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

My rights?

[77Punker]

This has nothing to do with my rights; I am not a prisoner. It is, however, a good use of the technology, and one of the first I've heard of.

Finally, a reason for RFID to exist.

Re:My rights?

[ichthus]

I think there might be a slight difference bewteen being black and being incarcerated. One of them has to do with biology. Can you tell which?

Re:My rights?

[AuMatar]

Not disagreeing with that. I have no problems with using RFIDs within the prison walls, so long as they are removed upon release. It still is a matter of rights though, so the topic is appropriate.

Re:My rights?

[zxnos]

you make a valid point. right now i am content just to be informed when they move into the area. that way i can deal with the situation. i dont know if they need to be tracked via gps or anything. i guess, to me, it would depend on if they have a history of abducting kids or just doing it at church / school. good point.

Re:My rights?

[oh_the_humanity]

I live in califonria and using megans laws databse found out that a convicted sex offender ( sodomy by force with a minor under 14 years of age) lives 1 block away from where my kid goes to school. Theres no signs saying sex offender lives here etc. its a crock.

Re:My rights?

[Martin Blank]

They should be tracked for such time as they are on parole or probation. Release from jail is not always a completion of sentence.

Now, the extent of that tracking may be something to be debated. Right now, most of them just have to check in with their parole/probation officer on a particular schedule, and usually must let law enforcement conduct unannounced searches for contraband. Whether they should be tracked with more detail, such as with a GPS band or other similar instrument is worth discussing.

Re:My rights?

[Kadin2048]

Finally, a sensible response.

Preserving prisoner's rights because they either might not be guilty, or are guilty only in the minds of a limited number of jurors, is a distraction from the real problem: why the system imprisoned them in the first place.

If I was imprisoned as an innocent man, I'd be pretty pissed off regardless of whether they had me wearing a locating transponder or not. In fact, I can't imagine I'd care one whit.

Actually, as a basically non-aggressive person, I'd probably SUPPORT everyone wearing those, on the thought that it might keep Bubba the Butt-Buddy from ass-raping me in the showers.

Re:My rights?

[myowntrueself]

"That's all right, we send our criminals to the US sometimes."

Hey, I live in NZ.

I'll never forget my Dad explaining that Australia was settled by people to whom it was said 'sod you, you are going somewhere else' while New Zealand was settled by people by whom it was said 'sod this, I'm going somewhere else'

Re:My rights?

[modecx]

And that's part of what I've never really understood either, so they're not allowed to purchase firearms, and can't have signifigant security clearances... That makes sense--they're supposedly rehabilitated, and still not especially trustable. I have no problem with that.

But what's with the no-voting? That seems like a basic human right sort of thing to me. In US law, you're a felon if you may be imprisoned for more than a year, at least that's what I understand. So, if you could be sentenced for more than a year by violating copyright, you could be a felon.

If you were wrongly convicted/were deemed a felon by a stupid law, you effectively have no means to influence the system, that seems kinda' stupid to me.... Especially considering I'd probably be more inclined to trust a newly released felon more than your average politician.

Purpose of Prisons?

[jgardn]

I have been thinking lately about crime and punishment. We have two reasons for sending people to prison in the first place:

(1) To punish them.

(2) To reform them.

Both of these purposes have been lost completely.

We punish the prisoners by secluding them from society, cutting them away for a period of time in proportion to the seriousness of their crime.

We reform them by teaching them new habits and skills that will help them survive beyond the prison walls without returning to crime.

What does this have to do with either? Absolutely nothing. I'd rather we spent our prison budget on working to enhance the education and reformation of the prisoners rather than keeping track of where they are at all times, something that we don't have a problem with right now.

Re:Purpose of Prisons?

[Homology]

I'd rather we spent our prison budget on working to enhance the education and reformation of the prisoners rather than keeping track of where they are at all times, something that we don't have a problem with right now.

Note that no democratic state has such a large portion of it's citizens in prison than USA. US prison system is big business, and reformation of prisoners is not part of that.

Re:Purpose of Prisons?

[Nf1nk]

Deep down inside, I don't care if yousmoke dope or not a long as you do it on your own time. The dude who flips my burgers or sweeps my floor could be stoned out of his mind and not change his performance, but the anti drug folks always bring out the surgeon strawman (which is funny because I know a few doc's that are half in the bag most the time.
In fact to be stuck with a mind numbing job like watching a cash register and not be blotto seems like cruel and unusual punishment.
Oh and to the folks that point out that pot makes you stupid, I say so what, I don't use pot so its just less competition for the few remaining good jobs.

Re:Purpose of Prisons?

[qeveren]

Oh no, personal responsibility?? We can't allow something outrageous like that!

A false sense of security

[RealAlaskan]

If you can take it off without sending a signal, then they think they know where you are, but they don't. They have a false sense of security, and you have a perfect alibi.

From TFA:

Thus far, no inmates have attempted to escape or tamper with their bracelets in the jails where the system has been deployed, says Oester. Knowing that an alarm would be activated if the bracelet is removed or destroyed has been a deterrent for inmates,Oester says. The bracelet includes several built-in tamper-proof safeguards. The braided stainless steel wire that runs the length of the bracelet will cause the RFID tag to stop transmitting it is cut. The device also has a sensor that is designed to set off an alarm in 15 seconds if it loses contact to skin.

So, if you lose some weight, you could slip it off, pass it to your buddy who gets it in contact with his skin within 15 seconds, go do your crime, and get away with it.

Re:It does if your're a guard

[Martin Blank]

Tracking the guards allows a display of where they all are, so as to identify gaps in the patrol structure. Knowing where they should be is helpful; knowing where they are exactly is even better. In addition, this may allow rapid action if several personnel are seeing congregating rapidly on one location (perhaps stopping a fight) just in case transmission is difficult or impossible due to circumstances.

High-Tech Fix to Prison Problems?

[mpapet]

It wasn't so long ago the Sheriff released a bunch of convicts because they couldn't afford to keep them in jail. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20050419- 0444-ca-labudget.html

It wasn't so long ago (months?) that inmates were dying at a rather alarming rate in L.A. Sheriff's jails too. I wish I had a link, but it was very news-worthy on LA public radio. (KPCC covers L.A. news great) The phrase "Sheriff's excessive use of force" never quite stuck.

I wonder what the resource requirements are for a system that "tracks convicts wherever they go in real-time" claim. Presumably thousands of reader devices always on and connected to some server. Is there a database backend? Or, does it just store locations temporarily. Could you /. the server connected to the network of readers?

What slippery slope?

[katharsis83]

There is no slippery slope. A fundamental part of any civilized society is a social contract (Locke); if an individual in the society chooses to break that contract by comitting a crime, he/she is ostracized from the society. Over the past few hundred years we've codified this into penal codes. Granted, there are injustices in the penal code (i.e. crystallized crack is punished more harshly that powdered crack, but both have the same potency - guess which type of crack minorities have more access to), but overall it's been accepted that you give up your freedom if you break the laws of your society.

Prisoners have no right to privacy, they have no right to free assembly, they have no right to carry arms (this part at least makes sense, right?), and a bunch of other rights that we enjoy as citizens. Now, seeing as how they have no 4th amendment rights, why can't we shackle RFID tags on them? It's not cruel or painful, and it prevents prison riots/prison escapes by letting the guards know where they are. Denying prisoners fundamental rights is part of their punishment and ostracization.

Seeing as how strip searches/metal detectors are already standard practice in jails and have been for decades, I see this as perhaps one of the only USEFUL and legit applications of RFID tags.

Crying foul over non-existent rights violations makes it all the harder for people to take you seriously when actual violations occur (i.e. Guantanomo Bay, secret evidence b/c of national security, etc...).

Btw, the slippery slope argument is a logical fallacy. Look it up on Google sometime.

Yes they are

[localroger]

RFID tags are indeed transmitters, and it has even been shown that you can snoop the SpeedPass tags from ten meters away as they are normally used.

Tags without batteries are powered by a transmitter in the reader, which in turn activates a transmitter in the tag. (In one common system the tag doesn't technically "transmit" but modulates an antenna which absorbs the reader energy; this makes little difference in the operation.

Tags with batteries can be read tens of meters away. Passive tags can be read tens of meters away if they are activated by a sufficiently powerful or otherwise close read signal. Tags which do not have to be read at high speed (e.g. vehicles) can be read at much greater distances everything else being equal.

With existing technology, it would be quite feasible to give everyone an implant and read their tags with great reliability as they walk past, for example, every street corner in a large city.

And now for the other side of the coin

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen several posts in this topic that make comments like "why do we need this to know where the inmates are...we already know that easily".

The reason I'm posting this reply as an AC, something I normally never do, is because I've been on the other side. I'm an ex-con. And no, I'm not kidding. I did slightly over two years in prison, and then 8 years on parole, for credit card fraud. Now you know where my experience on this subject comes from.

In anything less than a maximum security prison, you'd be amazed at how easy it is to get somewhere undetected and do something bad (usually violent) to another inmate. And it can happen in front of 50 other inmates, and I'll bet you money that no one saw a thing.

Anything that could narrow the location of a particular inmate down to a room or a particular area, quickly, automatically and with a high degree of accuracy, would be a massive improvement over current systems. And it wouldn't necessarily save the lives of just inmates. Guards are around the inmates every day.

However, I do agree with a point a couple of others have already made. If these chips are in an arm-band or something of that nature, some smart guy with a lot of time on his hands (and everyone in a prison has lots of time to think) is going to figure out how to get the arm-band off. If they're going to do it, they need to do it right. Implant the chip under the skin upon the start of the prison sentence, and remove it upon the day of release.

You can sign me "been there, done that, got the black and white stripped t-shirt too".