A new patent has been filed by Telmate, an inmate communications provider in the United States, that describes a technology using biometric authentication to better keep track of the locations of the incarcerated.
Many people who never visit prison or jail have only the media to go by in terms of what life inside a prison or jail is like. News stories about overcrowding and Netflix dramas about low security women’s prison are the only window into life on the inside. As a result, the new technologies that are being invented and deployed to keep everyone safe and comfortable (by incarceration standards) are widely unknown by the outside world. The big takeaway from most detention center related media is, “Managing a prison is complicated and difficult.”
US Patent number 8,761,360 is for Individual Location Tracking in Detention Environments and stands to make that management a lot easier. The solution will work with an automatic jail management system (JMS) to keep track of inmates, recording their positions within the detention center. The idea will be to automate record keeping and cut down on now redundant administrative time.
The system is two factor, requiring a traditional login followed by the submission of a biometric factor. If biometric authentication is successful then the inmate’s record is updated to reflect their current location.
Jeff Hansen, Telmate’s chief marketing officer explains the demand for this patent, saying: “This new technology helps alleviate hours of manually entering the information into JMS regarding inmate’s locations, so correctional officers can focus on what’s more important to them — security and control.”
Earlier this month, findBIOMETRICS reported on another use of biometrics in detention centers when JLG Technologies was acquired by Securus. The purchase bolstered the Securus portfolio of corrections facility technologies with continuous voice biometrics to be used on a prison or jail’s phone lines. The technology can identify the caller and recipient, flagging unauthorized communications.
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June 25, 2014 – by Peter B. Counter
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