Earlier this summer, the Northeast Technology and Product Assessment Committee met with corrections directors and other professionals for its quarterly technology review. For two days, technology vendors presented their products to practitioners from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, as well as to national organizations like the Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization.

NTPAC provides a venue for correctional agencies, like the New York City Department of Corrections and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, so they can discuss their concerns about the tools they need to run their facilities. Agencies also have an opportunity to review the new technology that is introduced to the field every day.

“The challenge with corrections technology is that it is mostly associated with high cost items. But, some solutions that can make facilities safer are actually not all that costly. In this conference we try to bring issues of technology on the forefront to analyze what can help us with current issues,” NTPAC Chairman, Alex Fox, says of the two-year-old event.

“Inmates have little to do all day but outwit officials,” adds Jerald Cook, a criminal justice specialist for the National Law Enforcement and Correction Technology Center. “When a new technology is introduced into a facility, inmates think of new ways to get around it, which is frustrating because the tech can be expensive, so it is important to have events like NTPAC to find out what new tools are available.”

Fox has a pulse on the challenges facing corrections today, so he invites vendors that can address what NTPAC participants face every day at their facilities. Current challenges include; the inability to accurately detect contraband like drugs and non-metallic weapons; cell phone detection; disaster preparedness; pandemic readiness; and offender tracking. Systems integration was also on the minds of several administrators like the Vermont DOC's Lawrence McLiverty.

“Systematically it seems like IT is never where you want it to be. Data management specifically doesn't seem to be as integrated as they should be. These fragmented systems make it hard for me to put together information for managers. With the high costs of mental and medical health, sometimes IT can be an after thought,” says McLiverty, who also mentioned an interest in seeing long distance visitation systems for families who live too far from inmates.

Cook , whose organization focuses on corrections and law enforcement technology, expects that technology will become more sophisticated to combat problems like concealing glass and plastic weapons. He, along with other NTPAC attendees, say the biggest issue for them now is cell phone detection.

Inmates are using cell phones to intimidate jurors, organize riots, and continue with their criminal activity beyond prison walls. As phones get smaller, they become more of a challenge to find. FCC regulations banning signal interference also has forced facilities to find savvier ways to stem use.

“This is a problem on all levels nationwide,” says John Ely, from the Federal Bureau of Prisons Security Technology Office. “Inmates are connecting to the outside world in harmful ways, so we're looking for solutions that can detect the illegal phones either in use or when they are off. We cannot do shakedowns 24/7, and inmates know that, so they hide them pretty well.”

One vendor, EDO corporation, presented its cell phone activity location system as a solution to this problem. The system detects cell phone signals in real-time throughout the facility and displays where the activity is taking place on monitors at CO command centers. Sensors can be placed in cells or in general areas. EDO tested their beta system at the OLETC mock prison riot this past spring and says it hopes to install its first working system in a facility sometime this summer.

Most NTPAC attendees liked EDO's solution but some, like Ely, were wary of the high costs related to the system itself and to the hardware it would take to install the sensors.

Wayne LaMont, assistant chief of emergency preparedness at New York City's Correction Department liked the system enough that he invited EDO to demo its tool in one of his facilities. He, along with most other attendees, especially liked American Technology's Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD). This system provides focused acoustic energy, which allows practitioners to direct verbal alerts or warnings at specific targets. “If two inmates were fighting in the yard, you could use LRAD to speak to only those two without causing attention to the incident. Other inmates in the yard would not be able to hear what was being said,” LaMont explains. “However, if the disturbance grew you could emit a sound that is so startlingly loud, it would make any group instantly drop to the ground.”

 

(American Tech's LRAD system)

LaMont experienced this power firsthand when American Tech demonstrated LRAD on the NTPAC group. He says he invited most of the NTPAC vendors to his facilities, because he likes to compare the technology on today's market to what he already uses. PEVAC, for example, showed off its latest speed gates, which can open or close in about six seconds.

(PEVAC's Speed Gate)

While other DOCs do not have the type of budget LaMont has for New York City, NTPAC participants liked knowing that when the time is right them financially, better technology will be available to improve the safety of their facility.

“It's nice for small systems like ours to see what other facilities have and what type of technology is being applied,” adds McLiverty.

In the fall, corrections and law enforcement officials will meet again to discuss technology solutions that can be applied to the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) procedures that are being rolled out nationwide.