Thinking Outside of Box at Mass. Jail

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By Boston Globe

Published: 10/14/2002

There are about 1,000 inmates at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Middleton, and at any given moment, Lieutenant Jason Ebacher has a pretty good idea of what they're up to.
There are TV cameras scanning every cellblock, and the officers in their glass booths can view them all. But so can Ebacher, even when he's making his rounds.
On a flat-panel computer screen strapped to his body, he can view live video from every part of the prison. He can single out a particular cellblock, or view all of them at once as a checkerboard of tiny windows on his monitor. ''Everything...is on this computer here,'' Ebacher said.
The computer is belted to his waist, and connected by radio waves to the jail's central information system. Ebacher is using the Mobile Assistant V, a top-of-the-line wearable computer with all the functionality of a good laptop PC. He's one of the first correctional officers in the world to try the system, and the Essex County jail is the first to deploy it.
Xybernaut Corp. of Fairfax, Va., has been selling the devices for years. Mobile Assistants let Navy technicians and FedEx airplane mechanics look up vital repair data as they work, and relay new information wirelessly to remote data centers.
But it had never occurred to Xybernaut officials that the same technology would come in handy in a jail. It was Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins who had the idea, after seeing a demonstration of the Mobile Assistant.
Cousins, a former state representative with a background in retailing, was appointed sheriff in 1996, and was elected to the post in 1998. He developed a reputation as a tech-savvy administrator who moved quickly to modernize the department. ''When he first came aboard and took over, I think we had maybe four working PCs in the whole department,'' said David Marescalchi, director of information systems for the sheriff's deparment. ''Now we have over 300.''
Once he saw a Defense Department demonstration of the Mobile Assistant, Cousins wanted to get a few for his jail. ''We said, this would be ideal in a correctional setting,'' Cousins recalled.
''It was not an application we thought of ourselves,'' said Frederick Peterson, Xybernaut's vice president of government affairs and security services. ''He thought of it and came to us.''
Because the Mobile Assistant is a standard PC, it was relatively easy to install software for correctional use.
With its industry-standard wireless technology, the computer can relay information to the prison network, using the same kind of wireless router available to consumers at the local computer store.
The computer itself is a two-pound box that straps to the officer's waist. Under normal circumstances, it's plugged into a flat-panel display that attaches to the front of his belt.
Using a stylus like those found on palmtop computers, the officer can type in requests for information, which move across the wireless network.
Armed with a Mobile Assistant, an officer can look up a convict's disciplinary record, punch in a request for repairs to a cell, or call up video feeds from every other cellblock.
When prisoners get violent, officers like Ebacher may have to don special body armor. Soon they'll use a new version with a Mobile Assistant attached to the back. Instead of a monitor, this version boasts a digital camera attached to the front of the vest. The camera relays live pictures of the incident to the jail computer system. Digital images of the entire operation will be permanently recorded, allowing officers, and perhaps a judge and jury, to review the officers' conduct. The presence of the camera, it is hoped, will cause both criminals and officers to act with more restraint, aware that every move they make will be recorded. ''It eliminates lawsuits,'' said Cousins. ''It's great for training purposes.''
For now, Essex County has just two of the wearable computers, paid for by a grant from the state. But county officials hope they can eventually make the Mobile Assistant as commonplace as a set of handcuffs.

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