The Causeway Programme is a joint venture involving the six Criminal Justice Organisations (CJOs) in Northern Ireland - The Department of the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland, The Police Service of Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Court Service, Northern Ireland Prison Service, Forensic Science Northern Ireland, and of course The Probation Board for Northern Ireland.The Programme aims to deliver significant improvements to the effectiveness and efficiency of the criminal Justice System in Northern Ireland by sharing information electronically. The intention remains that as a result of this electronic transfer, information will be accurate, consistent, up-to-date and accessible electronically to all staff that have a need to see it.
As a criminal case progresses, the same information is often used by different criminal justice organisations (CJOs). Similarly, information needs to be passed from one CJO to another in order to move a case along. This information is currently shared between the CJOs in the form of paper files and documents that have to be moved from building to building. Some of the CJOs have computer systems that support their work, but information entered onto one of these systems has to be re-entered into all the others as there are currently no mechanisms for transferring information electronically. The use of paper-based records has many disadvantages. For instance it is often difficult to know where a file is and whether the papers in it are up to date. These problems can cause delay and mistakes, which undermine the public's confidence in the criminal justice system.
Causeway will address these issues by replacing paper-based records with systems based on the electronic storage, transfer and retrieval of information. Information will be captured once and then shared and re-used by all CJOs. Information will always be up to date, will be easily accessible to those who need to use it, will move quickly between organisations and will be consistent.
The benefits of Causeway will not be confined to the CJOs themselves, but will be felt by victims, witnesses, judges and magistrates and even defendants.
The impact upon the work of PBNI is immense. Our means of access to the Causeway Data Store will be via the Probation Information Management System (PIMS)1.
March 2004 saw the implementation of the first phase of Causeway – each of the CJOs gained access to the Criminal Record Viewer. This means that PBNI staff now have access to criminal records electronically, required to complete Pre Sentence Reports and Risk Assessment Reviews.
1 PIMS is essentially a database used to store and retrieve PBNI’s client information electronically – a computerised, networked case management system. It will be a single system, accessible by staff in all teams, replacing current manual and computerised databases. PIMS will also include a management information system which will collate statistical information, key performance measurements and ad-hoc reports.