Our Thoughts
Saadian helps bridge the gap between Police and Prisons
Over 150,000 offenders are released annually from prison in England and Wales. As a consequence of today’s packed prisons, prisoners are frequently moved between prisons and a large number are released on early release schemes.
Prisoner Tracking Challenge
“A prison sentence is not the end of the story for offender management. In some cases it will be about a timely release notification, in others it will be about someone who has come into custody who is wanted by an enforcement agency. The key point is being able to look at the prison population as part of the overall criminal justice picture."
Cliodhna McGuirk, Managing Director, Saadian Technologies
To meet these challenges, over 20 UK police forces have teamed up with Saadian Technologies, to deploy its distinctive Prison Intelligence notification system (PINS).
Working Together
First deployed in 2004, Saadian has since worked hand in hand with its police customers to continually develop and enhance PINS capabilities. The success of this working relationship has enabled Saadian provide regular upgrades to the PINS system.
In 2007 Her Majesty Prison Service (HMPS) agreed a data sharing agreement with the police services that resulted in the electronic provision of national prison data. This in turn led to a major upgrade of the PINS system. Since then, PINS runs on the secure police networks and automatically downloads current prison data on a nightly basis.
These enhancements have resulted in immediate benefits for all system users, including the various prison intelligence units who can now focus more proactively on gathering intelligence rather than dealing with routine location enquiries.
“Since we upgraded to PINS we have had positive feedback from our divisional users who are experiencing significant benefits in having up to date prison information at their fingertips.”
DI Ian Bridge, Thames Valley Police
Prolific and other Priority Offenders (PPOs)
At any one time approximately 40% of all prolific offenders are in prison. For offender managers, the up-to-date location of prolific offenders during their prison sentence is vital to their continued management. PINS provides this essential information and pro-actively alerts offender managers about upcoming releases. This enables offender managers to work with other agencies to ensure the right services are ready thereby improving post release service provision.
Wanted by Enforcement Agencies
A key benefit of PINS is its ability to link prison data to other sources of data. A natural step has been incorporate data from local enforcement agencies. Each night this data is automatically checked against the changing prison population to ensure enforcement is more effective. This proactive checking facility has recently been commended in Sir Ian Magee’s Home Office Review of Criminality Information.
“In Lancashire we have used PINS to trace people who we thought were in the community who were wanted. This has saved wasted effort, contributed to bringing offenders to justice and has increased the efficiency of enforcement activity within the police and also the local Criminal Justice Board.
We are now linking PINS checks to other relevant Office for Criminal Justice Reform projects such as the maximising prison links initiative, and early results have been impressive, saving the time of the police, courts, CPS and the prisoner escort contactors."
Inspector John Clucas, Lancashire Police
