Shillong: Meghalaya home minister (police and jail) James P.K. Sangma has said his government is committed to modernisation of the state's jails and efforts are on to have video conferencing in every jail to reduce the need to transport prisoners to courts during trials.

Launching e-prisons software at the Shillong district jail at Jail Road here on Thursday, he said free legal aid services are being provided to prisoners.

Stating that prisons should be correctional and reformation centres and inmates should be treated in a humane way, James stressed that they should be provided vocational and other skill development trainings so that they can integrate with society on their release and lead a meaningful life as law-abiding citizens.

"The main emphasis of prisons should be rehabilitation and integration with society," he said, while stressing the need to constitute separate jails for hardcore criminals and undertrial prisoners.

Launching the software, James said Meghalaya is one of the first few states in the Northeast to have launched the e-prisons software, adding inauguration of the software from Shillong district jail is a "humble beginning".

He expressed confidence that steps towards digitisation and modernisation of prisons will be implemented in rest of prisons in the state.

James said e-prisons software will digitise not only record-keeping in jails, but will also lead to more transparency and accountability in functioning of jails.

Earlier the director-general of prisons, R.P. Agarwal, said e-prisons will computerise and integrate all activities related to prison and prisoner management to provide vital information about the inmates to prison officials and others involved in the criminal justice system.

Developed by the National Informatics Centre, the e-prisons software is a cloud-based product designed with easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) and embedded with a comprehensive security measure and providing a national integrated information about jail inmates.