Every jail, prison, and juvenile detention facility must perform security rounds or observation checks on inmates within a set frequency, such as every 15, 30, or 60 minutes. However, over 90% of correctional officers tend to start their rounds right on the dot of these increments, which creates a pattern of officer predictability.
When security rounds become predictable, inmates can anticipate when checks will occur and take advantage of this knowledge. So, while the staff are technically meeting their facility compliance or the state’s standards for well-being checks, they’re also unwittingly putting too much emphasis on completing checks on time without considering whether those checks are being completed at random.
This leads to the number of illicit things that can (and will) happen. From contraband being smuggled to incidents of inmate self-harm, inmates will save any actions of misconduct for when they know the officers aren’t conducting their rounds to notice.
This predictability creates what we call the Window of Opportunity. The goal is to ensure that this window is always closed, which can be done by completing rounds in a truly staggered and unpredictable manner.
This blog will explain how Command Cloud, the officer experience platform, helps officers conduct more staggered, irregular rounds and keep the Window of Opportunity shut for good.
If your team is relying on kitchen timers, smartphone alarms, or smartwatches for timing your rounds, it’s time to stop. These memory aids are counterproductive and create predictable cycles of behavior. In fact, they’re likely the primary contributors to establishing these observable patterns of behavior by your staff.
Even if the timers aren’t set to exactly 15, 30, and 60-minute intervals, programming them at 10, 25, and 55-minute intervals still creates a predictable pattern. While you may be compliant with some state jail standards, you are, without a doubt, predictable.
Compliance Monitor is a patented Command Cloud feature that helps correctional staff ensure their checks are being completed at the right time, in the right place, and at the right frequency.
Allowing facilities to define when, where, and how often checks must occur for each Hard Tag throughout their facility, Command Cloud’s Compliance Monitor is fully configurable to match facility policies, housing types, and inmate classifications. Hard Tags can be set to different monitoring states (such as Always On, Always Off, or Only When Occupied), and maximum time thresholds (commonly 15, 30, or 60 minutes), ensuring checks align with standards and regulations.
Location details and special inmate status indicators (such as suicide watch) are displayed alongside these timers to support awareness and safety. This helps staff quickly identify where rounds are due and where more frequent monitoring is required.
The Compliance Monitor is available in both Mission Command and Mobile Command XR, enabling officers, supervisors, and command staff to see when and where rounds are due from any device, anywhere in the facility. In Mission Command, Compliance Monitor empowers supervisors and command staff to have flexible, role- and location-based views that can be customized to their operational needs. In Mobile Command XR, Compliance Monitor is referred to as Mobile Compliance Monitor, otherwise known as “MCM.” Mobile Compliance Monitor (MCM) delivers the same core functionality, enhanced with on-the-go access, voice prompts, haptic or audible alerts, and check capture for real-time documentation.
A core advantage of the Compliance Monitor—whether used in Mission Command or Mobile Command XR—is its ability to enforce compliance without relying on fixed check times. Officers can complete checks at any point within the allotted time window, with the timer resetting upon completion. This supports irregular, staggered rounds that reduce predictability while still meeting policy requirements—unlike traditional guard tour systems that create rigid, repetitive patterns.
Staggering Score is a behavior analysis tool within Command Cloud built specifically to measure and improve the unpredictability of officer rounds. At its core, Staggering Score measures how predictable an officer’s rounds are and provides real-time, prescriptive recommendations to help disrupt routine behavior. It analyzes historical round completion patterns and suggests optimal round start times to increase randomness.
The result is a clear, actionable score on a 100-point scale. A higher score indicates lower predictability and stronger security practices, while a lower score signals highly predictable behavior. Along with a score, officers receive a recommendation for when to begin their next round to increase randomness. For example, starting rounds 12 minutes earlier because recent rounds began just 2 minutes before they were due. Officers can partner this recommendation with Mobile Compliance Monitor to accurately time their next round.
Staggering Score helps officers understand their patterns, identify areas for improvement, and perform rounds in a way that minimizes risk and maximizes unpredictability.
Another highly effective layering technology is Operational Intelligence (OI). Operational Intelligence makes it simple to interpret your data and identify areas for improvement across your team and organization. It reveals quantifiable behavior patterns—such as rounds clustering around the 15-, 30-, and 60-minute marks—highlighting predictable routines.
Operational Intelligence helps close the Window of Opportunity by pinpointing the officers and teams that are most and least predictable, enabling targeted improvements. This is just one of many dashboards that Operational Intelligence provides, helping improve outcomes across virtually every functional area of inmate management.
With Command Cloud’s Compliance Monitor capabilities, facilities can ensure checks are random and staggered, preventing inmates from anticipating officer behaviors and closing the Window of Opportunity once and for all. Both Compliance Monitor and Mobile Compliance Monitor provide visual and audible reminders, track check times, and can require justifications for late checks as needed, enhancing your overall security and compliance in inmate management.