All visitors to the District’s jail soon will have their fingerprints scanned and checked against law enforcement databases for outstanding warrants. The D.C. Department of Corrections is already using the “live scan” fingerprint technology on inmates when they enter and leave the jail, corrections officials said. The digital technology allows the department to take an image of an inmate’s fingerprint and check it against D.C. police databases to confirm the inmate’s identity.
Starting in March, the fingerprint-scanning technology will be put to use for all visitors, DOC spokeswoman Sylvia Lane said.
“Through a $134,000 grant from the [federal] Office of Justice Grants, we will be [using] the technology in our visitors control area to assist [D.C. police] in the identification of individuals with outstanding warrants,” Lane said in an e-mail to The Washington Examiner. If a match is made, DOC will detain the visitor and contact the police department and the visitor will be taken into custody.
The jail currently only requires that visitors present a valid identification, and names of visitors are not checked against outstanding warrants.
Live scan fingerprint systems have become increasingly popular, particularly in the business community, where employers have been pressed by federal regulators to ensure they’re hiring legal U.S. residents. By using digital technology, the scanners cut out the traditional ink pad that has come to define fingerprinting over the past century. By doing so, they also reduce the possibility of human error and allow for faster identity verification.
The expansion of live scan fingerprinting is one of two technologies the department is “enhancing to improve public safety,” officials wrote in their annual performance plan, which is used by the city administrator to assess an agency’s success.
Corrections is also researching the use of retinal scanning for inmates, Lane confirmed.
Members of the department’s technology staff have visited jails in Pennsylvania and California to review retinal scanning systems already in use, she said, and are hoping to make a final decision in “the near future.”
The performance plan says the eye scans will be used to “ensure positive identification of individuals committed to or released” from the jail. Authorities say retinal scanning is 12 times more accurate than fingerprinting.
