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<font size=1 color="#FF0000"><i><br>
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4><b>RFID Tracking Allows
Prisons to More Closely Monitor Inmates<br>
</font><font size=3>By
<a href="http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/feedback.php/http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/columns/article.php/3758456">
Daniel Casciato</a></b> <br><br>
One of the nation's largest correctional institutions is spending $3.3
million to install an RFID inmate tracking system to track and monitor
over 2,000 of its inmatesmaking it the largest installation of RFID
technology to track and monitor people anywhere in the world.<br><br>
According to the president of the company installing the tracking system,
the technology will provide the
<a href="http://doc.dc.gov/doc/site/default.asp">Washington, D.C.
Department of Corrections</a> (DOC) facility with a state-of-the-art
investigative tool and safety system for its 450-plus staff. <br><br>
"They approached us because they recognized the value of the
technology and enhancing their ability to manage inmates," said Greg
M. Oester, president of <a href="http://www.tsiprism.com/">Alanco/TSI
PRISM, Inc.</a> <br><br>
The tracking system, expected to be installed by the end of the year,
combines TSI PRISM's RFID Inmate Tracking System with Wi-Fi compatible
RTLS technology from <a href="http://www.aeroscout.com/">AeroScout,
Inc</a>. <br><br>
Scottsdale, Arizona-based Alanco/TSI PRISM, Inc., a subsidiary of
<a href="http://www.alanco.com/">Alanco Technologies, Inc.</a>, pioneered
the use of RFID inmate tracking technology in August 2000. Currently, ten
prisons throughout the world are using its tracking technology, including
facilities in California, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,
Missouri, Virginia, and Australia. Three others, including the
Washington, D.C. DOC, are installing the technology this year. <br><br>
<b>How it works<br><br>
TSI PRISM is comprised of three primary components: tamper detecting
tags, readers, and a host computer </b>employing the TSI PRISM
software.<br><br>
"Everyone in the prison facility wears a transmitter of one form or
another," explained Oester. "The inmates wear a tamper
detecting device on the wrist that looks like a large industrial
wristwatch. This device sends a beacon every two seconds and has multiple
levels of tamper detection. So you can’t remove it. The officers and
prison staff wear a transmitter device that looks like a pager on their
utility belts and it has multiple levels of duress notifications. So if
an officer is attacked or is in trouble in the prison facility, he can
push the distress button and we instantly know who he is, where he is and
what the threat level is."<br><br>
All of these signals are collected by an array of antennae that have been
installed around the prison facility and uses triangulation methodology.
<br><br>
"We know precisely where everyone is throughout the facility, so we
can identify people by name and their location, who they’re standing next
to, and so on," said Oester. "All of this data is archived into
a database so we can determine where someone is in about a two-second
keystroke. We can also go back into the database and find out where that
particular individual was yesterday or two months ago." <br><br>
<b>The greater good<br><br>
</b>Two of the primary benefits of the technology are that it promotes
and forces inmate accountability and becomes a strong investigative
resource for resolving incidences.<br><br>
"The inmates know that they are being tracked," Oester said.
"They know that they can be caught and it can be determined if they
were involved in a rules violation. If there’s an incident to be
investigated, we can conclusively determine who was in the immediate
proximity of the event, which shortens the witness list considerably. It
denies inmates the ability to say that they were not at a particular
event. We capture them off-screen and it provides staff with a very
useful tool to positively and conclusively resolve incidents or
participation by inmates in particular incidences." <br><br>
Another added benefit is the creation of operational savings. RFID
technology enables correctional institutions to reduce manual tasks that
normally require valuable staff time. <br><br>
"If a particular inmate in a 200-bed facility doesn’t show up for
work detail or classroom assignment, it would take a staff person about
30 to 40 minutes to conduct a physical search," said Oester.
"With our technology, we know where everyone is with a keystroke.
That frees up the staff from mundane search work. It allows them to do
drug screening or security sweeps that frequently there’s not enough time
in a day to do. It becomes a very comprehensive management
tool."<br><br>
<b>Privacy concerns<br><br>
</b>Constant monitoring, of course, means that inmates have even less
privacy and freedom of movement than before the RFID system was put in
place. Oester’s position is that in a prison environment, an individual’s
right to privacy has already been taken away. <br><br>
"They can strip the individual and search them at will," he
said. "Prison facilities can utilize cameras in every area of the
prison, except perhaps the bathroom or shower area. Our technology is a
security enhancement to the facility. We don't actually depict the human
body on screen so unlike cameras, we can track an individual into a
bathroom or shower area."<br><br>
Bill Covington, a professor of clinical law at the
<a href="http://www.law.washington.edu/">University of Washington Law
School</a>, runs
<a href="http://www.law.washington.edu/Clinics/Technology/">The
Technology Law and Public Policy Clinic</a>, has no issues with the
real-time tracking technology. <br><br>
"I'm hard pressed to see the ethical violations in terms of wanting
to know physically where the inmates are located at all times in those
facilities," he said. <br><br>
Jeffrey B. Killino, an attorney with the Philadelphia law firm,
<a href="http://www.wklawyer.com/">Woloshin & Killino, P.C.,</a>
agrees.<br><br>
"From my standpoint, an RFID tag is no more intrusive and no more
invasive than a prison uniform or handcuffs or shackles," he said.
"It's a tag that they are wearing, whether it's on their arms or
legs, and that is completely and ethically appropriate. Like many
Americans, I take our right to privacy very seriously, but when you have
been convicted of a crime and you are in a prison, I don't see how you
have the right to argue this."<br><br>
What will draw the line, according to Killino, is embedding an RFID tag
into a human being. In 2004, the <a href="http://www.fda.gov/">U.S. Food
and Drug Administration</a> approved of an
<a href="http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/protectingid/0,3800002220,39124983,00.htm">
RFID chip</a> that can be implanted in humans for medical
purposes.<br><br>
"I don't know if they would ever go that far in our lifetime,"
said Killino. "That would put you into the argument of cruel and
unusual punishment that prisoners typically raise and it's too much of
the invasion of the person and privacy by having that tag in there.
You'll have people up in arms and there will be a knockdown-drag-out
fight should that occur." <br><br>
Oester said that is an unlikely scenario.<br><br>
"It will never happen because it’s a privacy issue," he said.
"Injecting a foreign device into a human body is something that can
only be done with the consent of the individual and I don’t see that ever
taking place on a wholesale basis. There’s no benefit to the inmate and
there’s no benefit to the facility. There’s currently a device that would
work in this environment anyway and it’s not something that we would
attempt to do."<br><br>
One concern that Covington raises is whether the technology is 100
percent effective. <br><br>
"There would be ethical problems if you tell prisoners that they'll
be safe, that they won't be beaten or raped, because you have this
technology that will allow you to know where they are," he said.
"This is a sort of guarantee of safety to the prisoner and their
family. I don't know if it's reached the point where we can declare that
to them. I don't know where you can have 100 percent accuracy at all
times in all situations."<br><br>
However, TSI PRISM utilizes a broadband system for real-time tracking
that is more effective than a narrowband system that some companies use.
Narrowband systems transmit slower signals and may not track the actual
movement reliably.<br><br>
Broadband systems are capable of transmitting fast signals at frequent
intervals. At two-second intervals, each transmitter is sending a signal
43,200 times per day. By tracking an inmate in these two-second
intervals, the broadband depicts the subject's actual movement along
their pathway of travel. Contrast that to a narrowband, which usually
transmits every 30 seconds. An inmate can move up to 50 yards, assault
someone, and return without being detected. <br><br>
According to the company, several key statistics from correctional
institutions using its system prove its effectiveness:<br><br>
· Incidents of force and
violence were reduced by more than 65 percent.<br><br>
· Failures to report to job
incidents were reduced from 29 to 0.<br><br>
· Theft and destruction of
state property incidents were reduced by more than 40 percent.<br><br>
"Adoption of this technology is increasing and accelerating,"
said Oester. "I’m very confident that once this DC installation is
completed, it will adequately showcase the value of the technology in a
very large, densely populated institution."<br><br>
<i>Daniel Casciato is a freelance writer from Pittsburgh, PA. In addition
to writing for Wi-FiPlanet, he writes legal, medical, real estate and
technology-related articles for trade and consumer publications and
recently launched his own copywriting business. For more information,
visit
<a href="http://www.danielcasciato.com/">www.danielcasciato.com</a>
. <br><br>
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