The Browse Records tab is the portal into all the information stored in the database. You can use this tab to search for inmates, packages sent, prisons, and individual books that have been shipped.

The most useful stuff in this tab is editing inmate information and merging duplicate inmate entries.

Browse Records Overview

Here’s the different options available in the right-hand dropdown menu. This is pretty self-explanatory.

Inmate List

Here’s an example view of the results for one specific person who has a lot of incorrect/duplicate info attached to his record. (He writes to us a lot.)

From this screen you can either click on one of these records to edit it, or you can select Merge Inmates.

Editing Inmate Info

You can click on one of these records, then hit Edit Info to bring you to this screen. Here you can update the prison ID number and which prison they are in.

(Hope I didn’t skip too many steps here. I think you can figure it out.)

Merging Inmate Records

You can only merge records from the Records tab, so if you’re following along, you’ll have to go back a couple of screens. The Merge link is here.

Merging Inmate Records: Step 1

Clicking on “Merge Records” will bring you here. Use the right-hand search box to find your person. Tick the boxes for the records you want to merge. and click “Merge Selected Inmate.”

Merging Inmate Records: Step 2

Here you can type in the information for the record you want to merge all your duplicates INTO. The record you select will be the ONLY record left. The information in this record will replace all the other records on file for that person. Their old name, ID number ,and prison will be lost, leaving only those in the record you select.

All of the packages ever sent to this person will be rolled into the new record so you can view them all in one place.

This search bar is really touchy. I recommend just copy and pasting the name or ID number into this box using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.

Merging Inmate Records: Step 3

Here you can see that the records for John Public and John Quentin Public are going to be rolled into the record for John Q. Public.

Merging Inmate Records: Step 4

Here’s the confirmation page. This guy only has one record now. Check this information and make sure it’s correct; if anything isn’t right, you can use the Edit Inmate’s Information tab to correct it as described above.