REMOTE PRISONER SUPERVISION - THE ANSWER TO IDOC STAFF SHORTAGES?

According to government sources, the Idaho Department of Correction needs hundreds more officers to be at a full force, requiring additional hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to be ripped from the hands and wallets of struggling taxpayers. As the Idaho inmate population increases, even more guards will be needed. On the other hand, maybe there are too many guards as it is.

For years, administrators at the ISCC have allowed their special pet (privileged) inmates - even those with fixed life sentences - to work and play in sensitive areas without direct staff supervision. When pressed, staff [attempt] to justify these blatant security and policy breaches by arguing these inmates are being directly supervised "on camera", despite some of those areas having no cameras, or areas that cameras cannot "see". Further, according to some concerned staff, nobody knows who is doing the supervising, or to what extent - if any at all - there is actual video supervision.

Taking as true that allowing medium security inmates to be in areas with only cameras feeds (monitored or not) constitutes "direct supervision", then why not just have people at home or other approved alternate work location actually monitor these and additional camera feeds, thereby reducing the need for on-site staff? Logic dictates that if this is already happening within the facility (and it is) the plan is viable. If it's not viable, then what is happening now cannot be justified, and must be stopped.

The IDOC does have staff who work from home. With a proper VPN (virtual private network) these staff are able to remotely access the department's computer network, just as if they were on-site (see IDOC SOP 206.07.01.006). This includes the ability (among other things) to view, in real-time, all the camera feeds which they are authorized to view at any facility, record/review stored video images, document targeted and suspicious activities, and watch for prohibited activities by staff and prisoners.

Officers who take time off due to Covid symptoms, those on light duty or have other reasons they cannot perform on-site duties can be assigned to monitor camera feeds from home. Indeed, new positions/posts specific to these [work from home] guards could be created, as well as positions for trained and qualified volunteers from the community. Each would have the ability to immediately report any activity that needed to be addressed by on-site response staff just as quickly as those physically at the prison.

Because those who exclusively monitor camera feeds can actually pay attention to the camera feeds without having to monitor radio traffic or deal with other distractions, more areas can be "supervised", thereby reducing the number of staff needed overall, and enhancing security at the same time.

Off-site staff could also perform other duties, like viewing incoming and outgoing JPay media, the delivery of which can be delayed for weeks due to lack of staff. Staff who normally work one facility can be assigned to monitor camera feeds in another. For example, if there is an excess of staff at the ICI-O facility in Orifino or their staff are available for overtime, they can monitor camera feeds originating from other institutions, such as the ISCC in Boise.

According to IDOC SOP, telecommuting can attract employees in hard to fill, hard to retain positions, target new labor markets and reduce work commutes. With the price of fuel, commuting time and environmental impact of transportation, the off-site use of staff and qualified volunteers to reinforce the on-site contingent is the most logical next step in the correctional paradigm. If not, then allowing pet inmates to do pet projects without having staff actually physically supervising them must cease in the interest of security of prisoners, staff and the public.