Making fingerprint compulsory for the inmates

Photo By Nicolas Saillant
The system of taking fingerprint is in fact a simple electronic module sold $ 700 of the unit, which is connected to a computer.

Nicolas Saillant

Tuesday, 8th August 2017 00:00

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Tuesday, 8th August 2017 00:00

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Announced in the wake of the release by mistake the son of the ” Mom ” Boucher in 2015, the system of taking fingerprint will eventually be established in all the provincial prisons of Québec by 2020, the result of a pilot project successful at the detention Centre of Quebec.

Francis Boucher, released by mistake

In march 2015, the release of Francis Boucher, the son of the most well-known biker Maurice ” Mom ” Boucher, was scandalized Quebec, as well as the minister Lise Thériault, who had requested a study on the feasibility of biometric recognition. It is finally two years later that a draft law in this sense has been voted.

Thus, last April, the “system of biometric authentication of a prison” has been put in place as a pilot project at the detention centre as well as the palace of justice of Quebec. While the identification of an inmate was mainly by picture, a new step of making fingerprint is therefore added.

Three checks

Every prisoner who leaves the prison to go to the courthouse must pass through three checks : on its housing sector, to the admission of the jail prior to transport as well as the palace of justice. “When we go back, we will do the same process in the opposite direction,” says Marie-France Massé, deputy director of the detention centre of Quebec.

Since April, in Quebec city, a new stage of impression taking is ” recruitment “, that is to say, when a person is admitted, either at the courthouse or at the prison. “It creates the folder with the fingerprint,” explains the assistant director.

“It is a system that we developed and that it was kept simple, and that works with the number of unique folder, the photo and a fingerprint, it has integrated the three,” explains Sylvain Laforest, information analyst.

“It is not tedious for the agents. Yes, it is an extra task, but it is very user friendly “, he says.

Imprint destroyed

The Commission of access to information, however, has limited the use of this type of identification more “intrusive” of detainees, and requires the detention centres that they eliminate this data. “From the moment we release someone, we eliminate these data. Even for a parole, ” says dr. Massé.

It remains that the draft law allows you to make the information accessible to the police in the course of a criminal investigation if the person is at that time between the walls of a prison. The identification photographs, which continue to be taken, is kept by the prison authorities beyond the detention.

With an investment of $ 175,000 for the development of the system and the implementation of the pilot project and the phase 1, the prison authorities are satisfied. “We gave it an extra layer of security to low-cost,” concludes Ms. Massé.

Folder of an inmate

Photo By Nicolas Saillant

• Pictures (we take pictures when a defendant is re-admitted or if there are significant changes in the physical : weight, tattoos, scars)

• Distinctive signs

• Fingerprints

April 2017 : pilot project

• Installation of the system at the detention center and the palace of justice of Quebec

By The End Of 2017 : Phase 1

• Installation at the detention centre in Rivière-des-Prairies and the palais de justice, Montreal and St-Jérôme.

2020 : phase network

• Installation across the network

Pilot-project and phase 1 : 125 000 $

• Purchase modules for fingerprinting ($700 for each device)

• Development minor in admissions

• Development of the system of internal

Phase 2 :

• Extension to the whole of the detention centres in québec and palais de justice : 200 000 $