We hope it will save time, but there will be a learning curve.
Staff at the Hamilton County Jail have used whiteboards to keep track of inmates for years, dutifully erasing and rewriting to note when an inmate moves from a cell to the courthouse, to the kitchen or to other locations.
But today, the jail is rolling out a new radio-frequency identification system to begin digitally tracking inmates, how often jail staff check on them and what inmates are doing during those checks.
The system, called Guardian RFID, will not only streamline formerly paperwork-heavy processes, but will make it essentially impossible for jail staff to fudge logs that show when and where they performed state-required checks.
State standards require jail staff to look in on most inmates twice every hour, with no more than 40 minutes between two checks, Chief of Corrections Joe Fowler said. Some inmates, like those on suicide watch, are checked on more frequently.