Technology in Correctional Facilities from an OSINT Lens
Mark Wasson
Department of Corrections (DOC) officers and intelligence units employ a range of technological tools, including surveillance cameras, communication platforms, access control systems and other systems to detect and monitor potential problems and conflicts between incarcerated individuals to keep the agencies’ facilities, staff, and public safe.
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) solutions must be an integral part of their arsenal.
Corrections officials must determine if inmates are involved with Security Threat Groups (STGs) or other criminal groups or activities happening inside or outside the correctional facility. As a result, officers and intelligence units must work alongside external law enforcement agencies when necessary. To that end, they need comprehensive intelligence from a variety of sources to understand inmates engaged in ongoing criminal activity inside and outside correctional facilities.
OSINT solutions can help correctional officers and investigators quickly develop information from a wide range of sources, including publicly available information on the open web, as well as the deep and dark webs. This information allows these teams to build a detailed picture of STGs and their online connections who are bringing contraband into the facilities or planning criminal activities.
To successfully leverage OSINT’s potential, corrections officials should follow certain best practices in adopting these web intelligence platforms. Key steps include:
• Planning priorities and requirements—Facility officials must define their specific OSINT mission needs, such as contraband interdiction, or Security Threat Group monitoring. This guides what information should be analyzed.
• Collecting, processing, and analyzing data—OSINT systems use advanced tools to rapidly gather relevant data from open, deep, and dark web sources. Automated processing and analysis techniques help generate actionable intelligence.
• Integrating OSINT data—Seamless interoperability with existing correctional systems for case management, data analytics, and inmate monitoring is crucial for workflow efficiency.
• Using OSINT insights—Applying OSINT intelligence through enhanced investigations, improved inmate risk assessment, and data-driven officer allocation optimizes outcomes.
Adapting OSINT to Work with Inmate and Case Management Software
Today, data is ubiquitous. Correctional officials have access to vast amounts of data from multiple sources. The key lies in having an OSINT platform that can cross-correlate data across all these databases, which allows decision-makers to make informed decisions on three levels: strategic, operational, and tactical.
For example, OSINT can be used to update an inmate’s profile in an offender management system with critical intelligence. An investigator could use an OSINT platform to glean information from gang-related forums on the dark web and identify suspected connections between inmates and known STGs.
With the proper integrations in place, these OSINT insights can trigger real-time updates to the relevant inmate profiles within the facility’s case management system. For instance, intelligence could be quickly developed which may provide key elements in assisting investigators to validate an inmate as an STG member, associate or not, along with other supporting OSINT evidence.
Some important steps to consider for seamless integration between OSINT and internal systems include:
• Evaluate OSINT solutions that offer Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or connectors to facilitate system interoperability. Many solutions have integrations or plugins to work with law enforcement data sources already in use.
• Prioritize options that allow automated ingestion and parsing of OSINT data into case files and profiles. This accelerates the process.
• Explore solutions that enable one-click exporting of relevant OSINT findings into reports or other formats readable by case management systems.
• Utilize OSINT platforms with advanced entity extraction and linkage analysis to quickly connect insights to existing files and entities.
OSINT in Action
The key to success is choosing OSINT solutions with robust integration capabilities to ensure a smooth linkage between intelligence insights and operational systems. By starting with targeted use cases, such as contraband investigations, jail officials can quickly demonstrate value and build an integration roadmap over time.
Contraband cell phones make the flow of information in and out of jails much easier. At the same time, contraband cell phones allow people to engage in criminal activity. OSINT helps analysts understand the complex relationships that inmates maintain, both inside and outside the facility. This includes STG and STG affiliations and their co-conspirators attempting to groom, recruit, and compromise corrections officers or their friends.
In addition, there has been a rise in health-related and suicide issues tied to contraband drugs, especially fentanyl. Research has confirmed that overdose is the leading cause of death among people recently released from correctional facilities, as well as the third leading cause of deaths in custody in U.S. jails.
Furthermore, using OSINT, corrections officers and investigators can share information with outside law enforcement agencies to substantially disrupt the flow of contraband—cell phones, drugs, or weapons entering jails. It is far easier to work with a law enforcement partner or partners on the outside who can interdict the contraband before it ever reaches the inside of the facility.
Achieving Situational Awareness in Correctional Facilities with OSINT
Every correctional executive, warden, and corrections officer needs situational awareness on how the institution is doing overall and how the inmate population is functioning daily. OSINT allows analysts to build that view for three groups of facility officials:
• Strategic view for executive management
• Operational situational awareness for administrators
• Tactical view for corrections officers and investigative teams to conduct targeted searches
Sgt. Oghenetega Onoshirie
Typically, corrections officials have critical incident management plans in place for natural disasters and incidents such as disturbances and riots. Building a strategic intelligence initiative takes time and the right tools. Most experts will tell you technology undergoes significant changes every 13 months. Unfortunately, officials are hampered by resource constraints, extended agency procurement cycles, coupled with slower responses to recognizing the distinct requirements of the corrections intelligence cycle. This further hinders correctional agencies’ capacity to acquire platforms which can collect, process, and leverage digital information within facilities and remain relevant.
OSINT allows agencies to maintain situational awareness and relevancy no matter which technology changes inside that 13-month window. OSINT can provide insights and developing trends that may impact the agency or institution over the next 24 or 36 months and beyond. OSINT combined with artificial intelligence (AI) allows facility officials to go from reactive to proactive—and even into the predictive zone.
OSINT combined with AI offers:
• Persistent awareness—OSINT combined with AI continuously searches open, deep, and dark web data to create an always-on view of emerging threats and changes rather than periodic snapshots.
• Analyzing groups and actors—Network analysis applied to OSINT data reveals connections between inmates, gangs, and outside accomplices to understand the full ecosystem.
• Dark web access—Secure dark web access lets correction officers identify threats like contraband sales, hitmen-for-hire, the use of cryptocurrencies, or inmate data leaks on hidden forums.
…these OSINT insights can trigger real-time updates to the relevant inmate profiles within the facility’s case management system.
• Automating advanced search—Searching and filtering on thousands of sources to surface threats and suspicious activity at scale with AI and OSINT versus manual searching.
• Overcoming challenges—Ensuring proper use policies and combining OSINT with ground intel to avoid over-reliance on AI tools.
Unlocking the Full Benefits of OSINT
OSINT solutions offer immense potential for corrections officials to enhance security, investigations, and situational awareness. By aggregating and analyzing data from publicly available online sources, as well as the deep and dark web, OSINT can reveal connections, trends, and threats that internal data systems might miss.
However, to fully unlock these benefits, corrections officials should follow best practices in planning, implementing, integrating, and governing OSINT capabilities. Key recommendations include:
• Clearly define intelligence requirements and priorities to guide OSINT use, such as contraband interdiction or the identification of STG leadership, membership, and associates operating inside and outside the prison or jail, including probation and parole departments.
• Invest in solutions with strong analytical capabilities to generate actionable intelligence versus just data.
• Integrate OSINT insights with existing correctional systems and workflows for amplified impact.
• Balance OSINT with human intelligence gathering to avoid over-reliance on technology.
• Develop policies for appropriate use, data privacy, and acting on OSINT data.
By leveraging OSINT as a force multiplier for correctional intelligence, facilities can accelerate investigations, interdict threats, and ultimately create safer, more secure environments for inmates, officers, and the public. However, facility officials must adopt OSINT judiciously as one part of a holistic approach.
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Mark Wasson has 20+ years of experience in all aspects of state and federal corrections. Mark began his career with the Kentucky Department of Corrections and has since specialized in assisting law enforcement agencies and their partners on a national level in building and training their intelligence, contraband interdiction, digital forensics, drone, and mobile assessment programs utilizing new technologies. He received a HERO Award and Officer of the Year while at the Kentucky Department of Corrections. For more information, he can be reached at Mark.Wasson@cobwebs.com