Smith County Sheriff’s Office Passes Texas Jail Inspection for First Time Since 2019 with Support of GUARDIAN RFID

April 18, 2023 at 10:15 AM EDT

Smith County Sheriff’s Office (Tyler, Texas) has passed its annual Texas State Jail Inspection for the first time since 2019 after partnering with GUARDIAN RFID to roll out its inmate tracking system.

With an average daily population of 970 inmates and a maximum capacity of 1,149, Smith County Jail needed to digitally transform its inmate management objectives to achieve compliance and protect the agency’s civil liabilities.

Before upgrading to GUARDIAN RFID’s mobile inmate tracking technology, Smith County had used Guard1 from Timekeeping Systems. Lieutenant Lonnie Kettler explained that Guard1’s data collection and reporting were limited and unreliable. This included downloading errors with their devices, the PIPE, requiring the jail to maintain its paper logs.

Following a number of complications, Smith County Jail completed implementation and go-live training of GUARDIAN RFID in 90 days, including Wi-Fi rollout and integration with their jail management system from Tyler Technologies. Using GUARDIAN RFID’s hardened RFID tags, RFID Wristbands, and ultra-rugged Android devices called SPARTAN, to manage, monitor, and track inmates, jail staff immediately gained real-time security round performance, captured inmate movements and activities as required by Texas Jail Standards. Smith County Jail achieved 100% round compliance with GUARDIAN RFID’s visual analytics platform, Operational Intelligence, within the first 30 days of Go-Live.

The GUARDIAN RFID system enabled Smith County Jail staff to capture data faster, more reliably, and more comprehensively than ever, including court transports, positive ID headcounts, inmate meal offerings, programs attendance, and medication administration records which are reducing inmate complaints and protecting the agency’s civil liability while maximizing compliance with Texas jail standards.

GUARDIAN RFID’s native Cloud platform includes specially designed reports to help Texas jails prepare for its inspections with greater accuracy and efficiency. Its native Cloud platform also helps visualize inmate headcounts in real-time and pinpoint inmates that are not part of counts.

“GUARDIAN RFID has helped us to create stronger transparency and agency accountability,” said Lt. Kettler. “By implementing the tools that the corrections industry’s most widely deployed mobile inmate tracking technology offers, Smith County has gained real-time performance analysis on every level of our inmate management objectives.”

About Smith County Sheriff’s Office

It is the mission of the Smith County Sheriff’s Office to serve the citizens and visitors of Smith County by providing professional and ethical law enforcement detention and court security that protects and preserves the Constitutional Rights of the people and mandates the fair and impartial enforcement of the law. With rapid growth and expansion has come an increased awareness among residents and visitors of the historic significance and charm to be found in the area. Sheriff Larry R. Smith, as well as the men and women of the Smith County Sheriff’s Office, pledge to instill their core values including honor, integrity, professionalism, excellence, fairness, and trust in every aspect of the service to the Smith County community.

For more information, please visit https://www.smithcountysheriff.com/

About GUARDIAN RFID

GUARDIAN RFID is a public safety technology company whose mission is to protect America’s Thin Gray Line: the 480,000 correctional officers protecting our nation’s jails and prisons. We help officers better execute the care, custody, and control mission-set through modern Cloud, mobile, RFID, and AI technologies that enable real-time situational awareness. Learn more at guardianrfid.com or connect with us across our social media channels: YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

For more information, visit https://guardianrfid.com or call 855-777-RFID (7343).

GUARDIAN RFID, SPARTAN, Mobile Command, “One Team, One Mission,” and “Warrior Technology” are trademarks of GUARDIAN RFID. For more information, visit guardianrfid.com/legal. All rights reserved. Patented and patents-pending.