of residents outside their cells. However, the inspectorate needed a greater degree of transparency and accuracy to verify the time CSU prisoners spent inside and outside their cells.
It’s essential the Northern Ireland Prison Service continues to adhere to UN standards of care and the Zebra TC21 helps us structure prisoner care daily, safeguarding the most vulnerable people within the prison system.
The Solution
In response, NIPS first considered using the corporate application to keep a record of the time prisoners spent outside their cells, this was proving to be too time consuming as a lot of staff resource was being tied up inputting the information. What was needed was a solution that would be able to cope with the demands of the prison environment enabling staff to manage effectively in the CSU environment.
The Northern Ireland Prison Service therefore selected Zebra and Zebra Registered ISV Partner Sopra Steria to help prison officers easily and accurately maintain digital records of the time prisoners spent outside their cells.
The Zebra Difference: Outcome and Benefits
Over the past year, NIPS has deployed numerous Zebra TC21 Durable Wi-Fi Android™ Mobile Computers which come equipped with barcode scanner capabilities to track prisoner movements in and out of their cells, recording logs and for keeping a record of how prison officers oversee prisoners within the CSU.
The TC21s have docking cradles that are connected by ethernet to the local area network. The devices are in kiosk mode with only specified applications and settings enabled, this is configurable but currently only the CSU app is available.
When supervising prisoners, prison officers will use the Zebra TC21s to log their ID into the prisoner management system, the backend system used to manage prisoners. In addition, the details of all the prisoners in the segregation unit are downloaded to the device.
Staff deploy the device when inspecting their units. Utilising QR codes, as a prisoner leaves their cell, staff can record the identity of the prisoner, the time they left their cell and for what purpose, for example, going to the gym. They can also record the time the prisoner returns to their cell and the route the prisoner took on the return journey, maintaining a precise record of the prisoner’s movements. In addition, a refusal to undertake activity, together with the reason can be recorded. This data is synchronised with the prisoner management system, giving staff a location and movement audit of all the residents in the CSU. This data can be compared with paper logs and CCTV to verify the audit.
As part of the process, unique logins record which officer used the device. These accompany a digital timestamp for when the device was used. QR codes on the cell doors are scanned with the TC21 mobile computer to get an exact record of when the officer was at the cell door. This helps account for the officer’s management of their residents in the CSU.
Following NIPS’s roll-out of the Zebra TC21 mobile computers, a prison inspector follow-up report singled out Zebra Technologies as key to supporting more transparent prisoner movement audits. The British Red Cross also described the technology as a ‘game-changer’ for the care of prisoners in the units.
“Prison officers have a highly stressful job and they use technology such as these devices to help them in their daily tasks,” says John Marrion, Head of ICT Services at NIPS. “Officers like the rugged design of the TC21, they are familiar with the device interface and appreciate the ease of use to capture and record the prisoner movement within the CSU. It’s essential the Northern Ireland Prison Service continues to adhere to UN standards of care and the Zebra TC21 helps us structure prisoner care daily, safeguarding the most vulnerable people within the prison system.”
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