How Updated Video Surveillance Maintains Safety in Correctional Facilities
With the incarceration rate rising almost every year, how can correction centers maintain inmate and guard safety? Better yet, how can they maintain safety without going over budget?
With the incarceration rate rising almost every year, how can correction centers maintain inmate and guard safety?
Correctional facilities throughout the United States are overflowing with inmates. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, 2.3 million people live in 1719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 942 juvenile correctional facilities, 3283 local jails, and 79 Indian County jails, as well as military prisons, immigration detention centers, civil commitment centers, and prisons in the U.S. territories. Furthermore, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, jails admit more people each year than the populations of the 11 smallest U.S. states combined.
With the incarceration rate rising almost every year, how can correction centers maintain inmate and guard safety? Better yet, how can they maintain safety without going over budget?
Many aging facilities throughout America continue to use analog video surveillance cameras. Pan, tilt, zoom cameras scan areas based on programmed patterns. Inmates are keen to this movement. They simply avoid the watchful eye of the camera to starts fights or conduct illegal business when the cameras aren’t watching.
Even when caught on camera, the images produced by analog technology is blurry. Making it nearly impossible to identify anyone. But, to even find the footage in question, prison staff must sift through hours, days, or weeks worth of footage to conclude their surveillance system had failed again.
Moreover, these older facilities have many blind spots. Areas inmates can avoid the cameras’ or guards’ watch. The immediate thought to solve this issue is more guards. The greater presence of guards through more frequent patrols and cell monitoring would deter inmate troublemaking. But, this solution comes with a significant increase in spending that correction facilities can’t afford.
According to GCN, a public sector IT trade magazine, a county jail in Oklahoma faced this exact problem. The facility was built in 1991 and overcrowded. Designed to hold 1250 inmates, the total jail population was 2543. They were experiencing about 300 altercations a month. Both their staffing limitation and analog surveillance system couldn’t maintain safety. Funds were limited, so hiring new personnel wasn’t an option.
The Oklahoma jail decided to upgrade to a high-definition video system. This allowed guards to check areas of the jail previously inaccessible via analog cameras. And, increased total camera monitoring. The impact was great. Monthly altercations fell by 90%. Inmates no longer got away with illegal or violent behavior. The jail, also, avoided $10 million dollars a year in costs to hire new detention officers.
A brand new high-definition video surveillance system comes with large storage demands, though. The servers and storage, along with a reliable video management software, provide the real value.
The back-end value of a video surveillance solution didn’t escape a maximum security state prison in California. The prison needed servers to store and run video for a large camera installation. The security integrator called upon BCDVideo to put together a complete, cost-effective solution.
BCDVideo designed a system and network to run the VMS software to its full potential. Without interruption. The SuperNova 228 servers exceed the project requirements for 393TB and 90 days of storage with bandwidth near 808MBps. The SuperNova servers provide 435TB of usable storage. These 2U rackmount servers occupy less space than other video servers boasting high-performance.
This unified networking and IP video storage solution optimizes system capabilities. Not only that, the California prison will have zero cost for five years.
Once complete, the new video surveillance system for the California prison will help reduce incident rates and staffing costs. U.S. correctional facility populations continue to rise. Reliable video management solutions maintain inmate and staff safety.
Learn more at bcdvideo.com.
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