Managing a jail is a tough job to do. It’s like holding the lives of the inmates in your own hands. So, you really have to be careful about your decisions if you want to save their lives. This is why you must have the right tools to help you in your job. Human effort is not enough nowadays. We need to rely on the accuracy of the machines or technology that we have. These include using a software to manage the information about the inmates and a lot more. From the beginning until the end of their stay in the jail, you have to monitor every pertinent detail to ensure that they are improving in every step of the way.
Many jails are using the jail management software. This piece of technology helps the agencies to efficiently render their job. It encompasses all the tasks needed to assist them from scheduling up to the legal process of the inmates. As long as it involves documentation and input of data, jail management software has it all covered. There is no question whether to use one in a correctional facility or not. There are simply lots of advantages that an agency can get when using this software. It can make the whole process a lot easier and faster. Plus, creating a history and statistics about every occurrence inside the jail will give the officers an idea about the trends so that they will have better understanding about the inmates. Therefore, it creates a safer environment for both the inmates and the officers. But before all that, the first thing to remember is to make the right decision about what software to use.
That is what most of the jail management are having problems about. You cannot simply select one in the internet and expect the whole process to be successful. It doesn’t work like that. Of course, just like any other product, all jail management software has its own qualities and brand. It doesn’t mean that if a certain software is advertised as the best, then you should probably use it. The problem in that mentality comes when you actually implement the software. You may encounter some problems because you will soon find out that that software is hard to operate because of its complicated user interface. There are a lot of factors that you should consider when looking for the right jail management software and listening to advertisements is not one of them.
On the other hand, finding the right system in your facility shouldn’t be as hard as finding a needle in a haystack. You simply have to make your research. There are lots of sources out there that you can rely on. You can read reviews on jail management software. Just be sure to pick the honest ones from the customers themselves. You can also read some blogs or articles about jail management. From there, you can get some helpful ideas on how to find the best jail management software. But for now, if you haven’t used any jail management software yet, you can start your search by reading some tips about the features of a good system. So, to help you with that, here are some of the basic qualities that your software should have.
Integration
The officers in a jail would have to rely on available history of the inmates so that they can assess and understand their condition. It would be easier if they can have a record of all the important information about a certain inmate. This is exactly what jail management software should do. Aside from recording the personal details of an inmate, it should also gather other information by integrating other software to the main database. This may include medical records, property records, risk assessments, and all information that could be helpful to understand each inmate.
It must also be able to tap in the record management system of the law enforcement agencies. In simple terms, it must integrate to gather information either in the past and present. If the software can do this, it will not only lessen the burden of the officers, but it will also make the jobs of other departments easier because they wouldn’t have to use multiple systems to gather different kinds of data and information. Again, from start to finish, it should cover the booking up to the release of the inmate by seamlessly integrating other systems.
Configurability
Human error is one of the reasons why jail management systems are created. A correction facility is holding hundreds or even thousands of lives within its walls. Those lives can either improve or worsen depending on the kind of management they have. So, there is no room for error or missed information. A little mistake, such as confusing of names and records, can ruin someone’s life forever. Therefore, you should use a jail management software that is consistent with the data entry. This is very crucial in keeping accurate records in jail management.
While all software are known to perform accurately, if the users cannot use the software based on their needs, skills, and knowledge, there is more chance that they will commit a mistake in the data entry. In choosing a jail management software, you should look for the one with customizable features. This will allow the officers to make necessary changes in the user interface so that they can easily operate the system for solving their unique problems and needs. Customizing the software may include the change in the booking workflow, strategic scheduling of the inmates, and even making an assessment about an inmate. It should let the officers create a graph or tree-based questions so that they can determine the improvement of the inmate based on their answers.
Reporting
The main purpose of having a software in a correction facility is to have a piece of technology that can accurately make reports within the jail. It makes the tedious works in making documents easier. It is now a paperless job thanks to jail management system. If the officers or supervisors need to get a statistics or report about the jail, they could easily do so by accessing the database. Moreover, a good quality system allows the users to search the database with ease. The jail management program should let the users filter or group the results in the search. This is for quicker search for a specific occurrence or when an officer is following a certain trend.
Easy-to-use
In choosing the right jail management software, you should consider that all of the personnel in the facility would be using that same software. Therefore, you should not only rely on your expertise when choosing the right software for your facility. You might be a tech-savvy but other officers might not be. So, you must choose a system that can be operated easily. If you are planning to get a complicated software, you might also want to consider the time you are going to use in training the officers. Plus, there is a bigger possibility that one or two officers cannot follow the steps. The result of that could be very much problematic to your department because they might commit some errors or miss to enter important data.
But if you can get a system with an easy user interface, then there is no problem about that. You can also look for a system with a feature that will teach the users first before they can use it. You can also choose other systems that allow you to restrict some features to other personnel. Some systems will notify the main server if those restrictions are violated.
Imaging
The program must also have a feature that allows the users to have pictures of the inmates. Many systems cannot support this feature. So the officers would have to open multiple windows when making a document that involves getting images of the inmates. But a good quality software will not only contain the images of the inmates. It must also be capable of generating lineups so that the pictures wouldn’t have to be printed to be arranged in a table manually.
There are a lot of ways to start your search in finding the best jail management software for your facility. You can utilize all these features to help you with your quest. You can also ask other departments and facilities that are currently using a jail management system. However, you should still remember that your needs are different from theirs. In asking questions, you can simply get an idea about their suggestions, but don’t allow them to dictate what software you should use. A particular system suits a particular facility. This is one of the reasons why they created a lot of software. You must consider your needs in your facility in order to narrow your choices.
Or you can also read some the top reviews and rankings of the best jail management software in the market today. You can check out CrowdReviews.com for more information.
Latest posts by Sarah Holton (see all)
- 6 Reasons Why You Should Use ERP Software for Small Businesses - January 15, 2017
- How Does the Best Bug Tracking Software Help Boost Your Business? - January 13, 2017
- What to Consider When Choosing the Best Restaurant PoS Software - January 12, 2017