Title: Using Technology to Make Prisons and Jails Safer | National Institute of Justice
Headings: Using Technology to Make Prisons and Jails Safer
Using Technology to Make Prisons and Jails Safer
Testing Airport Scanners in Prisons
New Portable Scanner Spots Improvised Weapons
Tracking Prisoners and Pinpointing Prison Hotspots
About This Article
About the author
Cite this Article

Content: Corrections officers also face attempts to smuggle drugs and weapons into the facilities, as well as inmates who fashion weapons out of ordinary materials. To help correctional managers detect contraband and run safer institutions, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is sponsoring several research projects and pilot programs, based on recommendations from expert practitioners, to test an array of technologies. [ 1] Scanning and detection devices can help spot everything, from a cell phone to a knife. Devices using radio waves can track prisoner and staff movements within an institution. New computer programs may help predict where problems are most likely to occur. Testing Airport Scanners in Prisons
One NIJ-sponsored pilot program that enjoyed success used a millimeter wave imaging system to scan visitors at the Graterford State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania. The imaging system can look through clothing to detect weapons, cell phones and nonmetallic objects. Currently used by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to scan passengers at an increasing number of airports, the system was tested and evaluated at Graterford, a maximum-security facility that houses about 3,100 inmates outside Philadelphia. A person steps into a "portal," which looks like a booth. The system beams radio energy in the millimeter wave spectrum from antennas that rotate around the person.