Pa Introduces New Prison-Escape Alert System

Community Alert Network will receive $31,000 per year from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to quickly notify all residents within two miles of a prison if an inmate escape occurs.

The residents are notified because of technology that can identify and catalog all listed phone numbers within a certain geographic region. The prisons’ warning sirens will still be utilized.

The faster phone system will first be employed at Graterford and Chester, with the other prisons coming on board within a few months.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Philadelphia Inquirer (01/14/04) P. B3.