Chelan County Jail Will Have RFID Medical Sensors in All Single-Holding Cells

Chelan County Jail continues to implement RFID medical sensors all single holding cells.

Chelan County Commissioner Kevin Overbay said the county is implementing the sensors in 44 more cells after installing 24 during 2024.

Get our free mobile app

"What that does is basically provides our folks in the jail an opportunity to monitor vital signs of individuals in single cells, and generally the individuals in single cells are those that are detoxing or have other high-risk medical conditions," Overbay said. "It affords us that opportunity to get the early intervention medical treatment so that way we don't have somebody succumb to an illness or detox situation or maybe even an overdose where they ingested something prior to coming into the facility."

Overbay said the county is partnering with Douglas County to implement the sensors. Funding came from the Opioid Settlement funding as a request for proposals they received and funded. The county also authorized local funds to install the first dozen sensors while another dozen were funded by the county's risk pool between the two counties.

This is partly an effort to thwart contraband in the jail system as well, but Overbay said these sensors are just an added tool to help prevent overdose within the jail.

The additional sensors now make it so the jail's entire single-cell holding system is equipped with RFID sensors. The new sensors are expected to be installed by the middle of July.