Tracking Prisoners in Jail With Biometrics: An Experiment in a Navy Brig

"Keeping track of inmates within a prison or jail is a constant challenge, especially as they move from one part of the facility to another. Monitoring their movements requires corrections officers to accurately identify individual prisoners by sight as they pass through security posts. It also requires frequent telephone and radio communications between officers at two or more security posts, paper passes authorizing inmates’ movements, and dry-erase or clip boards with handwritten records to note when prisoners left one area and entered another. Despite the best precautions and well-thought-out practices, mistakes can be made, officers’ attention can be diverted, and late-arriving inmates not noticed or searched for promptly."