Prisons of the future: High-rise structures, smart cards for inmates
Israel is building new prisons based on new concepts: High-rise structures which will deter escapes (how many prisoners will risk a jump from the tenth floor?), and smart cards which will allow inmates to roam unescorted — but monitored
Prisons are typically sprawling structures surrounded by fences and barbed wire. Israel authorities want to try a new concept for imprisoning criminals: High-rise structures and prisoners equipped with smart cards.
Behind the walls of prisons in Israel — indeed, any country’s prisons — a daily battle of wits is taking place: On the one hand are prisoners planning their escapes, and on the other, the Prison Service staff labors to expose and foil their plots. Prison officials are convinced that the penitentiary of the future, of which Israel is to have an example within the next five years or so, will succeed in deterring many of the plotting criminals. How many prisoners can be expected to be ready to risk their lives by jump from one of the upper stories of the world’s most secure high-rise prison towe?
Haaretz’s Jonathan Lis writes that the first example of a new, high-rise prison of the type is planned within the municipal boundaries of Ramle, and will be intended to replace the existing Ma’asiyahu, Ayalon, and Neve Tirza prisons. In the future, the Prison Service hopes to build two additional prison towers, one in the north of the country and the other in the south, which together will replace most of the remaining prisons now scattered around the country.
In addition to building high-rise prisons, the Israeli prison authorities are considering the option of equipping prisoners with smart cards, based on biometrics, which will enable prisoners to go unescorted to different areas of the prison. “The cards will give the prisoner the option of going by himself to the infirmary or the administrative offices or finance office, for example,” explained Deputy Warden Anna Polonsky, who heads the prison service’s logistical support department, and the one responsible for the planning of the tower prisons. According to Polonsky, “the card will be updated by computer and will enable a prisoner to go through sealed passageways only to a specific room. The card will not allow him to open doors leading to places to which he has not been granted access.”
