Biometric Program Causes Prison Standstill

Every time inmates in HMP Isis in London move from one area of the prison to another, they have to provide a thumb print, which keeps everything in line. But this doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to. If just one thumb print fails, the whole system can fall apart. So there is absolutely no room for error, especially with some more dangerous than others.

The whole prison system comes down for hours, and guards have to conduct manual checks to make up for any discrepancies, which inspectors say happens at least once or twice a day on average. Inspectors warned officials before the opening in July of 2010 that there was still a “long way to go.” They described “formidable challenges” and a lot of the things that are now happening, despite constant progress.

According to the report,

“For the system to work, 100% of the prisoners, 100% of the time had to leave an electronic thumbprint when they went from one area of the prison to another and the system had to record this every time. If just one thumb print fails to register, the roll check did not tally and all prisoner movement halted – sometimes for hours –until a manual check could be done. “

Obviously, that’s not going off as seamlessly as we would like, especially in a prison.

Isis is currently the first public prison under Nick Hardwick to open in the past 20 years. There has been a lot of progress, but not without cost. Officials are still trying to work out quite a few of the major bugs that are holding this prison back. Until these bugs are worked out, others are unlikely at best to follow suit.

The guards are learning new systems and ways to deal with the chaos, but the learning is slow and guards still have a ways to go to lower their own personal risk and the risk. This is still a volatile population, even with major improvements in new technology.