Chennai, Feb. 18: Prison records in Tamil Nadu will be computerised for easy identification of inmates.

The plan, among the first such initiatives in the country, will start with the 2,500 inmates of Tiruchirappalli jail. It will be extended to eight other jails, including three for women, by and by.

Files will not have to be dusted to get bio-data, conviction records, sentences served and other details. The information will pop up at the click of a mouse.

The computerised bio-data-cum-photo rolls will ensure that fingerprinting and other methods to identify inmates will not be needed in several cases.

The idea behind the changes, which have come at the prodding of rights groups and police commissions over the years, is to humanise identification procedures and practices.

The legal ground for the change in the way jails will be run was prepared through revisions in the Identification of Prisoners Act, a vintage law going back to 1920.

Under the revisions, fingerprints of leprosy patients and others suffering from infectious diseases will not be taken till they are completely cured. Leprosy patients sometimes have deformed fingers, making it tough to obtain impressions. Many also find the process insensitive.

“Deformities, cuts, scars and disease marks interfering with the clarity of the impressions should be fully described and it should be specified whether they are temporary or permanent,” the revised rule states.

Dependence on fingerprints had come down even before the legal changes were notified, with prison officials going by the physi- cal features mentioned in the warrant.

“We follow body identification marks as stated in the warrant, though thumb impressions are also taken.”

So far, leprosy patients were segregated and sent to the Vellore central prison, which has a special ward for such convicts, sources said. Those with tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS were sent to a sanatorium in Tambaram, outside Chennai.

They were taken back to their jails only after being “substantially cured”.

The fingerprint rule in such cases was often skipped, jail officials said. The number of such inmates is small, though.

But with records stored in computer disks, little of those formalities will be necessary, sparing the state’s 16,991 prisoners, including 1,173 women, the ordeal they often have to face during such intrusive identification methods. An inmate’s file can be accessed in any prison.

Under the amendments, the impressions and photographs will have to be destroyed if the prisoner turns 80 or dies, whichever happens earlier.

The records will also be deleted 15 years after release, provided there are no subsequent crime records or convictions.