China has installed a newly-developed computer software in a prison in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to improve the management of ethnic minority jails.

Information input into the database at the Gongcheng Yao Autonomous County Jail about the 270 convicts housed there includes prisoner profiles, family information, criminal record and court information.

Jail authorities and police can refer to the database for quick, accurate facts on the prisoners.

This is the first time a county-level prison has used an intelligence management system in Guangxi, home to China's largest ethnic minority Zhuang with a population of 16 million.

"Now we can obtain the detailed information of any prisoner only in a moment. It is much more efficient compared with the manual work in the past," said one jail guard.

In addition, the system can store prisoners' fingerprints and photos.

The new program is part of the national public security information network.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2001)