Omaha company hopes to reduce in-custody deaths

A local technology company wants to reduce cases of in-custody deaths.Encartele provides technology like tablets and air quality sensors to correctional facilities in our area. Now, they’re looking to expand their reach with a new product. “Safety is one of the biggest parts of a correctional facility that we try to support. So this is a product that, we think, that makes sense,” said Alex Moreland, the director of business growth for Encartele. Encartele has partnered with Graeme Towndrow, a former crime intelligence manager for the British government who works in space-based engineering. He is bringing his innovative radar technology to prisons in America.”One of the things that we have to do to make sure prisoners are safe is continually interrupt them and wake them. If you have a radar, you know that they’re safe because the radar is telling you what they’re doing, so it removes the need to wake them up,” said Towndrow. When placed on the ceiling of cells, the radar would provide a non-invasive way to monitor inmates’ heart rate and breathing. “If they stay in a phase where they are low for a minute, then alarms will go off to attract attention,” said Towndrow.Correctional officers say this would be revolutionary for understaffed jails in rural areas, especially when inmates need extra care.”When you have, like, somebody on suicide watch, somebody that is in an infirmary cell, or they need medical attention, somebody that’s going through severe detox, these are the type of people that need to be in there and those type of cells,” said Quinn Webb, the business development specialist at Encartele. When implemented, Towndrow says he predicts a reduction in assaults and in-custody deaths. “Really importantly, you’re going to get safer prisoners, because it will bring calmness to the jail, particularly if people are allowed to sleep,” said Towndrow. Jail operation experts say that we can expect to see this technology implemented in correctional facilities everywhere in the nation in the next 10 years.NAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Local News | National | Sports | Newscasts on demand |

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