With the continual procurement of highly technical and well furnished systems in correctional facilities, correctional officers and managers, as well as the rest of the staff within these facilities are finding that their day-to-day responsibilities have become much easier to accomplish. Surveillance systems have upgraded their camera quality as well as their coverage of the facility. Door locking mechanisms have become automated and no longer require correctional officers to manually lock and unlock cells with a key. Master clocks from a synchronized clock system offer scheduling capabilities and highly accurate, GPS time synchronization. Because of the growing technology in these buildings, the likelihood of having the ability to tie together or “interface” some of these systems with each other greatly increases.

Why would the manager of a correctional facility wish to interface the building’s systems? The answer is that interfacing multiple systems in most cases means the user will have the ability to control all the systems from one, centralized location. This prevents the manager from having to visit multiple points of control, saving them a significant amount of time during their work day. Now the question is, what kind of technology is necessary to provide this capability to the facility? For interfacing capabilities and the ability to control multiple systems from a centralized point, correctional facility managers should look no further than the Sapling SMA 3000 Series Master Clock.

Sapling’s master clock has the ability to control many systems in a correctional facility. For example, when using the SMA 3000 and its scheduling capability, door locks, bell/paging systems can be controlled through the SMA 3000’s Web Interface. For demonstration of how this works, these two systems will be outlined throughout the remainder of this article in order to explain how Sapling’s SMA 3000 can make the lives of correctional facility managers and other personnel much easier.

1. Interfacing the Master Clock with the Door Locks

Sapling’s master clock connects to a correctional facility’s door locking mechanism through dry contact, programmable relays. These relays are scheduled through the master clock’s web interface to set off the door locking system—allowing the facility manager to create many predetermined times for the cell doors or doors to the outside to lock or unlock. The locking system will not only be operating on the same, accurate time as the master clock and all other clocks in the system, but will also eliminate the need for the manager, or any other personnel of the correctional facility to trigger the door locks manually throughout the day. By scheduling the door locks at predetermined times and controlling them from the same interface as the clocks, the manager and faculty can save significant amounts of time in operating these two systems.

2. Interfacing the Master Clock with Bells and Paging Systems

Similar to how the SMA 3000 Master Clock controls the door locking system, the bells and paging system interfaces with the master clock through dry contact relays as well. When the staff needs to alert inmates to move back into the building from their allotted time outdoors, or needs to sound a bell to signal meal time, Sapling’s master clock can allocate the control and timing of these sounds into its web interface. Creating multiple schedules for different days or different parts of the year, the correctional facility manager can configure the SMA 3000 to trigger the bell or paging system at its regular time without the need of manual intervention. When the bell or paging system is tied into the SMA 3000 Master Clock, the staff of the correctional facility can put their time to better use, leaving them to focus on filtering inmates from outdoor time, to the cafeteria, and so on and so forth throughout their daily schedules.

With the SMA 3000 Master Clock from Sapling, the facility managers of any correction facility will find the interfacing capability within this device saves themselves as well as the entire staff more time and energy than they would expect. By controlling the operation of locks, bells, paging, and many other systems through the master clock, the facility manager and all other staff in the correctional facility will find the SMA 3000 Master Clock to thoroughly enhance operations. Additionally with every system that connects to the master clock, their operations will occur at the same synchronized time as the master clock and all slave clocks in the building.