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San Diego Booking System - A Preview of Sentry

NCJ Number
79832
Date Published
Unknown
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This videotape illustrates how an automated information system in a correctional institution can help to plan, manage, and control inmate programs. The San Diego Booking System is useful in supporting line personnel, reducing redundancies, and linking information systems.
Abstract
The presentation begins with an offender's arrival at the institution, at which point he undergoes prebooking. Information on the new inmate is entered into the system: he is assigned a booking number and personal information is recorded permanently. Copies of this information are generated immediately to function as receipts and identification slips to accompany the inmate's confiscated money and belongings and to mark his entry into prison programs. On terminals throughut the institution, information on the inmate is instantly and automatically available. This record is regularly updated to reflect whatever happens to the inmate in the course of his stay at the institution. The automated information system also simplifies the release function once an inmate is ready to leave the institution, since all information on him is up to date and can be instantly summed up. These capabilities are characteristic of the population-monitoring module. Other modules planned would be employed for automatic sentence computation and trust fund commissary operations. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons hopes to implement sentry automatic information systems throughout its facilities.