The past year has brought about many changes in technology for the corrections field. As technology continues to improve, corrections continues to update systems, procedures and practices in order to run safer facilities and keep an eye on inmates who are likely to re-offend.

Focusing on issues from inmate and offender supervision to case management and lethal-force control, developments in technology have led to a brand new corrections field. Supervision was a hot topic in 2005, with many states passing laws allowing them to track offenders on parole. Meanwhile, other states focused on high-tech training devices to help improve officer performance. And escape alerts were developed in some states, while video visitation systems were installed in others. Even drug testing technologies were reviewed and enhanced.

One thing became obvious throughout 2005: as technology improves, corrections will continue to update, adjust and improve as well. Rather than shying away from new concepts, tools and practices, officers and administrators have welcomed the chance to update the field of corrections.

The Corrections Connection's Technology Network looks back on a year of taking technology in stride.

Supervision: GPS, Gangs and Beyond
Community Corrections
Training and Scheduling Technology
Information Sharing
Technology on the Horizon

Supervision

Sex Offender Supervision & GPS

Until recently, probation and parole officers relied only on the polygraph and their own observation to help them find the truth when supervising sex offenders in the community. But today, technology has evolved and these officers have become computer forensic investigators. According to officials, the only way to retrieve this kind of material is to use forensic tools and that is exactly what his agency has started doing.
Understanding this, Oregon's Multnomah County facility began looking into ways to investigate the contents of a sex offender's computer. The county started using a program that searched and scanned a computer for images and allowed officers to view them as they flashed across the screen. But the downside to that product was that it changed the original file configurations of the computer, which might make the evidence inadmissible in court.
Officials said the department then opted to use that tool at a later stage in an investigation -- after a computer hard drive had been copied. Now, in the field, officers use a tool that completes a quick search of an offender's computer files looking for any pornographic images. If the forensics tool determines that there are remnants of these types of files, the officer can seize the computer for a more complete examination of its contents.
The forensics tool, called NTA Stealth and developed by New Technologies Inc., has enabled officers to uncover activities that might otherwise have been overlooked. According to Snyder, officers were able to identify a perpetrator in two unsolved child molestation cases based on a search of the offender's computer using the forensics tool. Another individual, who had heard about the forensics capability of the officers supervising him, also tried beating detection by reformatting his hard drive twice. Snyder said the program still uncovered more than 800 images from his computer.

Tenn. & Calif. Pave the Way for GPS

Authorities in Los Angeles decided in May that they would begin tracking inmates in the nation's largest jail system using new radio-linked wristbands to pinpoint their location within a few feet. Los Angeles County planned to spend $1.5 million to tag about 1,900 inmates in one unit of the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, beginning early next year.
If it works well, the program will be expanded to the 6,000 inmates at the county's central jail and then to other facilities, said Marc Klugman, chief of the sheriff's department's Correctional Services Division. The tracking device is an updated version of wristbands that have been tested since 2000 at California's Calipatria State Prison near the Mexican border - the first in the nation to track its inmates electronically.
The concept has also been exported to other states. Michigan's Bureau of Juvenile Justice has had a $1 million tracking system at a maximum-security prison since 2003 and is installing it at a second detention facility. The technology also is being used at a minimum-security prison in Chillicothe, Ohio, and at a medium-security correctional center near Springfield, Ill.
Removing or breaking the bracelet sets off a computer alarm, alerting officers to a possible prison escape. Beyond tracking inmates around cell blocks, the technology has the potential to allow work-release crews to roam within an electronic fence that could be easily moved wherever it is needed, said Harinder Singh, executive officer of the California Department of Corrections' technology transfer committee.
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, state legislature authorized $2.5 million for an offender monitoring pilot project, which will use cutting edge GPS technology to keep a closer eye on sex offenders in some areas of the state. After state legislators appropriated money for the project, they left it up to the state Board of Probation and Parole as to how to implement it.
Additionally, the board considered the effects of implementing the program in rural, mountainous areas or metro areas with skyscrapers, where the technology may not function properly because of blocked signals. After weighing these different factors, the board decided to include several counties in the pilot project, including Shelby, Davidson, Knox, Sullivan, Bradley, Polk, Meigs, Rutherford and Montgomery. With all of these areas participating, Irvin said, nearly half of the 1,300 sex offenders in the state who qualify for the program are expected to be tracked by GPS once it is up and running.

Supervision During Sleep

The devices dangling from offenders' arms in Barry County, Michigan, serve a far different purpose than telling time; they monitor people's sleep patterns to determine if they have been drinking or using drugs. SleepTime technology was introduced in the county six months ago to alert community corrections officers when their clients may be violating their probation by using substances, such as alcohol, cocaine or methamphetamine.  So far, probation personnel are singing the praises of this new tool.
SleepTime has worked well for the county because it's an inexpensive, easy-to-use, effective means of monitoring offenders' substance use. Drug Impairment Detection Services (DIDS), LLC, the New York-based company that manufactures SleepTime, charges jurisdictions $2.73 per day for each offender using the technology.  Barry County flips that cost back onto their clients, who are charged $3 a day, which is still not a high price to pay, compared to what it costs for other monitoring technologies, Westra said. Since most of the offenders are typically strapped for cash, SleepTime benefits both the county and the probationers.
For the county's community corrections department, SleepTime red flags offenders who may have been using alcohol or drugs, in violation of the conditions of their probation.  Those offenders who are placed on the technology report to the probation office every Monday and Thursday, so that information about their sleep patterns can be retrieved from their wristbands. When offenders are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, sleep patterns vary. Drugs, like cocaine or meth, typically wipe out sleep altogether.
When offenders are placed on a SleepTime monitor, their normal sleep patterns are determined during the first two weeks, to give the community corrections agency a baseline to compare with future readings.  Some people, who have irregular sleep patterns to begin with, are required to take a urine test at this point to make sure that they are not under the influence of any substances when their typical sleep pattern is being established.

Community Corrections

Drug Testing

This year, substance abuse detection has took on a whole new level of analysis and technology. That means agencies received more accurate results by using a variety of methods, but they also needed to pay close attention to detail in order to choose the right testing device. Corrections agencies should carefully consider which drugs they test for most often, research the methods work best for detecting those drugs and understand the usage windows that each device reads.
Walsh, whose firm The Walsh Group conducted an evaluation of oral fluid testing devices for the federal government, said it is important for users of these devices to keep abreast of the changes in technology to be able to get what they need. The testing devices on the market today measure traces of drugs in blood, saliva, urine, hair and sweat. Blood and saliva or oral fluid testing measure the presence of drugs only after they enter the blood stream; urine detection also requires a drug to enter the system; detection by sweat is more delayed as the substance must be absorbed by the system and then exit through perspiration; and hair testing measure deposits of substances from the system and, to some extent, by the environment.
All these variables, combined with differing time periods for maximum detection, require agencies need to also consider why they are testing, how often they need to test, what windows of detection they need and where they are testing. The characteristics of drug testing devices are important to grasp as agencies evaluate the right product for their use.

Caseload Supervision

With high caseloads and crude monitoring and tracking systems - mostly paper and pencil based - officers in the field have difficulty keeping up with every offender who has an infraction. Unfortunately, that may mean that a high-profile case explodes in front of them. But agencies and legislatures now are working hard to bring technology to those officers in the field and improve the tracking and monitoring of offenders.
The Florida DOC is one agency that has put the pedal to the floor and will soon equip officers with a wireless, hand-held appliance that will enable them to collect and communicate information they obtain while supervising offenders. By helping probation or parole officers record information and share it with others in the department, agencies can do a better job of managing and monitoring offenders. And with the abduction and deaths of teenagers Jessica Lunsford and Carlie Bruscia in Florida over the last year, corrections officials and the legislature there had no choice but to make major changes to how the system supervised offenders after release.
The corrections secretary has moved forward with his vision to connect officers in the field with facilities and the courts in an effort to better manage offenders. DOC officials plan to work with a vendor to create a hand-held device for probation and parole officers that records and sends vital information about offenders to other law enforcement entities. With help from the legislature, the plan will likely be put into action soon. Whether it is an individual state's effort or that of a consortium, departments of corrections and their staff are beginning to reap the benefits of wireless and web technologies.

Training and Scheduling Technology

Scheduling Technology

Labor is one of the largest costs for any correctional facility – and Emerald City Software (ECS) has recently developed new software to help one correctional agency become more efficient in scheduling and labor. The scheduling software, which was piloted and developed for the Washington state Department of Corrections (WDOC), is now being used throughout the state by 800 officers at 15 corrections facilities. According to ECS and the WDOC, the new software has completely eliminated the need for paper logs, and has given corrections officials more control over employee records regarding sick leave, vacation time and overtime.
In order to help older facilities adjust to the new technology, ECS continued to send out trainers who helped each officer adapt to the new system. In fact, trainers worked around the clock to train officers, in order to make sure that everyone in the facility was aware of the new technology – and able to use it. Clark and Ramsey say that one trainer, Dargie Sutton, was one of the most dedicated and motivated trainers, and was often holding training sessions at 2 a.m. Now, scheduling managers can keep 100% accurate records, which the WDOC says helps to drastically cut down overtime.

Training Technology

Officers in corrections, parole, probation, and other areas of law enforcement can prepare for difficult scenarios with multimedia video simulators that provide a valuable luxury officers won't have in real life: a restart switch.
There are several video simulators on the market that enable use of force instructors to prepare trainees to respond to a variety of threats with the appropriate level of force. Cole and the other instructors in his department use the Range 2000 system developed by IES Interactive Training in Littleton, Colorado. For instance, the Range 2000 is operated from a personal computer and projects a videotaped scenario onto a large screen. Officers stand in front of the screen and are given practice weapons, like a pistol or can of pepper spray, that have been outfitted with an infrared laser. When pointed at a target on the screen, the laser triggers a reaction from the simulator, causing the videotaped offenders to shout, fight, and sometimes, shoot back.  
This year, Cole's department demonstrated the training uses of the Range 2000 at the 6th Annual Innovative Technologies for Community Corrections Conference in Seattle, WA.
Although IES has since upgraded to the Range 3000 and the new MILO system, Cole is demonstrating the original model because it remains a useful training tool that may encourage other law enforcement agencies to begin using video simulators.
The Range 2000 comes loaded with dozens of job-specific scenarios for different law enforcement agencies like corrections, parole, probation, and police departments. Scenarios that include everything from transportation of prisoners to making arrests, have been created and pre-saved on the program's hard drive by filmmakers from IES and hired actors. The simulator also allows different agencies to customize their own training situations by filming scenarios themselves.

Information Technology

Communication

A riot breaks out at a local prison facility.  Instantly, area police and fire departments arrive on the scene to support corrections personnel.  They encounter a problem though: radio inoperability.  Because each agency's two-way radios are on different frequencies, they can't communicate.  That's a big barrier for people who are trying to work together to gain control of a crisis situation.  
Aegis' newly developed SafetyNet Radio Bridge, through integrated circuitry, enables different agencies to interface with each other on their own two-way radios during an emergency. In order to achieve this type of inter-communication between agencies, the participating entities, in the past, would have had to actually swap radios to get everyone on the same page. With SafetyNet, however, up to 16 different radios from as many agencies can be connected, without ever having to trade equipment.
In order to communicate with other first responders, agencies need only attach one of their radios to SafetyNet, which resides in a stand-alone, portable, hard-cased, 15-pound unit. And getting the technology going is a simple process. Once that switch is flipped, whoever is in charge of directing agencies during the crisis can determine which channels will broadcast certain information and who will have access to the various channels.
In addition to channels that are designated for certain personnel, one channel can be reserved for all communication so that every person responding to the situation can talk back and forth. For corrections agencies, it can be useful during a riot.
Information Sharing
Pre-9/11, when Julian Allen and Harrison County, Miss. Sheriff George Payne scrawled down onto a piece of paper a proposal for a public safety information sharing system, they had no idea that inter-agency data swapping would later become a national goal. Since the formation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002, there has been an increased emphasis on information sharing among federal, state and local agencies.  To get the data-sharing process started in Mississippi, the state looked to the federal government, which provided it with the funding it needed to get the ASP off the ground.
When it's completed, the ASP will link law enforcement and emergency response agencies in three coastal Mississippi counties - Harrison, Jackson and Hancock - and become a model for other states, Mississippi hopes.
The first phase of the ASP, which was finished in February 2004, linked the management systems of the three county jails, enabling them to share records back and forth.  Just last month, the second phase of the ASP began with the goal of integrating records so they will be electronically available to fire and law enforcement dispatchers.  The final phase, slated for completion in October 2004, will provide public safety professionals with laptops in their vehicles to have instant access to a broad range of information when they are in the field.
Prison Escape Alert System.
Thanks to a partnership between the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and the Community Alert Network (CAN), a telephone emergency notification company that will soon make 250 calls simultaneously to residents within a two-mile radius of the prison when an escape occurs. Although the state's prisons will retain their siren alerts, CAN's technology replaces a slower, manual telephone alert system that the Department of Corrections previously used to contact residents one-by-one.
Each institution will draft a one-year, $1,200-contract with CAN over the next several months. Since the company manages their own calling centers in Nevada and New York, the prisons are not required to purchase or lease equipment. In order to activate an emergency alert, authorized prison personnel must call one of CAN's 24-hour hotlines and verify an established password. Next, the prison details the incident, selects geographic locations to receive calls and records a voice message or selects a pre-recorded message.

Technologies on the Horizon

At the National Corrections and Law Enforcement Training and Technology Center, which hosts the annual Mock Riot and Mock Disaster for law enforcement and corrections, officials will also see a new training simulation system. The system, called SVS, is built by Reality Response - a division of Advanced Interactive Systems.
Officials have mapped the Moundsville Center and the former penitentiary there (which is used for training) in virtual reality and the scenarios from the system will take place in these mapped locations. The system will allow participants in the virtual reality training to use the mouse to "click" on a victim, for example, to determine the subject's vital signs. The system also provides authoring capabilities so that scenarios can reflect different aspects of training that a team would need. In addition to providing a battle master control, the system also offers an after-action review tool to look back at a team's or individual's performance during a training scenario.
The technology was demonstrated at this year's Mock Riot at the Moundsville Center. Also on the horizon and being currently tested through NIJ is a wireless biometrics system that can help corrections and law enforcement with inmate counts by matching a fingerprint to an existing database.
The technology could be used in other applications within corrections as well, such as distributing medications to ensure they go to the correct individual, or in a cafeteria setting to make sure offenders are only served once, as part of a canteen system for offenders or used at the front gate to identify those entering the facility.
The portable unit is seven inches by seven inches and can be moved easily throughout a facility for multiple tasks. There are other technologies that corrections officials may also want to pay attention to in the coming months including a new combination facial recognition/automated fingerprint information system by BlueBear Network and CamLite a mobile wireless audio-video system housed inside a flashlight, which has been used by the Clackamas County, Ore, Sheriff's department and the L.A. County Sheriff's Office.
These and other emerging technologies may help corrections officers and staff communicate better, have more information at their fingertips and improve public safety and facility safety as they come into use.