The Government of Punjab has modernised the traditional and cumbersome procedure for meeting prisoners in jails across the province by introducing a dedicated mobile application for prisoners’ families.
Through this app, citizens will now be able to schedule a meeting at their preferred time from the comfort of their homes, helping eliminate long waiting times and unnecessary overcrowding at prisons.
On Sunday, the Government of Punjab launched an important digital service as part of its prison reforms and efforts to facilitate the families of prisoners.
The provincial government has introduced a dedicated mobile application for prisoners’ families, enabling citizens to book appointments from home to meet their loved ones.
Officials from the Prison Department stated that the primary objective of this modern application is to save visitors from unnecessary administrative hassle and make the existing system more transparent.
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Benefits and Performance of the Modern System
With the activation of the new mobile application, citizens will no longer have to stand in long queues outside prisons for hours to meet prisoners.
Using their mobile phones, citizens will be able to choose an available day and time according to their convenience and schedule a meeting accordingly.
According to officials, this initiative will not only help control security issues and overcrowding outside prisons but will also make it easier for prison authorities to maintain visitors’ records in a more organised, secure, and efficient manner.
The old system for meeting prisoners in Pakistan, particularly in Punjab, had long been extremely complicated and burdensome for ordinary citizens.
Family members had to arrive outside prisons early in the morning and stand in long lines, where hours were wasted from obtaining a visitor’s slip to finally gaining entry.
Due to overcrowding in the traditional system, elderly people, women, and children often faced severe difficulties, while complaints of mismanagement were also frequently reported.
As part of its prison reforms, the Punjab government decided to digitise this outdated system in order to minimise human intervention as much as possible.
The Punjab government’s decision to shift the prison visitation system to a mobile application is a commendable step towards digital governance and the protection of human rights.
The application will not only save citizens valuable time and money but will also bring greater order and discipline to prison administration.
Such initiatives help eliminate corruption and the culture of favouritism, as meeting appointments will now be scheduled automatically through a computerised system.
This technology demonstrates that, if implemented in the right direction, even traditional and highly secure institutions such as prisons can be made more citizen-friendly and accountable.
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