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By: FEDweek StaffThe Justice Department inspector general’s office warned that deficiencies in security cameras in federal prisons are affecting the Bureau of Prisons’ “ability to maintain safe and secure institutions for staff, inmates, and visitors.”
In a management advisory the IG said that it “has repeatedly identified” issues dating back to at least 2013 with camera systems in the 122 BoP facilities, where nearly 38,000 staff work and which house some 155,000 inmates.
“The BoP’s current system relies primarily on analog cameras that produce poor-quality video, limited coverage of areas within institutions, limited ability to zoom camera coverage, inadequate video search capability, and restricted video storage periods. A fully digital camera system would provide improved video and coverage; enhanced zoom, filter, and search capabilities; and expanded video storage periods that would enhance the BoP’s threat assessments, inmate monitoring, and contraband interdictions,” it said.
It said that while the BoP has upgraded cameras at some facilities since a 2016 report, that has been done at only about a third of facilities and the agency still “lacks a comprehensive strategic plan to address these significant deficiencies, including how it can obtain the necessary funding to implement such a plan.”
In response, management said it has a broader program under way, but it will take an estimated four or five years to complete and “is contingent on receiving appropriations” for the estimated $59 million cost.
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