BY G.F. GUERCIO, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Security Force Multipliers Multiply your security forces with the latest advancements in software and hardware.
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eginning with software that analyzes data to ensure safety and alleviate threats, then going through the facility to find electronic tracking devices that constantly locate inmates, staff and objects, and ending at the fence with perimeter intrusion hardware, these safety measures multiply security factors exponentially. To start inside—not even the facility, but the inmates’ heads— means gathering information needed to best keep them, staff and visitors safe. The information combined with analytics can be used to assign housing, classify threat levels, and direct allowable movement and programs, all of which lead to greater safety overall. Security enhancement is one of the main motivations behind optimizing the assignment of the inmates at a correctional system, says Mohammad Shahabsafa. As 16 CORRECTIONS FORUM • MARCH/APRIL 2020
the CEO he says Optamo has developed what it describes as the first-of-its-kind inmate assignment decision support system (IADSS). The analytics enable a correctional agency to consider a multitude of factors affecting the assignment of inmates and scheduling their rehabilitation program. IADSS considers all the demographic information of the inmates and enforces all the inmate-inmate and inmate-staff separations, he explains, which in turn reduces the number of assaults within the facilities. Anshul Sharma, chief technology officer, delineates that IADSS can factor the distribution of each of the prominent gangs at the facilities. “By defining the ideal distribution of gang populations, IADSS works to minimize the deviation from the ideal distribution. This in turn helps to reduce gang-related activities that
adversely impact the security of the facilities.” And since inmate transportation is one of riskiest operations of a correctional system, he attests, by considering the needs of the inmates upfront IADSS also helps facilities reduce inmate transports. President Tamás Terlaky presents real-life scenarios based on the IADSS implementation at the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PADOC) since 2016. “More than 40,000 inmates are so far assigned to State Correctional Institutions (SCIs) through IADSS. It has assisted the PADOC to reduce inmate transportations by 35 percent since 2016 and has led to significant reduction in the number of assaults within the SCIs.” Expanding on comprehensive data collection usage, equivant/Northpointe provides classification and management programs to improve security.
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