National Institute of Justice | www.NIJ.gov
Although the contextual example for this article is implementing RFID technology in a women’s prison, the implications for policy, practice, and evaluation can apply to a wide array of criminal justice technologies in a variety of field settings.
RFID in Correctional Settings
RFIDs have a tag or “chip” that uses wireless data communication to transmit information to electronic sensors, allowing users to locate and track tagged objects with a unique identifier.2
RFID technology was first used during World War II to identify whether approaching planes were friend or foe. Today, commercial groups commonly use it to track merchandise from warehouse to distribution to point of sale.3 RFID technology is also found in access control and payment systems, such as building access keycards, transit payment cards, and highway electronic toll collection systems.
Most RFIDs are “passive,” meaning that the chips can be read only when in close proximity to a sensor. For example, community corrections agencies use passive RFIDs to electronically monitor those on home detention.
“Active” RFIDs have a battery-operated device integrated with the chip, enabling the tagged item to both receive signals and transmit data back to the sensor in near real time. Active RFIDs have three components:
• A chip embedded in a bracelet, which is often worn on the ankle.
• A series of data extension units, which read and transmit data from the chips.
• Computer software that can document the location and identity of those wearing the bracelets.4
Institutional correctional settings have been using active RFIDs for at least a decade5 for things as basic as perimeter control, as well as more sophisticated applications, such as issuing alerts when two rival gang members are in close proximity. RFIDs can aid housing unit “counts,” identify whether inmates are in the proper locations (e.g., classroom, yard, housing unit) according to their schedules, and even monitor inmates’ eating habits.6 The technology can also serve as a valuable investigative tool, generating historical data on an inmate’s location and the time of his or her movements.
The Northeast Pre-Release Center (NEPRC), a women’s prison in Cleveland, Ohio, that was the setting of our NIJ-funded evaluation from 2005 through 2007, intended to use RFIDs in all of these ways. Unfortunately, the implementation of the technology was filled with problems. Service was interrupted for several months, staff received minimal training, bracelets were used inconsistently (at one point, 25 percent of inmates did not have bracelets), and NEPRC restricted software use to perimeter control. The prison never employed the technology’s most powerful feature: tailored, inmate-specific exclusionary zones.