There are some inmate tracking features that are straightforward. Then, there are some features that are just simply overlooked. If you want to get the most bang for your buck from your inmate tracking system, it’s important to be aware of a few questions regarding feature specifics that often go unasked.
In this blog, we’ll break down three things that every inmate tracking system should include but are often overlooked. Regardless of whether you’re running a 50-bed jail or a 5,000-bed metropolitan jail complex, these key features apply to the success of every correctional facility.
When it comes to inmate tracking systems, administrators and supervisors typically focus on two main questions:
How is the data collected
What specific data can be collected?
However, other important questions tend to get overlooked, including:
How does reporting work?
What kinds of reports can I build?
How large of a query can I build in a report?
How far back can I build reports?
Is ad hoc reporting supported?
How granular is out-of-cell reporting?
Who can access these reports?
When it comes to the level of detail that reporting can generate, inmate tracking systems should offer a wide range of details, enabling users to generate insights as broad or as granular as needed.
A high-level overview report can be as straightforward as a log tracking how many times an inmate has been offered to attend religious services, along with their attendance record. For example, we see more civil rights complaints from Muslim inmates on the East Coast who claim they’ve been denied prayer rugs or prayer time. On the West Coast, there are more complaints related to an inmate’s time in administrative segregation or access to medical screenings, water, and sunlight.
At other times, jails and prisons may face scrutiny regarding how much out-of-cell time an inmate is getting – not just whether they were offered recreation, but how much recreation time the inmate legitimately received in the last 10 days.
In more complex scenarios, knowing the distinction between structured (or scheduled) and unstructured out-of-cell time becomes crucial as each may be classified differently. This is especially true for jails under consent decrees. A consent decree is a legally binding agreement between a jurisdiction and the Department of Justice (DOJ) that requires systemic reforms to address alleged violations of federal rights, such as the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
This is an area where GUARDIAN RFID has extensive experience supporting jails that use Command Cloud to navigate the complex reporting demands of consent decrees. These reporting requirements often differ from typical state jail standards or ACA accreditation. Thus, having a technology platform with deep experience regarding consent decrees can be tremendously useful.
According to IBM, in 2024, the United States had the highest average total cost of a data breach at $9.36 million, with the Middle East coming in a close second at $8.75 million. Ransomware accounts for nearly 24% of incidents involving malware, and 95% of data breaches are financially motivated. This marks a 24% percent increase since 2019.
Any technology you choose should be thoroughly evaluated from a cybersecurity standpoint. One of the most important questions to ask any inmate tracking system vendor is: Are you SOC 2 Type 2 Compliant? Additionally, it’s worth asking about other cybersecurity frameworks or International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certifications that your agency would be seeking in the near future.
SOC 2 Type 2 Compliance is the gold standard for ensuring a company’s policies and controls meet extensive standards for security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
When a service provider, such as GUARDIAN RFID, is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, it demonstrates that the company follows industry best practices for data security and operational integrity. It also assures you that the provider handles data security that follows industry standards for security and operational integrity and is audited annually against the AICPA Service Organizational Control (SOC) standards.
For a vendor to achieve SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, they must:
Undergo an audit by an external AICPA-accredited auditor
Have an independent auditor review the organization's practices and policies
Demonstrate that the organization's controls are designed appropriately and operate effectively
It’s important to ask about SOC 2 Type 2 Compliance and request their most recent report. A SOC 2 Type 2 report is a third-party audit that assesses a service organization's security controls and practices over a specified period of time. You may need to sign the service provider’s non-disclosure agreement as the report contains confidential and proprietary information. However, obtaining a copy will help to validate the provider’s SOC 2 Type 2 Compliance.
Simply put - no, it is not the same as Soc 2 Type 2.
SOC 2 Type 2 reports are more valuable than SOC 2 Type 1 reports because they demonstrate consistent compliance over time – usually over a full year. These reports provide stakeholders with assurance that the organization's controls are effective.
Whereas, SOC 2 Type 1 refers to a specific type of audit report that assesses an organization's cybersecurity controls at a single point in time. It evaluates the design and implementation of their security controls rather than their ongoing effectiveness over a long-term duration. Essentially, it’s a snapshot of their security posture at that moment.
Lastly, it’s incredibly important to ask about the embedded Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities in any inmate tracking system. When you think about how much data an inmate tracking system can capture, it would be a largely missed opportunity not to use this data – and the insights it can reveal – in the fullest possible way.
BI is the process of collecting, analyzing, and using data to help organizations make informed decisions. For leaders working in jails, prisons, and juvenile detention facilities, BI can help:
Improve decision-making
Optimize processes such as staff allocation, rounds compliance, headcount performance, and more
Identify high, middle, and low performers, using your inmate tracking data and insights as a performance coaching tool.
Recognize and reward positive trends, highlighting to reward and recognize great performance by individuals and shifts
Enhance service delivery in various inmate management areas
Boost employee satisfaction
In the GUARDIAN RFID user community, nearly 80% of all Warrior agencies have adopted our embedded business intelligence software, known as Operational Intelligence (OI).
As you search for inmate tracking systems, make sure to consider not only the system’s data collection use cases, but also its embedded reporting capabilities and business intelligence features, and how that data is collected. Equally important is understanding the provider’s cybersecurity posture. Consider questions like:
What certifications do they hold?
What compliances have they gained?
How do they monitor for potential threats?
By addressing these key factors, you can make more informed decisions and ensure the system you choose meets both operational and security needs, no matter how unique your facility requirements are.