Directorate-General for Information Technology

March 3-4, 2008

IT solutions in Italian judicial system

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Department of Court Administration

Department of Court Administration

Department Head Office

Directorate-General for Information Technology

Directorate-General for Staff and Training

Directorate-General for Resources, Goods and Services

Directorate-General for Budget

Directorate-General Statistics Directorate-General for Judges and Prosecutors

Department Heads Conference

Special Bureau for Naples

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ICT Structure

• Total 1549 offices • WAN 872 offices• 40.000 clients • 6.000 servers

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• Clerks (courts)

30.794

• Lawyers

180.000

• Clerks (prosecutor office)

9.795

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• Judges: 6450 • Prosecutors: 2331

Judges : 7321 Of Peace: 3403

V.P.O Vice Procuratori Onorari:

1820

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ICT for the Italian judicial system

• Both criminal and civil areas have been computerized, even if not all the courts/users are already using the applications; some sites are in a start up phase

• ICT interests all the degrees of justice, from the justice of the peace, to the tribunal, to the court of appeal and the Supreme Court

• There are applications for the automatic data processing and office automation systems to give a specialized help to the judicial users (judges, public prosecutors, court clerks, court managers…)

• There is a complete network, which connect all the judicial buildings (courts, prisons, ministry offices)

• Presently, most of the systems have been developed in client-server architecture, but, because of the highest costs in giving them an adequate assistance, there is an evolution towards web based system and centralization (at a regional level, Court of Appeal)

• In the following slides, some information about specific areas

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ICT Architecture• Distrectual Architecture / Web based

R.U.G

Distretto X

DB Server

Web Server

workstation

workstation

workstation

File Server

Distretto Z

Distretto Y

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– RE.GE. system (GEneral REgistry), used all over Italy in Prosecutor offices and Courts and in some offices of the Justice of the Peace

• It consents the data management of all the phases of a criminal trial, replacing paper registries

• Many offices have also support applications (add-on SW), in order to facilitate the drafting of orders and sentences, the release of certificates and research

• Prospects: the relational version of the system is in use in some Districts; in the present time, a relevant data-migration is in progress in all the other Italian offices, to get to a web based application, SICP, Information System of the Criminal Cognition

– SIES, Information System of post trial criminal Enforcement and Surveillance, a relational data management application to replace the previous SW

– SIDDA – SIDNA, information system of the Antimafia District Direction, which recently has been taken as a template for the data management of EUROJUST (E-poc II project)

Main applications for criminal area

ICT infrastructures and ongoing ICT infrastructures and ongoing initiativesinitiatives

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Automation of the investigation stage:

Telematic acquisition of first reports about crimes (from the sources - i.e. Police, “Carabinieri”, etc. - to the Prosecutor Bureaux)

Acquisition of identification code (AFIS project) Telematic nomination of pro bono lawyers (in collaboration with the local Councils of Lawyers)

Databases:

renewed Criminal Records Information System (Casellario): unified database for criminal records and pending proceedings (national range)

special database for convictions relating to minors

BDMC, precautionary orders database (it contains data about preliminary investigation orders to restrict personal freedom or seize private goods

SIPPI, preventing orders information system, which includes the database of forfeited property (it concerns a special preventing law against mafia crimes and others relevant violations)

Other applications

ICT infrastructures and ongoing ICT infrastructures and ongoing initiativesinitiatives

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Criminal proceedings goals (1)

• A general decrease of the number of the servers in the ICT system dedicated to the criminal trial: concentration of application servers at headquarters located in the cities of the Court of Appeal. This will reduce costs and difficulties in the process of installing software and distributing new releases.

• The choice will also produce obvious impact on the

cost of ordinary system, allowing:– to spare resources in supporting the applications only in

district server rooms (that means in 26 towns);– to increase the skill level of these resources

• The choice will also simplify the applications system distributed all over Italy and will create an integrated platform for the management of the criminal proceedings data

ICT infrastructures and ongoing ICT infrastructures and ongoing initiativesinitiatives

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• Evolution of the criminal area information systems into web based systems, to get architectural settings that grant an integrated application system; the first step is Re.Ge.Web (the basis for SICP)

• Installation all over Italy of only three information systems to standardize the applications in use:

– Criminal cognition Information system (REGE Web – SICP, plus BDMC, precautionary orders database, plus SIDIP, system dedicated to the digitalization of the hearings) will form the database for a complete information about the criminal proceedings (cognition phase, i.e. pending trials)

– Enforcement information system (SIES, organized into different modules for Prosecutor, Court, Surveillance and Enforcement)

– Preventive measures information system (SIPPI) manages preventive measures and forfeited property database

Criminal proceedings goals (2)

ICT infrastructures and ongoing ICT infrastructures and ongoing initiativesinitiatives

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SIESSIES SIPPISIPPI

SICPSICP

CRIMINAL

AREA

CRIMINAL

AREA

On-going ConsolidationOn-going Consolidation

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SIDIP allows both judges and court clerks to manage audio-video data during the hearings

It provides:• data and documents filing • document analysis• queries on the hearings database• efficient case management for judges and judicial clerks and improvement of transparency• exchange of information with other offices and lawyers

Information System for the hearings in criminal trials

(S.I.D.I.P.)

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SIDDA/SIDNA – The peculiar approach

Local databases, in each DDA (Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia, District Antimafia Prosecutor’s Office), supporting activities of prosecutors and staff

One national database, in DNA (Direzione Nazionale Antimafia, National Antimafia Prosecutor’s Office), providing support to DDAs in their local investigations and to coordinate antimafia activities all over Italy

Integration of the national database with data from external sources, to set up a comprehensive knowledge regarding criminal phenomena and their evolutions, to better coordinate DNA activities

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Information System for Direzioni Distrettuali Antimafia (SIDDA)

Data feedingLocal

databaseNationaldatabase

Extendednavigation

Queries on local data

Queries on external data sources

Queries on the national database and

alarms analysis

Information searching toolsInformation searching tools

2.2.Document analysis and structured data Document analysis and structured data inputinput

•Structured information

Data filing in DDAsData filing in DDAs(Acts and documents regarding criminal (Acts and documents regarding criminal

proceedings)proceedings)

1.Document cataloguing and text input

• Textual information

Data extraction /Data fusion

Queries QueriesThe information sourceThe information source

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The proposal takes advantage of specific methodologies and software solutions obtained in the context of the SIDDA/SIDNA project. This project aims to realize a system capable of giving support both to investigations carried out by local prosecutors in different European countries and to coordination activities performed by Eurojust.

E–POC I - IIEUROPEAN POOL AGAINST ORGANIZED CRIME

CaseManagement

functions

Personaldata

functions

Eurojust

Index ofdata

Eurojust Data

Securityfunctions

Localdatabase

Localdatabase

Investigation andprosecutionfunctions

National authority

Request and replytransfer functionsin a standard way NM TWF

CasesPersonal

data

NMOther files

Other data

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This system will support: filing of investigation documents and data document analysis and extraction of relevant information to be

stored in relational databases some queries on investigation databases documents saving for investigation purposes and exchange of

information with other working groups carrying out investigations on the same (or related) subjects or facts

E–POC I - IIEUROPEAN POOL AGAINST ORGANIZED CRIME

E-POC main objectives are:

A software system to support both investigations carried out by local prosecutors in different European countries and coordination activities performed by Eurojust

Development of a software prototype

Experimentation of the prototype in some pilot sites, in different European countries

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Strategic goal: To promote the adoption of EPOC software as a standard solution based on a common data template to enable information exchange and cooperation among National authorities and Eurojust in European countries

Objectives:

Set up, training and support to selected sites in partner countries and to Eurojust Evolution of E-POC II to enhance IT support and to exploit the Secure communication infrastructure between Eurojust and National authorities in investigations on serious crimes

E–POC IIIEUROPEAN POOL AGAINST ORGANIZED CRIME

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Sixth framework programme

SecurE - Justice

These projects aim:to realize a technological integrated solution to provide a

virtual courtroomto set up a technological infrastructure for multimedia

communication through special security modelto improve trial security (through safe communication and

knowledge sharing) and making the “production” of Justice faster and at lower costs

to guarantee a secure environment where key judicial European Authorities can cooperate

Communication Environment for Judicial Network in Communication Environment for Judicial Network in Europe and Western Balkans Europe and Western Balkans

J-WeB projectJ-WeB project