The government will establish an integrated information system for efficient handling of prison records that may help authorities in going after fugitives.
Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said various government agencies will sign today (Friday) a memorandum of agreement for the formal launching of the so-called National Justice Information System.
Government agencies involved in the dispensation of justice such as the Department of Justice, that has supervision over the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Corrections; the Department of the Interior and Local Government, that has supervision over the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology; the Department of Information and Communications Technology the Supreme Court, that has supervision over all the courts; and the Dangerous Drugs Board will sign the MOA.
“The NJIS is essentially an information of data portal or network where a lot of different systems relating to prisoners, cases being handled by the judiciary, to research materials on criminal and other prosecutions among others will be housed,” Perete said.
Stakeholders are also expecting that through the NJIS, cases of prisoners overstaying in jail due to inaccurate records will be prevented.
According to Perete, while the NJIS would immediately be operational, they would have to tweak its software component and incorporate the amendments of the good conduct time allowance’s (GCTA) implementing rules and regulation (IRR).
Perete noted that there have been instances when the data of the BJMP and the BuCor do not match, thus, causing confusion in the determination of the length of stay of a convicted prisoner in a penitentiary.
However, with the Single Carpeta System, which is one of the systems under the NJIS that would unify the jail records of BJMP and the BuCor, they would be able to share the records of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).
“Before, the BuCor and the BJMP have different data on the actual number of days a prisoner was incarcerated. Remember also during the GCTA issue one of the narratives that came up had to do with certain BuCor officials, somehow being able to manage or mismanage the data relating to the length of stay of a prisoner prior to the conviction because that data is with the BJMP,” Perete explained.
“If the Single Carpeta System under the NJIS was already in place at that time no one can tamper with the numbers because from the very start when the BJMP already attests, through its records, of a prisoner’s number of days credited preventive imprisonment that would be recognized by the BuCor and that will be credited to that prisoner in the computation of his entire length of stay,” he said.
On the NJIS as a tool against fugitives, Perete explained that the system would address the delay in the issuance of lookout bulletin by the BI against persons facing criminal complaints.
“For example a certain individual is facing a complaint before a prosecutor’s office then immediately the legal staff would be able to see that this person is a respondent in a case. Therefore, we should already issue a lookout bulletin against him to be implemented by the BI, so that you can monitor the whereabouts of this particular person,” Perete said.
“If the courts are already part of the NJIS when the court issues a warrant, that would already be part of the information within the NJIS system and that will be shared to all the agencies including the BI,” he added.