Plans for 1,000 biometric bracelets in US county jail fall apart

Biometric bracelets intended for prisoners in Atlanta, Ga., jails are being removed after officials said few of them were distributed or active in county jails as intended.

Fulton County commissioners, who approved a $2.1 million emergency request to deploy the biometric monitoring hardware and software, thought that the system would be more or less deployed in two jails by now. It has not been.

The wristbands are primarily expected to monitor where prisoners are congregating and watching for signs of stress or exertion. They might have alerted guards to attend to a prisoner a year ago who died.

The county sheriff had bundled a request for the system, supplied by monitor company Talitrix, into a $5.3 million emergency package to pay for security upgrades. That request was approved in April, but, according to news publisher Axios, an estimated 65 prisoners were wearing them when commissioners checked.

County officials bought 750 sensors for $350 each and 1,000 wristbands for $130 each. A plan had been in place to put biometric cuffs on 450 inmates to track heart rates and to communicate with sensors in facility walls. No timeline for full deployment had been made public.

The full infrastructure reportedly was not in place, either.

Criticism of the sheriff’s office has focused on the alleged ineptitude of deploying the system, particularly because it was an emergency request.

Article Topics

biometric monitoring  |  biometrics  |  prisons  |  Talitrix  |  United States  |  wearables