News

NCS prison inmate kiosk wins at National Infocomm Awards

October 23, 2012

At this year's National Infocomm Awards, the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) was one of two winners in the "Most Innovative Use of Infocomm Technology (Public Sector)" category for the introduction of its self-service kiosk that enables inmates to submit and monitor personal requests.

According to article on zdnet.com, Chin Soon Theen, assistant director for technology at SPS, said the touchscreen Inmate Self-Service Kiosk, the iKiosk developed by NCS, cuts down the time needed for inmates to get certain items such as eye glasses or print out personalized letter forms, which are used by them to correspond with loved ones. Previously, they had to go through prison wardens to make these requests and this usually takes more time, he noted.

The iKiosk also gives inmates a sense of ownership and responsibility of their requests, the article reported, which helps improve rehabilitation and their ability to reintegrate into society upon release, since many services are now made available via self-service kiosks in the country.

The SPS pilot project started in July 2011, with three iKiosks deployed in one wing of Changi Prison Complex. Full-scale deployment of the kiosks in the whole complex is currently pending approval by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Theen said in the article.

Read more about kiosk use in government.