News
MoJ cuts back offender IT system
10 January 2008

The Ministry of Justice has decided that, following a series of problems, the national offender tracking system will only be used by the Prison Service

Prisons minister David Hanson has confirmed that a national computer system to track offenders in prison or on probation will not be installed in the Probation Service. Instead the system, known as C-Nomis, will be rolled out across the Prison Service, replacing its existing case management system.

Arrangements to allow the two criminal justice organisations to share information will be made through a separate system which will give read only access to core case information on offenders.

In a statement to GC News on 9 January 2008, Hanson said that a newly revised National Offender Management Service Information Technology programme will improve the sharing of vital information between public prisons and probation areas, and will enable the replacement of outdated IT systems.

"The new IT programme will support practitioners working with offenders both in prison and the community, improve the sharing of information and enable more efficient and effective operational management of offenders," he said.

The minister also announced that improvements will be made to OASys, a system to assess the risks and needs of prisoners. OAsys will be redeveloped as a single national system across probation and prisons.

Crams, the case management system in use in most probation areas, will be reviewed, taking into account its obsolete software and hardware and compliance with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act.

Victor Almeida, senior analyst at Kable, commented: "This is unsurprising. It was very clear there was going to be a change of direction in the programme, as it was under heavy criticism because of major cost overruns and delays."

The MoJ halted the roll out of C-Nomis in August 2007, amid fears of costs escalating above the original estimate of £234m. The system was intended to enabled prison and probation officers to share information in real time, to manage the risk posed by offenders, and improve rehabilitation and efficiency. It should have been fully operational this year.

The first release of C-Nomis took place at HM Prison Albany on the Isle of Wight on 2006, but further roll out was delayed because of technical failures. Unions claimed that a significant cause of problems was that the government underestimated the volume of traffic that the system needed to cope with.

"Offender management teams were using it twice as much as intended," said Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of Napo, the probation officers' union, "Plus government did not factor in having to pay VAT on the contract to EDS."


Source: Kable's Government Computing
Publication date: 10/01/2008

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