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RFID Bracelets to Track Inmates in L.A. County

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the nothing-unsettling-about-that-no-sir dept.

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."

8 of 451 comments (clear)

  1. My rights? by 77Punker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:My rights? by ichthus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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?

      --
      sig: sauer
    2. Re:My rights? by Martin+Blank · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

      --
      You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
    3. Re:My rights? by modecx · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

      --
      Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
  2. Purpose of Prisons? by jgardn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
  3. A false sense of security by RealAlaskan · · Score: 4, Interesting
    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.
    --
    See what I've been reading.
  4. High-Tech Fix to Prison Problems? by mpapet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

    --
    http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
  5. And now for the other side of the coin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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".