Smart Tech Helps Prisoners

Smart tech helps save lives, cut hospital visits and reduce costs in prisons.

19:43 10 March 2019

Smart tech helps save lives, cut hospital visits and reduce costs in prisons.

 

A recent study has revealed that up to 17per cent of prisoners across in the United Kingdom are over 50 years old. Up to 90per cent of these inmates have at least one moderate or severe health condition and require constant monitoring and care.

 

HMP Wymott, which has a reputation for caring for older male prisoners, has recently introduced telecare to provide quality healthcare to their prisoners while saving costs. Working together with Laura Hudson, a social worker at Lancashire country council, they decided to install a support system that uses smart bracelets and pendants that can help detect falls, for example, and alert a call centre. The call centre agents will then alert the prison officer to investigate at night or ask carers to check during the day.

 

The system, which was installed in September 2017, has helped save a prisoner who suffered from a stroke. The sensor he was wearing alerted the control centre when he fell out of bed. A team of prison guards was able to rush him to the hospital.

 

Other than saving lives, telecare also helps the council cut costs. Prior to the use of sensors, the council’s adult social care team had carers working in pair sitting outside the cell of vulnerable older inmates. “They’d be sat outside a cell in tandem all night but they couldn’t get through to the prisoner, [if they heard that anything may be wrong] because the carers had to call [for assistance],” says Hudson. “We were paying people £13.50 an hour to sit and watch these prisoners and they couldn’t respond meaningfully. The cost was phenomenal and really eating into our budget,” she adds.