Technology is improving the landscape of all businesses across the board, and some non-businesses are also looking at ways that they can make things better for themselves as well. This includes why some jails and prisons are also looking at how they can use technology to create a safer environment that can help keep everyone safer.
Large Government Investments in New Technologies
There are major investments made by the UK government in new technologies and devices for safety purposes in the jail system. This includes a one-hundred million pound investment in the jail system to update their systems. This includes everything from upgrading their jail records to adding new cameras for keeping people safe. The public is curious about how their money is being spent in the prison system, and we have some of those answers for you now.
Better Gate and Perimeter Security
It is always a good idea to fortify the perimeter of a prison to ensure that prisoners aren't able to make any kind of easy escape. They might attempt it if they feel that they can get away with it, and you want to avoid taking a chance at something like that. A significant amount of money from the UK government has gone into a better gate and perimeter security at their various prisons.
Some of the technologies put in use include everything from thermal cameras to movement sensors. The sooner that prison officials can potentially catch someone in the act of trying to escape the prison, the faster they can react and ensure that the prisoner is not able to get away.
Body Scanners
Bringing certain items into or out of the prisons is strictly prohibited. People sometimes attempt to sneak things through the boundaries, and this means those body scanners are necessary to identify any potential risks and threats. That is why the UK government's investment in body scanners and similar tools is a very big deal. They clearly see that there are dangers that they need to address, and they won't rest until those dangers are addressed. This is why body scanners are increasingly seen as a must-have for all prisons throughout the country.
Fire Evacuation
In the event of a fire, everyone must know how to get out of prison in a safe and effective manner. Alarms, pre-recorded announcements, and emergency evacuation routes, are all important elements for consideration when it comes to the way that prisons operate in the midst of a fire emergency. The fact that some money has gone to taking care of this element of potential danger shows that the United Kingdom is trying to think of all possible threats and scenarios regarding how money is allocated.
A fire evacuation can be particularly challenging in prison simply because there are only so many ways to get out of prison. It is always important to look at how to get prisoners out of their confines and into a safe area without risking an escape emergency. It is a delicate balance, and that is why the UK government is spending a significant amount of money to get it just right.
Increased Staffing and Monitoring
There are a number of technologies that employees at a prison may have on the person that help keep them safe. This includes body cameras and man-down sensors. It is critically important that people who work in prison have the opportunity to keep themselves and their co-workers safe. Using technologies that make this possible is extremely important to the overall picture of safety in the jail.
The large investments made by the UK government have made it possible to hire more staff and provide them with the technologies they require to keep themselves safe. It is a blessing that people will finally have these resources available to them in the jails when they need them. The reality is that without such technology, it would be challenging to keep everyone in the facility as safe as possible.
Automating Processes
Putting certain pieces of work into an automated process can help with safety as well. There should be as little as possible left to human judgment. You want to take that out of the hands of people who are prone to error and could make mistakes that could cause problems. It may be extremely dangerous to put anything up to chance and human judgment when the issue is how to protect the public from certain inmates. That is why automated technology is preferred compared to other options.
There are a lot of things that used to be done by humans that can now be handled by technology. It might even be safer to allow an automated system to come into play and help care for certain prison processes instead of leaving it all up to human beings. When you think about it like this, it starts to make a lot of sense that there is such a push for more and more security technologies in prisons.