“Real-time tracking of tool and equipment inventories is a critical function of many organizations and sectors. For prisons and correctional facilities, tracking and monitoring of assets such as cookware, hardware, keys, janitorial equipment, vocational/technical specialty tools, etc., is essential for safety, security, trust, efficiency, education, etc.”
– from Abstract, Enterprise risk management for automation in correctional facilities with pandemic and other stressors, Wiley Online Library
Accurately tracking inventories is essential for prisons and correctional facilities, but selecting the right system – one that can withstand stressors like the recent COVID pandemic – is no easy task. This was the challenge facing the University of Virginia (UVA), Virginia State University (VSU), and CCALS team that worked with the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) to create a methodology for contractor evaluation and selection.
VDOC invited the CCALS investigators to discuss options in meetings with a variety of potential VDOC contractors of tracking, RFID, wireless, and other control technologies to address tool transactions of vocational training, healthcare, food services, laundry, agriculture, vehicles, animal care and other essential services. The team developed a methodology designed to work in uncertain and unpredictable conditions, featuring a scenario-based preferences analysis of emergent and future conditions disruptive to the performance of the asset-control system.
“CCALS has supported VDOC to improve tool security through a risk register that considers the Department missions, technology and process initiatives, and emergent conditions of behavior, obsolescence, regulations, innovations and others,” said team member James Lambert, Director of the UVA Center for Risk Management of Engineering Systems. “The CCALS effort in this benefited from its affiliation to the National Science Foundation Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust. The automation issue is typical for CCALS interests across infrastructure systems, workforce, asset management, energy and process efficiencies, cost savings, etc.”
“This is a clear example of what CCALS is all about – long term partnership and collaboration between academic institutions, industry, and government for cybersecurity issues, health & safety, and more,” said Dawit Haile, Dean of the VSU College of Engineering and Technology and Chair of the CCALS Board.
To access the full research paper and see all members of the team, visit the Wiley Online Library