RFID Bracelets to Track Inmates in L.A. County

Roland Piquepaille writes "According to RFID Journal, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is about to launch a pilot program to track 1,800 inmates using RFID devices. If the test is successful, the technology will be deployed for the 18,000 inmates of the L.A. county jails. With this system, inmates carry a wrist bracelet which issues a signal every two seconds and is caught by RFID readers installed everywhere in the prison. Officers and staff also carry a RFID device attached to their belts. And a central server keeps track in real time of the position of all prisoners and guardians. Besides tracking locations, the system also intends to reduce violence within the jail and to avoid escapes. If this system works as its promoters think, the potential market to equip all federal, state and county jails in the U.S. exceeds $1 billion. This overview contains other details and references, including a picture of a wristwatch transmitter worn by inmates."

Comments

Re:My rights?

[That's Unpossible!]

Claiming its not about your rights because you're not in jail is like saying slavery wasn't about your rights because you weren't black.

OK, Vicente Fox, I got your back.

Anyway, I fail to see the unsettling implications here as I often fail to do in the YRO section. (BTW, shouldn't the color scheme here be shiny metallic... you know, tin foil colored?)

They already have these things designed to keep track of the prisoners... they're called jail cells. So they want to augment this tracking with RFID bracelets. WTF cares???

Implying this is a slippery slope to tracking non-felons is like saying, "You better watch out, next thing you know, they'll be using those new-fangled "jail cells" to keep everyone locked up!"

OK, so I'm bad at analogies.

Re:My rights?

[Master of Transhuman]

You are a serious idiot with absolutely no clue about history or this country or any other country.

And being a serious idiot, you'll end up committing a "crime" (by some other idiot's definition - or even your own - or, since you're an idiot, an actual really, really real crime) and then you'll - probably not get the clue intended, because you're an idiot.

Have a nice day, moron.