By Claire Withycombe
Associated Press
BEND, Ore. — After an encouraging test run, the Deschutes County jail may purchase equipment to monitor oxygen saturation and heart rates of inmates, according to Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson.
The jail has been testing 10 AliveLock RiskWatches through a 30-day free trial that concludes Wednesday. Before the $66,650 purchase can be made, it must be reviewed and approved by the county.
The Deschutes County jail is the first facility in the country to test the early alert system, which tracks health data and transfers it via radio communication to a console monitored by corrections staff, according to AliveLock CEO Melanie Bailey.
Nelson emphasized that the tool is a supplemental one.
In December, a 31-year-old inmate, Edwin Burl Mays III, died in the booking area of the jail of a methamphetamine overdose. In April, a 35-year-old inmate facing sexual abuse charges, Eben Kaneshiro, hanged himself in his cell.
Neither of the men were housed in the dedicated medical and mental health area of the jail, where the device is being tested. Inmates also must undergo a risk assessment to be eligible to wear the device.
“A lot of the RiskWatch’s success depends on the inmate’s cooperation,” Nelson said Monday. He added he wasn’t sure whether, if purchased, the RiskWatch would be deployed in different areas of the jail at a future date.
Last month, the system alerted a sheriff’s deputy to an inmate in the medical area who was choking. The deputy performed the Heimlich maneuver and dislodged a piece of food from the inmate’s airway, Nelson wrote in a news release June 25.
According to an agreement reviewed June 11 by Deschutes County Sheriff’s Legal Counsel Darryl Nakahira and released to The Bulletin through a public records request, the equipment AliveLock provided to the jail consists of 10 RiskWatches, two consoles and various ancillary equipment.
Should the jail purchase the watches, it would cost $66,650, according to the option to purchase section of the agreement. It comes at a discount, according to the sheriff: The initial price for the equipment was $110,000.
After 12 months, under the option to purchase agreement, Deschutes County is responsible for paying software licenses, including system upgrades, modifications and maintenance.
Bailey said Monday the expense is due to several factors.
First, the company uses medical-grade equipment that can’t be damaged by inmates or used by inmates to hurt themselves, Bailey said.
“Everything we use to manufacture out of can’t be used to hurt (inmates) or staff,” Bailey said. “If things do break, they can’t shatter or break and become sharp. Nothing can be made out of anything that isn’t medical grade.”
Research and development, as well as labor and other costs in the domestic manufacture of the devices also contributed to the expense of the final product, she said.