Corrections_Today_Summer_2025_Vol.87_No.2

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Defense. In 1989, for example, the National Institute of Corrections began a two-year proj ect with NASA to use aerospace technology to address corrections problems. An intergovern mental committee composed of representatives from the Justice Department and the Defense Department currently is exploring possibilities for applying defense technologies to corrections. Some of the new technologies are being phased in already. In the area of inmate identification, a variety of applications will be available. Retina imaging and iris scanning will be faster and more reliable than fingerprinting. Bar-coded wristbands, access cards with magnetic data stripes, and enhanced use of video cameras will ensure faster and more accurate identification of inmates and visitors and also will enable staff to control, track, and record their movements within the institution. Electronic bracelets also will make global position ing possible. Each bracelet would give off a signal that would make it possible — using satellites or triangulation—to determine the wearer’s exact position. Such technology will be able to detect in mate movement in unauthorized areas, locate staff hostages, and thwart escapes. Digital imaging and data transmittal via local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs) also will revolutionize inmate identi fication and make it easier to carry out inmate transfers and special investigations. In addition, automation with LANs and WANs will help to monitor gang activities in individual prisons, as well across entire prison systems, and will make it easier and quicker to collect data, discern patterns in inmate behavior and institutional climates, and transmit orders, policy changes, requests for infor mation, and reports. Ingenious new technologies also will aid in detecting contraband and illicit activity. Vastly improved X-ray capabilities will detect weapons, explosives, and other contraband that current

X-ray machines might miss. Ultrasound will be em ployed to detect hypodermic injection sites on an inmate’s body. Drug use also could be detected by rapid eye scans and vital signs monitoring devices in brace lets. Highly sensitive air sampling equipment placed in prison ventilation systems will be able to detect the presence of drugs or explosives. Thermal-imaging, night vision eyewear will hold out the possibility of running more secure institutions with a minimum of light: Staff will be able to see, but inmates in unau thorized areas will not. And video motion-detection systems will set off alarms if so much as a pixel moves on a monitor. Electronic keys, meanwhile, promise to make it more difficult than ever for inmates to successfully tamper with locking devices. Electromagnetic locks will make such tampering virtually impossible.

Video conferencing will reduce the number of times inmates will have to be escorted out of an institution

for arraignments, parole hearings, and so forth.

Looking forward into the 21 st century Prison administrators of the 21 st century will benefit from a whole new generation of technologies designed to enhance safety and security in the prison environment. Nonlethal weapons, such as stun guns and stun belts, will take the place of the revolvers and shotguns of the 1900s. Variable threat lasers will be able to detect

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