| dc.description.abstract | An Integrated Management Information System support the Management of Uganda Prisons Service in producing the required reports in the quickest time possible. It was set up with the following capabilities: Management was able to review the number of prisoners in each prison and generally viewed the total number of prisoners. Statistics of prisoners could be made and the number of females and males could be ascertained. The comparison of age variation could be made to find out the bracket that commits more crimes. It was made easy for management to find out how many prisoners have been in prison for more than once (recevidism) and were able to get the reason(s) why this happen. The diseases that affect prisoners could be known without physically going to the prison. By the click of a button, several things could be retrieved and a report made as and when required for decision making. This necessitated Management to get the detailed report of the prisoners in order for the donors, if need arose, to avail funds to run the prison smoothly. Uganda Prisons Service Department is still using the traditional information system - The Manual Information System. This system takes long to finish a single transaction, thereby leading to delayed work and time wastage. The manual system has been in existence since the inception of Uganda Prisons Service, that is 1899. All along reporting has been done through heads of departments or heads of sections depending on how the Head of Department or Head of Section wants to present his/her report. When reports are needed, especially about prisoners, it takes a long time to produce a single report for Management to take decision. At times reports disappear and tracing them becomes a problem since the system is not automated. Producing reports timely for decision-making has become hazardous. There are many Prison branches throughout the country. They are still using manual typewriters and even at the headquarter, manual typewriters are still in use. There are very few computers in use. The computers available are all stand-alone and those with Internet have been done through individual initiative. Officially, the Department is not networked that makes the system difficult to be linked to other branches in the country and also at head office. This has created a lot of loopholes in the system because there is no tracking and/or monitoring of the system for the information available in the Department and there are no security measures in place. It necessitated to automate the system to make it more efficient and effective. There was close study of the existing manual information system that was in use and the infrastructure. It was compared to the proposed Integrated Management Information System. A prototype of an Integrated Management Information System for Uganda Prisons Service Department was developed to ease data access and retrieval for instant report production after the administrator’s authority to access the system. A code was written using Mysql with PHP and HTML that produced buttons for the authorized users to access the system using Linux program to run it. Each user was given privileges and authority to access the system after registration through the developed graphical user interface, which have buttons to choose from. There are two categories of people to access the system, that is Data Entrants and Management. Data entrants capture data about the prisoners and the crimes committed, they can edit what they enter and produce the general report for management to view and make corrections. Management can adjust the report or reports to their expectations and extract the required detailed report for their decision-making. Reports can be extracted any time from anywhere instantly, a requirement by Uganda Prisons Management. A prototype was set to allow the graphical user interface and to click at a button for easier and quick retrieval of reports and easy production. It was implemented using Mysql, PHP and HTML with Linux programme to run it or could use Putty that helped access the server remotely to start the system. This system could be moderated for use in any related organization that required getting instant reports on law offenders for decision-making. | en_US |
