Morgan County Sheriff’s Office gets funding for new monitoring technology
DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT) — The Morgan County Sheriff’s Office & Correctional Facility has been granted funding for new technology it can use to monitor inmates in the jail.
The funding comes as part of the 2022-2023 fiscal year budget passed by the Morgan County Commission earlier this week.
Morgan County Commission Chairman Ray Long said the commission approved $107,000 for the sheriff’s office to fund the new monitoring system.
Mike Swafford, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said the monitoring system is in the form of bracelets with RFID chips.
“Once our jail is fitted for the equipment and the devices, it will allow us to manage the inmate’s movement,” he explained.
Inmates will need to use the bracelets and scan in and out when they move to different areas of the jail.
“If somebody is going from one place to another they’ll be able to be scanned and then we’ll be able to know that they are in transit or if they move from one part of the jail to another,” Swafford said. “At any time we’ll be able to hit a button and know where everybody is.”
Swafford explained that the day-to-day management of the inmates can be a challenging task sometimes.
“It’s like Grand Central down there because you have inmates going to court across the street, you have inmates, going to video arraignment, it’s just a lot of moving parts,” Swafford stated.
News 19 asked if the monitoring system would be able to track inmates in the event of an escape.
Swafford explained that the monitoring system isn’t like a GPS system, and only works within the confine of the jail.
However, he said, in the event of an escape, they could still track the last known whereabouts of an inmate.
“We could immediately look at the computer and say where is everyone, and that would allow us to highlight that yeah somebody is missing, or someone isn’t where they are supposed to be,” he said. “So if somebody were to escape it would increase our likelihood of knowing it sooner.”
In addition to the funding for the monitoring system, the commission also approved funding for replacement tasers, and the addition of additional personnel at the Sheriff’s Office.
Long said a large portion of the budget this year was designated for these programs.
Gloss