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The
District of Wyoming is warning prisoners that they’ll get more time added to
their sentence if they use a gun when committing a crime.
The
federal government is serious about gun crime. Convicted felons caught with a
firearm during the commission of another crime automatically get five years
added to their sentences.
However,
if that deterrent is to work, criminals have to know about it. Enter Project
Safe Neighborhoods, an initiative of U.S. Department of Justice to educate the
public about the penalties for using a firearm and in the process
reduce gun crime.
While
most federal judicial districts use billboards, TV commercials and radio ads to
get the word out, the District of Wyoming has directed its no-firearms
messaging at a highly targeted audience: inmates in local jails and state
prisons.
On the
surface, the concept of playing back video announcements to prisoners to inform
them of gun penalties seems simple. However, playback from video cassette
recorders was out of the question. Jailers are just too busy to feed taped
messages into the VCRs throughout the day.
The
district found an alternate solution in the Keywest Technology Media POD, acquiring 18 for use in correctional facilities around the state.
The Wyoming application
required special filters and switching capability that allow a cable TV source
to be interrupted during commercial breaks at the top and bottom of the hour so
firearms messages and other announcements can be inserted. That’s not always
easy, especially when there are 60 to 180 cable channels, each with their own
commercial breaks. However, the MediaXtreme provides the control needed to pull
off the job.
Video
announcements from the late criminal-defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, warn
felons about carrying firearms, the consequences of using and dealing
methamphetamines, spousal abuse and other messages are distributed on CD to
each site, where the material is downloaded to the Media POD.
While
there’s no empirical data on whether or not the program is reducing gun crime,
anecdotal evidence suggests the program is working.
“Drug
dealers are a group we really don’t want to have firearms,” said Tony Young,
law enforcement coordinator at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Wyoming. “Some have commented that they
don’t’ carry a firearm because they don’t want five years added on. If they
have a gun, they know the numbers.”
Integrator: Mega Hertz
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Keywest Technology Digital Signage Portfolio
