The CHAIN program, developed by Missoula-based Invizeon Corp., automates the notification network that previously relied on a series of phone calls placed by officers in the command post at Montana State Prison. If the demonstration project is successful, state officials will decide whether to solicit proposals for possible purchase of a permanent alert notification system. The system has been in a test phase for the past six weeks.
The system will be used only for "priority one" incidents, which include an escape, death, power outage, suicide, assault, riot, hostage situation or sabotage.
Under the old system, a report of an incident would be called into to the command post, where staff would start making phone calls to top corrections officials and key members of the governorís office staff. The process could handle 40 notifications, usually to a single phone number for each official.
The CHAIN system is capable of transmitting a notification to thousands of recipients, depending on the type of incident involved. It also allows for expansion to include alerts issued to local law enforcement agencies, other state agencies and even to neighbors of a correctional facility where an incident occurred.
When a call comes into the command post using the CHAIN system, an officer collects details of an incident, logs into the network, inserts the information into a template and issues the alert.
The notice can be sent by several routes to officials: e-mail, work and personal cell phones, office phone, and home phone. Recipients must acknowledge they have received the message, a feature that allows officials to determine who and when people were notified. The system repeats the notification to an individual until receipt is confirmed.
There's a complete tracking of every incident, and the CHAIN system saves valuable time. What has taken hours to accomplish through manual dialing of phone numbers can be accomplished in minutes.
"This system will enable command post staff to spend more time resolving issues in lieu of?tracking down the appropriate administrators to ensure the incident is properly reported in a timely manner," said Mike Mahoney, warden at Montana State Prison. "CHAIN will take care of the notifications and free up our shift commanders to focus on the more critical matters. This system will represent?a significant improvement in our overall management of?critical events."
Bill Fleiner, chief of the Investigation and Compliance Monitoring Bureau in the Montana Corrections Department, called the new system a major improvement in emergency notification abilities of the agency.
