Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Ohio to track prisoners with radio tags

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2004 14:06:35 -0400

Ohio to track prisoners with radio tags

By Jo Best 
Silicon.com

August 2, 2004

One state prison system reckons it's cracked how to keep
track of all of its 44,000 inmates: radio frequency identification
technology, or RFID. 

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has
approved a $415,000 contract to try out the tracking technology
with Alanco Technologies.
 http://www.alanco.com/corporate.asp

The Ross Correctional Facility in Chillicothe, Ohio, will be the
site of the pilot project. If all goes well, the technology could
eventually be used in all of the state's 33 facilities. 

Inmates will wear "wristwatch-sized" transmitters that can track
them within the confines of the prison. The devices can also detect
whether prisoners have been trying to remove them and send an
alert to prison computers. 

Staff will also wear transmitters on their belts for security purposes.
Guards will be able to activate an alarm manually, but an alert will
also be sent if the transmitter is forcibly removed or if the guard is
knocked down. 

Alanco claims the system will be able to pinpoint the location of staff
and prisoners in real time. 

The Ross project is not the first such rollout of tracking chips in U.S.
prisons. Facilities in California, Illinois and Michigan already employ
the technology, and Robert R. Kauffman, Alanco's CEO, said he expects
three new states to sign up to use RFID technology. 

Prisons are not alone in using RFID technology to track people.
Authorities in the Japanese city of Osaka use radio tags to make sure
children don't go astray. Tags are affixed to students' clothes or
bookbags.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5266700.html?tag=nl 

Still, other uses are more common. Delta Air Lines recently announced
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5254118.html?tag=nl
it would be using RFID to track travelers' luggage. Additionally, it was
recently announced that dogs in Portugal are to be tracked with under-
the-skin radio tags. 
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5281608.html?tag=nl
But the tags are probably most often used in super-
market and other retail supply chains.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5202240.html?tag=nl

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5293154.html

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