In this unprecedented time, today’s correctional facilities are a risk. Verus, created by LeoTech, is playing a key role in protecting inmates, correctional personnel, and first responders.
Verus is a cutting-edge, AI-based technology that produces near real-time intelligence from inmate phone calls based on keywords and phrases. It automatically downloads, analyzes, and transcribes all recorded inmate calls, proactively flagging them for review.
Right now, Verus is supporting jails and prisons through:
- Medical Surveillance and Monitoring: Phone calls recorded and flagged by Verus help personnel identify sick inmates.
- Enhanced Facility Security: As manpower is down, Verus helps jails and prisons identify problems proactively and assign staff where the need is most critical.
- Enhanced Safety for Inmates and Staff: In addition to medical monitoring, intelligence from Verus mitigates potential violence—including potential COVID-19-related murders.
- Community Support: Intelligence from Verus supports patrols and investigations as community fears and anxieties escalate.
Incidents related to Covid-19
In each of the incidents related below, keyword searches and alerts led to inmate phone calls containing critical, immediately actionable information. (Note: The phone calls quoted contain the actual language used and may be graphic, inciting, or racially insensitive.)
Rumors of infectious disease
Keywords: “disease in here”
Location: California
An inmate explained to the call recipient that another inmate across the hall had been sick with “that disease.”
Inmate: “You know that disease is in here, huh.”
Recipient: “Are you kidding?”
Inmate: “The teacher told my cellie today that someone across the hall has had it.”
Threat of Violence
Keywords: “kill him”
Location: Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) Metro Area Crime Center (MACC), Alabama
An inmate discussed fear of the coronavirus and said that inmates planned to kill anyone who was discovered to have the virus in order to contain the spread.
Inmate: “They’re going to try and kill them, the other inmates are going to kill the ones that got it, that way it won’t spread.”
Inmate Health
Keywords: “might have corona”
Location: Oxford Police Department, East Metro Area Crime Center (EMACC), Alabama
An inmate explained to his girlfriend that he was sick and showed multiple symptoms of the virus.
Inmate: “I’ve been so damn tired, my body hurt man, I’ve been so tired I just want to go to sleep…My head hurt, my throat hurt, my back hurt. Fuck man! This shit sucks!
Recipient: “You might have the coronavirus.”
Officer Safety
Keyword: “coughing”
Location: Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), New York
An inmate declared that inmates would begin coughing on guards if coronavirus was discovered in the jail.
Inmate: “N***s said, if the coronavirus hit the jail, they gonna start coughing on the COs.”
Sick Inmate
Keyword: “coughing”
Location: Oxford Police Department, EMACC, Alabama
An inmate stated he had symptoms of the coronavirus.
Recipient: “Really ain’t got a lot of symptoms you know, just telling everybody to stay away from somebody coughing and sneezing and just like really flu symptoms.”
Inmate: “Well, that’s what I got then.”
Public Health
Keyword: “sneezing”
Location: Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), New York
A call recipient expressed the growing health concerns and fear around the neighborhood, as well as people’s reactions to people sneezing around them.
Recipient: “This really going to be a problem for people though. Because like people are just walking around sneezing. They might get shot for shit like that.”
Health Watch
Keyword: “cough”
Location: Montgomery Police Department, Alabama
A caller and an inmate discussed symptoms.
Inmate: “I got a horrible cough. Started coughing last night.”
Recipient: “Shit.”
Inmate: “And I feel like I’m coming down with a cold.”
Recipient: “Go to the doctor.”
