Wristbands will help Fulton County Sheriff's Office track inmates

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said it will be the first in the state to implement wearable technology to monitor inmates.

According to Sheriff Patrick Labat, the goal in using this new technology is to make things more efficient for both inmates and jail staff. 

"If we can leverage technology we can save lives," Sheriff Labat explained.

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office has been working with the metro Atlanta-based company Talitrix for the last two years to create this wristband to monitor inmates.

"We were able to track inmates every five seconds. We were able to measure their biometrics from heartrate, blood pressure, and then on top of that, we were able to ensure that they have out-of-cell time each and every hour, each and every day," Justin Hawkins, Talitrix CEO, said.

The technology will be rolled out at the North Annex location in Alpharetta and the South Annex location in Union City. Sheriff Labat said the wristbands will help combat staffing shortages and protect both inmates and officers.

"We can have real time feedback to help our nurses understand what’s going on help our officers understand that a person’s blood pressure that will be dropping," Sheriff Labat explained.

Sheriff Labat also said after beta testing, the wristbands have also been designed so inmates will use them properly.

"I will never say anything is indestructible when it comes to our inmates but it is certainly tamper-proof," he explained.

"These inmates will be able to use this as like Apple Pay in order to order for commissary, and so, that’s our way of really incentivizing those that are in the system to be able to be compliant," Hawkins added.

In terms of the data collected, Sheriff Labat said the sheriff’s office owns that information.

Sheriff Labat also said they plan on using grants and inmate welfare funds to limit the cost to taxpayers.