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Case study: GSL Prisoner and Court System
19 February 2007 by Rod McLaren
Summary
Mobbu deployed the Prisoner And Court System across web services and BlackBerry handsets to help support GSL’s prisoner escorting contract to meet Home Office compliance requirements, and record more real-time data whilst in transit and at court. 2,000 GSL vehicle, court, management and compliance users manage 2,000 prisoner movements daily at 170 courts and 19 vehicle bases across the UK. 350 vehicles use BlackBerrys to capture data in the field.
Objectives and challenges
GSL’s existing systems used paper forms to collate compliance data for month-end, but the award by the Home Office of a new generation of prisoner escorting contracts introduced additional reporting requirements. The technical and operational challenge was to deliver accurate information in near real-time to staff, managers and customer alike through all stages of the prisoner escort and court appearance process. Field staff need to manage the safe transport of prisoners between 300+ police stations and prisons and 170 courts. Court staff need to manage the custody of prisoners at court. Compliance data for 1,500+ prisoners had to be collected daily.
Solution
Each day prisoner transfer requests from prisons and police stations are logged through a web/Java-based application which interfaces with GSL’s logistics system to produce the most efficient and time sensitive routes. These routes are distributed to 350 BlackBerry devices, which are used by the escort staff for their route information and to capture prisoner events while in transit.
When the prisoner is delivered into court custody, a web application is used to continue to track prisoner activity in real-time until the prisoner is released or collected to escort back to prison. All the information captured through the BlackBerry and web client application is stored centrally, and allows GSL and the Home Office Contract Manager to access daily, weekly and monthly information on all facets of the operation.
The live deployment of PACS started with a pilot roll-out to a subset of vehicle teams and courts in the Greater Manchester area, whilst at the same time GSL undertook a programme of staff communication and training. The wider roll-out then went out to user a base of 2,000+ in the field, at courts, in compliance and in central management.
Benefits
The use of BlackBerrys in the field and web systems in courts has improved both the amount and speed of data recording. The key advantages of the BlackBerry over other handheld devices are its
- end-to-end security,
- offline capability which allows users to keep working when there’s no signal,
- and push capability which allows devices to be maintained and controlled centrally.
Mobbu’s agile approach provided a sequence of testable and improvable technology releases, which delivered an immediate business value to the organisation. The combination of regular iterations and service-oriented and modular underlying technology architecture allowed Mobbu and GSL to implement features quickly and cost-effectively, test them in real-world scenarios, and then iterate to find further improvements and efficiencies.
About GSL and Mobbu
GSL is a leader in the provision of critical support services for companies and public authorities. Governments and local authorities entrust GSL to build and securely manage facilities on their behalf. GSL provides the UK Home Office with prison management, court services and prisoner transportation and management in the North and East of England.
Mobbu designs, develops and delivers mobile and internet data services for the security/policing and enterprise markets. (More about Mobbu.) Talk to Alex Laurie, or on +44 (0) 7976 436 630.