Blake Dowling
A few years ago, I met with the Washington County Sheriff in North Florida to talk technology; we toured the jail and he invited me to stay for supper.
It looked like a massive pot (like 100 gallons) of beans.
The Sheriff had a great sense of humor, though. I sat in the back of the car for the ride from the office to the jail, having a good laugh the whole time.
He found it much more entertaining than I did.
Moving on, I declined supper and quickly motored east. Despite the friendly fella in Washington County, Florida jails and prisons seem to be behind most government agencies as we just noticed recently with a bill to assist women behind bars.
Good for our leaders making sure to take care of this.
It would seem they would have addressed that long ago; seeing that jails were so far behind in things.
However, some technology in the state’s prison system is cutting-edge. As I dive in, it seems to raise lots of questions.
First, let’s meet the team at Securus (great name, BTW). This Dallas-based company, according to their website: “Connects family and friends to the incarcerated through superior communication services.”
It appears to be a noble calling: People make mistakes and they should not be locked away with no chance at communication or redemption?
Or perhaps that is debatable (depending on the situation), but that is not my point today.
Apparently, Securus is up to more than their noble mission statement lets on.
Throughout Florida, prisons are rolling out a new product called Investigator Pro — something not on the Securus product page.
This product purportedly is a voice identity technology used to monitor and identify those incarcerated.
Florida’s 89.1 WUFT is one of the few organizations reporting on this.
The issue seems to be with how the process starts. It is alleged that a prisoner is approached and asked to read from a script so that their voice may be cataloged for recognition and monitoring. If an inmate refuses they lose their phone privileges (according to The Intercept).
So, here we must consider a balancing act: prisoner safety vs. prisoner rights.
I am no lawyer (I don’t even play one on TV), but it’s easy to assume this will eventually make it to some attorney’s to-do list. Can you take a vocal sample and keep it forever to track someone? Even after they’ve been released?
Securus seemingly makes it extremely easy to get on board with the new tech (as it is given away), and then, other communication services the company provides are collected and billed to pay off the balance of what the Investigator Pro would have cost.
For some clarity on the subject, I reached out to Katherine Campione, who broke this story for WUFT News. While I was waiting to get back to me, U.S. News and World Report picked up the story.
I am sure this will not be the last we hear of this.
But wait, (like a Ginsu knife 1980s infomercial) there’s more …
Securus also has another piece of tech, which allows law enforcement to track cellphones.
What would happen if a power-mad sheriff in, say, Missouri used the tech to track judges — even Highway Patrol officers?
Well, it just so happens there was.
His name is Sheriff Cory Hutcheson, and he is going to jail.
Hmmm. Lots of questions here, probably more now than when I started writing this column.
Everywhere you look, technology brings innovation, disruption and the opportunity for misuse. We will see where this ends up — in the courts, in the hands of lawmakers or in every prison in the country.
Hopefully, no one must have the beans in Washington County anytime soon; I can still smell them, five years later.
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Blake Dowling is CEO of Aegis Business Technologies. He can be reached at [email protected].
