NCJ Number
189649
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 63 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2001 Pages: 75-77
Date Published
July 2001
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article describes biometrics and smart card technologies and their evaluation for use in tracking and monitoring inmates and correctional staff.
Abstract
Biometrics -- the automated recognition of a person based on unique physiological or behavioral characteristics such as fingerprints, speech, face, retina, iris, and hand geometry -- is regarded as a highly reliable means of identification. A smart card is a credit card-size device with bar codes, a magnetic strip, and an integrated circuit chip. It is capable of storing identity information, biometric templates, or other data, such as medical and financial records and transactions. It is a single-source data system that can include some aspects of the cardholder's physiology. When a biometric reader makes a physiological measurement of an individual and compares it to the information on the sample card in the person's possession, it provides a completely reliable determination of location and identity. It is feasible to configure a smart card with an active or passive device that can be sensed by detectors placed at strategic locations within a facility. If the data sensed are unique to a specific card, then the location of the card and its holder can be tracked. Although it is possible to store the physiology data for all inmates and staff on a central computer rather than the smart card, this requires a time-consuming search of the entire database each time a biometric measurement is made. When data are stored on the smart card, a fast one-to-one match or rejection can be executed at a station reader. Through a program sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, Staff and Inmate Monitoring (SAINT), the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) System Center in Charleston, SC, will systematically address the application of biometric and smart card technology through continual development, testing, and evaluation of a prototype system in a realistic prison setting, i.e., the Navy Consolidated Brig in Charleston.