Future Issues in Corrections
Correctional Services
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New Technologies
• Technology can be used
– In institutions and community corrections
– To detect contraband
– To extract covert information
– To monitor behavior
– To alert staff to personnel that are in distress
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New Technologies (continued)
• Predicting trouble spots within prisons
– Researchers are developing the Correctional
Operational Trend Analysis System (COTAS)
software, which will
• Help predict trouble spots within prisons
• Map and manage information that allows managers to
monitor cross-functional operations
• Identify trends, patterns, and areas of concern
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New Technologies (continued)
• Suicide-watch technologies
– Could improve monitoring and reduce staff time
– Is a range-controlled radar system that is used in home security
motion detectors and subtly measures the body’s surface based
on heart and lung activity
– Monitors an inmate’s heart rate, breathing rate, and body
motions without being attached to the individual
– Activates an alarm when any suspicious activity is detected
– Have the following potential benefits
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Are less obtrusive and less prone to destruction
Detect disguised suicide attempts
Provide continuous monitoring
Reduce the needed number of staff for suicide watch
Increases the number of at-risk prisoners who can be watched
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New Technologies (continued)
• Using technology to improve the safety of prisons
and jails
– Airport scanner
• Uses a millimeter wave imaging system via a portal to scan visitors
and look through clothing to detect weapons, cell phones, and nonmetallic objects
• The portal beams radio energy in the millimeter wave spectrum
from antennas that rotate around the person
• The reflected energy produces an image of the body and hidden
objects underneath clothing
• Some people believe that the image produced is intrusive
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New Technologies (continued)
• Using technology to improve the safety of prisons
and jails (continued)
– The Weapons and Non-Permitted Devices Detector
(WANND)
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•
•
•
Is similar to hand-held metal detectors
Is used to detect both metallic and non-metallic weapons
Includes an ultrasonic wave transmitter and an acoustic receiver
Listens to the sound waves that bounce back to it, which detects the
hidden objects under clothing
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New Technologies (continued)
• Tracking prisoners and pinpointing prison
hotspots
– Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID)
• Uses small transponders called “Tags” to track movement
• Utilized in devices such as wristbands
• Used to send radio signals that monitor inmate movement or
unusual concentrations of people in certain areas
• Is typically used on tracking inventory in warehouses and is
new to corrections
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New Technologies:
Cell Phone Technologies
• Cell phone blocking systems
– Allow specific frequencies to be blocked while leaving
others open
– Small or large areas can be affected
– Have a cost range from $1000 – $10,000
• Cell phone spoofing devices
– Intercept and prevent the delivery of transmissions
– Require sophisticated software
– Require cooperation between cell phone network
companies and correctional agencies
– Do not prevent inmates from using staff members’
approved personal phones
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New Technologies:
Cell Phone Technologies (continued)
• Jamming devices
– Transmit on the same radio frequencies as cell phones
but disrupt the communication link between the cell
phone and the cell phone base station
– Render the hand-held device essentially unusable until
jamming stops
• Managed access systems
– Intercept calls to prevent inmates from accessing
carrier networks
– Capture the cell phone signal and prevent it from
reaching the other network base station, impeding the
completion of the call
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New Technologies:
Cell Phone Technologies (continued)
• Detection – the process of locating, tracking, and
identifying various sources of radio transmissions
• Standardized protocols – rely on sets of
instructions for communicating with the handheld devices by essentially locking the device and
making it unusable
• Hybrid systems – use a combination of both
managed access and detection techniques to
locate and control contraband cell phone use
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New Technologies:
Cell Phone Technologies (continued)
• Non-linear junction detectors – hand-held
devices that require staff to physically search a
prisoner’s cell for the contraband phone
• Sensors
– Detect cell phones when they are turned off, but
detection requires close proximity
– Smaller facilities may use specifically formulated
paints and coatings to block radio frequencies
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Mentally Ill Offenders
• Mental Illness – illness, disease, or condition that either
substantially impacts a person’s thought, perception of
reality, emotional process or judgment, or grossly impairs a
person’s behavior as manifested by recent disturbed
behavior
• Mental Retardation – a range of substantial limitations in
mental functioning manifested in persons before age 18
– Below-average intellectual capacity
– Limitations in adaptive skills
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•
•
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Mild – IQ 69-55
Moderate – IQ 54-40
Severe – IQ 39-25
Profound – IQ below 25
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Mentally Ill Offenders (continued)
• Mental health facilities are closing because of
reduced funding
• Courts have become flooded with misdemeanor
cases as a result of untreated mental illness
• Mentally ill persons who cannot receive treatment
often become incarcerated
• Incarcerating the mentally ill costs twice as much
as community treatment programs
• Treatment of the mentally ill, including those with
personality disorders, in the correctional setting is
increasingly difficult and expensive
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Corrections Health Care Costs
• Increasing corrections budgets are due to
health care expenditures; health care costs
account for 10% of all correctional budgets
(Kinsella, 2004)
• Health care for inmates is mandated by
Constitutional law
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Factors Contributing to
Rising Health Care Costs
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Communicable diseases
Chronic illnesses
Mental illness
Elderly inmates
Substance abuse and treatment
Prescription drug costs
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Innovative Solutions To
Reduce Health Care Costs
• Inmate co-payments – inmates are required to pay a small fee for
medical and dental services
• Telemedicine – allows prisoner and health care professionals to hold
a video conference with outside specialists
• Privatization – when health care is provided by a for-profit
company; numerous states now have contracts with private health
care providers
• Early release for the elderly and the terminally ill
• Reduction of Pharmaceutical Costs
• Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO) and Health Maintenance
Organizations (HMOs)
• Alternative Reimbursement for Emergency Medical Care and
Ambulatory Services
• Prevention vs. Treatment
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Resources
• Bulman, Philip. Using Technology to Make Prisons and Jails Safer.
March 2009, p. 262. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/225764.pdf
• Chad Kinsella. Corrections Health Care Costs. January 2004.
http://www.csg.org/knowledgecenter/docs/TA0401CorrHealth.pdf
• National Commission on Correctional Health Care. The Health
Status of Soon to be Released Inmates, Vol. 2, April 2002, p. 16.
• State of New Hampshire Department of Corrections, Inmate Health
Care Performance Audit Report, January, 2003, p. 16.
• Aday, Ronald. Aging Prisoners: Crisis in American Corrections.
Westport: Praeger Press, 2003, p. 52.
• Lamb-Mechanick, Deborah and Juliane Nelson. National Institute of
Corrections, Prison Health Care Survey: An Analysis of Factors
Influencing Per Capita Costs, June, 2000, p. 63.
• Herriage, Lt. Eddie C. Tarrant County Sheriff Office. Personal
Interview, August 2013.
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Resources (continued)
• National Institute of Justice
– http://nij.gov/topics/corrections/technologies/welcome.htm
– http://nij.gov/nij/topics/corrections/institutional/contraband/cellphones/welcome.htm
– http://www.nij.gov/topics/corrections/institutional/monitoringinmates/predicting-trouble.htm
– http://www.nij.gov/topics/corrections/institutional/monitoringinmates/suicide-watch.htm
– http://www.nij.gov/journals/262/corrections-technology.htm
• American Correctional Association
http://www.aca.org/pastpresentfuture/pastarticles_2012.asp
• Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and
Education (TCLOESE) Basic County Corrections Course 2011
http://www.tcleose.state.tx.us/content/training_instructor_resources.
cfm
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