Minnesota Turns to RFID to Monitor Inmates
Minnesota’s Department of Corrections (DOC) is preparing to introduce a $500,000 radio frequency identification (RFID) prisoner-tracking system at one of its centers to increase security and automate the tracking of inmates. Earlier in June, the DOC announced that it is implementing the prisoner-tracking system in the 1,300-prisoner Minnesota Correctional Facility, a minimum-to-medium security facility which contains sex offenders. The lead contractor for the initiative is Minneapolis’ Crowley Co., which offers high-security fencing and tracking systems, while Alanco Technologies Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz., is providing the RFID system. The monitoring system is founded on active RFID tag technology and offers alerts if something unusual is taking place. Both prisoners and corrections guards sport wrist straps possessing a proprietary RFID tag, which transmits a signal every couple of seconds to antennas implemented inside of the facility and around its edges. The readers enter data into the proprietary TSI Prism Management application that transmits the information to a master terminal in a control room and to customer terminals set up in strategic sites across the facility, including the warden’s office. In addition, an inmate can be monitored in virtual real time.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) from Computerworld (6/18/2007);Songini, Marc L.