Guardian RFID brings offender management into the 21st Century

By Drew Johnson
Corrections1 Editor

Codex Corp.’s inmate management system — the Guardian RFID Corrections System — doesn’t just improve on the traditional system of tracking inmates — it reinvents it.

Where officers once manually tracked inmate activities and movements on paper logs that resulted in inefficient records management, communication breakdown, and uncertainty about whether inmates actually arrived to their end destination, the Guardian RFID Corrections System is helping to eliminate staff miscommunication and process inefficiencies by simply reading a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip.

Guardian is an offender management system that that allows facilities to automate and streamline a host of workflows and tasks unique to corrections, while integrating with facility’s existing jail or offender management system.

Facilities have historically relied on traditional log books that run the risk of having incomplete information or being falsified, or manual electronic systems or forms that lack the proof of officer presence many corrections leaders seek. Some facilities use access control and conventional guard tour systems, but these tools are limited in their ability to automate more than a single task, and their data collection and reporting capabilities are narrowly focused.

Guardian’s robust software system is, essentially, a tool for collecting, storing, tracking, and measuring data. From inmate headcounts and inmate tracking, to medication administration and preventative maintenance tasks, the system allows officers to eliminate paper tracking altogether.

While some facilities over the last decade have been drawn to the allure of identifying an inmate’s location in real-time using Active RFID technology, Guardian takes an entirely different approach using passive, high-frequency RFID tags and readers. Passive, high-frequency RFID is a fraction of the up-front cost of Active RFID — and has virtually no ongoing expenses to operate and maintain. According to Codex, passive, high-frequency RFID embedded in the system, with its corrections-centric software, helps facilities to achieve a higher level automating tasks and workflows that matter — those commonly scrutinized by state and national corrections standards.

Officers can carry a ruggedized mobile computer, such as the Trimble Nomad 900, during their patrols to collect a wide range of information on inmate populations — from cell checks and security checks, to movements, headcounts, and more. Some facilities will optionally deploy fixed RFID readers strategically placed in the building to fully automate movements, access control, and more.

“We see the Guardian RFID Corrections System as a platform that uniquely reflects the operational security and budgetary needs of today’s correctional facilities,” said Ken Dalley Jr., President & Senior Quality Leader at Codex Corp. “Correctional leaders are looking for a solution set that can continually outperform their needs — which at present might take two or three disparate systems to accomplish, while allowing them to achieve the level of automation they need. And with today’s budgeting concerns, they need solutions like Guardianthat deliver big, demonstrable value.”

Lieutenant Robert Waller, whose 1,100 bed facility at the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office in Sarasota, Fla., installed Guardian last November, said his officers have taken well to the new system and appreciate the myriad benefits that come from electronic tracking.

The Sarasota Co. Jail has nearly two dozen mobile computers and hundreds of fixed RFID sensors mounted throughout the facility to log a wide range of daily inmate management activities and observations during routine security patrols. Each handheld device run Guardian Mobile, a touchscreen software application built on the Windows Mobile operating system, which makes it intuitive and easy to learn for most officers who have already been using Windows products for years.

“The main benefit is integrity,” Waller said. “With paper logs you could write whatever you want to, but with this system we have a very defensible product.”

It’s made his officers’ jobs easier, Waller said, as now they simply scan a fixed radio tag with their handheld device, instead of stopping to write down the date, time, and inmate ID number every time they do a count. Officers’ touchscreen log observations and interactions, and services provided to inmates with the ability to capture an electronic signature. He also said the system has made supervision much easier: with Guardian, supervisors know down to the second when their security rounds were done and what was observed during those rounds, as well as exactly how much time is remaining until their next security round. Supervisors can also simply run a report from their desk on that day’s data.

One benefit of switching to an electronic system that Waller and Dalley both highlight is the decrease in miscommunication and operational inefficiencies. Eliminating paper logs will add up to significant productivity increases and cost savings over the long term — primarily in reducing the time and effort to collate reports accurately, and fully automating inmate records management.

The Guardian RFID Corrections System is a game-changing technology platform that simplifies the work of officers and supervisors in ways never before seen. And by eliminating paper logs, it can help correctional facilities be a bit greener too.