DIGDOK | Digitalization of analog prisoner-related documentation processes in the law enforcement

Synopsis

The aim of the project is to ascertain the status of prisoner-related documentation processes with a focus on their digitalization and automation potential in prisons. Safety-relevant routine activities are collected, analyzed and selected technology spikes implemented in multiperspective focus groups with experts on site and with participant observation. The socioscientific and technical results are then brought together in an application-related roadmap.

Summary

Security and order are the basic principles of action for all prison staff, which are necessary to maintain the institution’s operations. In particular, routine activities that take place in direct contact with prisoners require increased security measures for the factual and legal protection of all those involved. They are therefore subject to precise documentation, which has so far been partially analogous. The present research project therefore analyzes the optimization potential of security-relevant routine activities in prisons and the possible use of relevant tools (wearables, smartphones, tablets, IoT devices, etc.).

After the analog and digital process landscape has been surveyed, documentation processes are selected in cooperation with the stakeholders. Afterwards their optimization options are determined through digitalization and automation (e.g. a specific tool / technology is selected and made usable for the application). The aim is to integrate the existing systems of the prisons into the scenarios for digitalization and to make them mobile usable, for example through digitized deployment diaries, situation pictures, instructions for action in emergencies or crisis situations. Based on the identified digitalization potentials, implementation scenarios are defined and subjected to a practical review of user acceptance to the extent of a technology spike, including offline-capable mobile devices.

These analyzes result in an application-oriented roadmap that describes the optimization options for selected documentation processes and the associated workflows for decisionmakers in prison. Based on the specifics of the prisons and based on the requirements of relevant stakeholders, a security-relevant part of the digitalization future of prisons is designed, which designs practical solutions for previously analog routine activities and classic operating patterns on stationary devices at the interface of organizational ethnographic and technical knowledge.

The result is a representation of which technologies (such as augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence etc.) or devices / tools (wearables, smartphones, tablets, IoT devices, etc.) are useful for selected processes in prisons.

Project partner and consortium partner:

Vienna Centre for Societal Security (VICESSE)
Paulanergasse 4/8, 1040 Wien
PD Dr. Reinhard Kreiss; reinhard.kreissl@vicesse.eu
Marion Neunkirchner BA MA; marion.neunkirchner@vicesse.eu

Federal Ministry of Justice (FMJ), Museumstraße 7, 1070 Vienna
Brigadier Martin Saam; Martin.Saam@bmj.gv.at
Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Schlapschy; Wolfgang.Schlapschy@bmj.gv.at