Freeman Klopott reports:
All visitors to the District’s jail soon will have their fingerprints scanned and checked against law enforcement databases for outstanding warrants.
The D.C. Department of Corrections is already using the “live scan” fingerprint technology on inmates when they enter and leave the jail, corrections officials said. The digital technology allows the department to take an image of an inmate’s fingerprint and check it against D.C. police databases to confirm the inmate’s identity.
Starting in March, the fingerprint-scanning technology will be put to use for all visitors, DOC spokeswoman Sylvia Lane said.
Read more in the Washington Examiner.
The news story doesn’t indicate what the jail intends to do with the fingerprints once they’ve run them against the database for outstanding warrants. Are they retaining them and adding them to another database?
I understand that people lose some rights when they want to visit someone in jail, and that they can be searched for contraband, etc. But taking their fingerprints without reasonable suspicion?
Has the ACLU said anything about this?