I have been using Drupal since about 4.4.x and now all of my personal and business websites use Drupal 7.x. I have some websites set up using Views and other related modules. Since I'm pretty familiar with Drupal, this is why I'm considering using it for the following project. While the project would include a typical Drupal website, this question is primarily focus to one part of the possible setup.
Someone may want me to set up website that would also contain an online searchable database that ultimately could contain many thousands or tens of thousands of records, etc.. We haven't yet discussed the particulars, so don't know the specific details. However, from what I can surmise, the database would track inmates coming out of the prison system, their interactions, what resources would be available to them (jobs, housing, food resources, support services, religious services, etc.).
From a webmaster point of view, besides the initial Drupal installation, I would set up various new content types using whatever fields would be needed for each use. I'd use the standard Drupal permissions as well field level permissions. I'd set up various roles (each with their own level of permissions) as needed for each type of user. Views would be used to show specific information in tables or other formats.