GuardianRFID: An important tool in county jails

By Becky Comet
AAC Member Benefits Manager

The GuardianRFID Inmate Monitoring System is an invaluable tool used in county jails in Arkansas through the Association of Arkansas Counties Risk Management Fund (AACRMF) since 2014. Currently, 52 county jails and juvenile detention centers use the GuardianRFID system as a benefit of being members of the AACRMF. Four more facilities will be on board soon.

The GuardianRFID system is a high-tech, user-friendly way to monitor and document everything an inmate does in real time. Jail personnel can track with ease where prisoners are; what they are doing; whether they had meals, medications, mail; and a host of other things. Jail staff use a device called the Spartan that is much like a smart phone to document cell checks, take pictures, and short videos. All this increases the level of documentation under the GuardianRFID system. It is stored in the cloud for easy access in case of litigation.

I am incredibly proud of the work our jail personnel are doing using GuardianRFID. Many of our jail administrators and their staffs have embraced the system and all it can do. They have trained in their own jails. They have come to annual meetings to expand their training. Many counties have taken part in our Certified Training Officer program. This program makes it possible to have someone in each jail to train new staff and help with any questions from existing staff. Our jail personnel work hard to keep inmates, their coworkers, and the counties they serve safe. GuardianRFID helps make that happen in many ways. Beyond making the job easier, when lawsuits happen there is documentation to make the case more defensible. One inmate filed a lawsuit claiming the jail staff had starved him. GuardianRFID records were pulled, showing that he had refused meals twice during the time in question. The documentation was provided to the judge and the lawsuit never saw a courtroom.

The equipment in the jails and the staff’s use of it are just two pieces of the puzzle. Another integral piece is the GuardianRFID staff. They are all knowledgeable, helpful, and willing to go the extra mile to make sure our county jails are taken care of. The GuardianRFID staff is only a phone call or email away. I have seen them talk through an issue on the phone and immediately make simple tweaks to a jail’s system setup that make a world of difference in solving the issue. They also have a website that is a one-stop shop for information. There are how-to videos that can answer and explain just about any situation you might have. They post success stories to provide motivation and ideas for new ways to use the system. On top of all that, they regularly post blogs with more ideas, information, and instruction. They have proven to be a wonderful company to work with.

The next event to come with GuardianRFID is our Annual Users’ Conference. The AAC will host this meeting at our building in Little Rock. Sheriffs, jail administrators, Certified Training Officers, and other available jail staff please save Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, for this meeting. It will be a day of training, sharing, fellowship, and, of course, food. Lunch will be provided. We will soon be sending more details about this meeting via email.

In conclusion, let me brag just a little more on our jail personnel and how well they incorporate the GuardianRFID system in their jails. One of the things I do on a monthly basis is pull numbers that show how well our jails use the system — how compliant they are if you will. These compliance numbers are figured based on the percentage of checks the system expects to be done and how many checks are actually done. Here are the top 15 counties in the state based on the average of their compliance for the first six months of 2021.

Logan County — 174%

Calhoun County — 160%

Faulkner County — 138%

Pope County — 134%

Union County — 130%

Phillips County — 129%

Izard County — 125%

Garland County — 116%

Conway County — 112%

Marion County — 109%

Woodruff County — 105%

Cross County — 102%

Fulton County — 101%

Independence County — 97%

Nevada County — 97%

Thank you to these and all of our county jails for your hard work and dedication.