Mock Prison Riot: Showcase for New Technologies

• NCJ Number: 227176
• Date Published: February 2009
• Length: 2 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2005-MU-CX-K077
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description

Annotation

This report presents the objectives and describes the features of the annual Mock Prison Riot (MPR), which is conducted in May.

Abstract

The MPR serves as a venue for technologists that wish to showcase new or improved law enforcement and corrections products while obtaining useful feedback from end users. The U.S. Justice Department's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation host the annual event, using the buildings and grounds of a decommissioned penitentiary in order to evaluate the effectiveness of emerging and existing law enforcement and corrections technologies. Core components of the MPR include a technology showcase; tactical training scenarios; numerous free workshops, many of which result in certifications; a skills competition; and unlimited opportunities for networking and camaraderie. All areas of the prison and grounds are used for demonstration. End users can take a technology from a table in the showcase area and walk a short distance to give it to an individual or a team to use in a deployment in an actual cell block, dining hall, or recreation yard. Law enforcement and corrections practitioners from sheriffs' departments, police departments, prisons, jails, border patrols, and the military come from all over the world to view new technologies, accompanied by the design and execution of training scenarios that use the technologies.