The DSO lays down certain provisions referring to the records of the prisoners in relation to transfers. Section 423 provides that the dispatching Jailor should check if all committals and related papers of the prisoners to be transferred are correct, and should seal it in an envelope to be delivered. The Receiving Jailor should check whether the seal has been tampered while in transit and whether all the papers mentioned in the memo are correct. However, it is questionable whether this procedure is followed as the Commission observed in ARP that the documents are not brought sealed in an envelope but rather are brought as a stack of papers and files and handed over to the Receiving Jailor. The lack of operational safeguards could potentially contribute to not only the inefficiency of the information management systems but also breaches of confidentiality. Prisoners who are being transferred must not be registered in an intermediate prison unless they are detained in that prison for more than twenty-four hours. The date and hour of arrival and departure together with the prisoner’s number should be entered in the Morning State, which is a minute made under the heading Occurrences as stated in the example given in Section 424, for example, “A 2742, Trincomalee for Welikada, arrived 1630h.” The names of all prisoners to be transferred must be entered in a book and placed before the MO prior to the transfer, preferably the day before transfer.69 Adherence to this process was observed to be a difficulty in prisons like BATRP where there is no doctor on duty. Moreover, the prisoner’s description and marks must be carefully compared with those contained in his papers before he is transferred.70 The private property of prisoners who are being discharged will be dispatched with them. After such dispatch, column 8 in the Private Property Book should be left blank as it should only be completed after the final discharge of the prisoner.71 The Commission observed in WCP that a Receiving Jailor inquires from the prisoners that have been transferred from another prison to WCP, whether they are unwell or require medical treatment. It must be noted that this was not observed being done across prisons, nor by all Receiving Jailors at WCP. 8.3. Record and file management system The Commission noted that, across most prisons visited, the record and file management system was archaic, not digitalized, not facilitating efficient and effective management of the prison and was open to severe breaches of confidentiality. For instance, the file management system at KGRP needs to be strengthened as locating files takes a long time and it was found that, although the dates of admission of the inmates are entered, the time of admission is not entered. During inspection of prisoner records at WCP, it was noted that they were very poorly maintained with most of the documents either faded, moth eaten or torn. Further, the lack of a centralized database makes verification of prisoner details difficult. For instance, most prisoners admitted that the prisons do not have their NICs, in which instances prison 69 DSO 1956, s 425. ibid s 426. 71 ibid s 427. 70 60