One Platform, Three Solutions: Smarter Safety with Sentry Suite
By Black Creek Integrated Systems
Correctional facilities across the country face a common challenge: ensuring detainee well-being, improving staff safety and maintaining operational efficiency—all without overextending tight budgets or disrupting existing infrastructure. The Sentry Suite by Black Creek Integrated Systems offers a modular, scalable solution to this challenge.
Instead of a one-size-fits-all platform, the Sentry Suite consists of three interconnected solutions—Sentry Care, Sentry Staff and Sentry Track—each designed to address varying levels of complexity from basic vital-sign monitoring to full real-time location systems (RTLS) with superior precision.
Prioritizing Protection: Support for Detainee Well-Being
Sentry Care serves as the entry point for correctional facilities aiming to enhance safety in high-risk housing units. Designed for monitoring detainees undergoing detox, those with chronic conditions, or individuals on suicide watch, this application utilizes wrist-worn PASS (Personal Active Security Sensor) devices to monitor heart rate, skin temperature and blood oxygen saturation—and to detect tampering. Real-time alerts are triggered, enabling staff to respond proactively before a crisis escalates.
According to a recent study on civil litigation involving deaths in custody, the median time from arrest to death was just five days, with almost a quarter of deaths occurring in the first 24 hours, highlighting the urgency for rapid intervention during the earliest stages of custody.[1] By targeting this high-risk window, Sentry Care equips staff to recognize early signs of medical decline and take decisive action, preventing unnecessary deaths.
Sentry Care packages are offered with both Unmanaged and deployment models, providing correctional facilities with the flexibility to choose the implementation approach that best suits their needs. Organizations can either install the system independently using agency staff (Unmanaged) or utilize third-party installers to take advantage of available engineering support to tailor infrastructure placement (Managed). This flexibility is especially beneficial for smaller or rural facilities, as it enables users to adopt advanced technology without being delayed by lengthy capital cycles or budgetary restraints. We provide the system you need to monitor a living, breathing person in your custody while maintaining the safety and security of your facility.
To make the enrollment process easier and to minimize duplicate data entry, Sentry Care can automatically retrieve basic detainee information from the facility’s Jail Management System (JMS). As booking details are recorded, the JMS system shares this data to a folder, which Sentry Care continuously monitors for updates. When new data is added, the system imports it and links it to the appropriate detainee profile, allowing staff to utilize the technology without the need to retype the same information.
Safeguarding Staff: Duress Detection in Action
Prioritizing the welfare of your personnel, the Sentry Staff system is designed to enhance the safety and security of staff, visitors and contractors. This innovative system utilizes real-time duress alerts and zone-based location tracking to ensure that help is always close at hand. Each staff member equipped with a Personal Safety Device (PSD), featuring not only panic buttons for immediate assistance but also optional lanyard-pull duress, advanced man-down and motionless-detection capabilities. When an alert is triggered, it provides immediate and accurate notifications, clearly indicating who requires assistance and their location within the facility.
The Sentry Staff system greatly enhances situational awareness, enabling supervisors to react swiftly to emerging incidents. Live alerts, complete with location markers, assure that staff receive critical information without delay. This coordinated strategy promotes faster response times, contributing to the de-escalation of potentially volatile situations and significantly minimizing the risk of injury to staff.
Furthermore, Sentry Staff integrates seamlessly with Black Creek touchscreen security systems, allowing for a cohesive blend into central control operations. This integration not only automatically activates surveillance cameras in the alarm area but also streamlines alarm management using current staff workflows. By minimizing disruption during the adoption and training process, Sentry Staff ensures that safety measures can be implemented efficiently and effectively, enhancing the overall security environment of the facility.
Operational Oversight: Real-Time Location Tracking for All
For facilities looking to combine the best of Sentry Care and Sentry Staff, Sentry Track provides comprehensive real-time location services. The system tracks detainees, staff, visitors and critical assets within the correctional facility, both indoors and outdoors, with up to sub-meter accuracy. It supports vital-sign monitoring, duress detection and adds movement restrictions, such as “Keep Separate” alerts for known rivals or adversarial groups.
Sentry Track transforms facility oversight from reactive to proactive, empowering administrators to prevent incidents and conduct post-event reviews with unparalleled clarity.
Scalable Solutions: Adaptable Safety at Any Size
As facilities expand or modernize, the Sentry Suite offers correctional leaders the flexibility to implement improvements either through a phased rollout or a comprehensive design approach. This enables facilities to make smart, incremental changes while still focusing on long-term objectives. Budget-friendly initial deployments can start in specific areas—such as medical and mental health units or intake wings—and can be expanded gradually to cover the entire facility. This strategy not only lowers risk but also reduces the initial cost of ownership.
In an environment where every second matters, and every dollar is scrutinized, the ability to match technology to the moment is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity.