Methods and systems for charging and monitoring electronic devices in confinement institutions
Implementations disclosed herein provide a charging station configured to attach to or be positioned adjacent to a wall in a confinement institution and to simultaneously charge multiple tablets, mobile phones, laptops, or other portable electronic devices. In some implementations, the charging station is configured with protective sides that may help protect inserted electronic devices from damage. The charging and use of the electronic devices within the confinement institution may be automatically managed based on connections at the charging stations, communications with the electronic devices, audio, images, or video of the electronic devices or users captured cameras on the charging station or the electronic devices, and/or information provided by the users.
1 . A method comprising:
at a computing device comprising a processor:
determining that an inmate device has been removed from a charging station provided for charging a plurality of inmate devices within a confinement institution;
determining that remaining battery power available on the inmate device satisfies a condition;
based on determining that the remaining battery power available on the inmate device satisfies a condition, disabling user-interface functionality on the inmate device and continuing to power a localization function on the inmate device, wherein the localization function provides information that enables localization of the inmate device; and
locating the inmate device within the confinement institution based on the information provided via the localization function.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein disabling the user-interface functionality further comprises providing an indication that the inmate device is out of power.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the inmate device is unusable while the user-interface functionality is disabled.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the user-interface functionality is disabled until the inmate device is returned to the charging station.
5 . The method of claim 1 further comprising, based on determining that the remaining battery power available on the inmate device satisfies the condition, providing an indication on the inmate device instructing a user to return the inmate device to the charging station.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the localization function on the inmate device provides an audio signal or displayed signal useable to identify the location of the inmate device.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the localization function on the inmate device responds to a request from a locating device by providing an audio signal or displayed signal useable to identify the location of the inmate device.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the localization function on the inmate device sends an electronic communication to a locating device informing the locating device that the inmate device has satisfied the condition and has not been returned to the charging station.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the electronic communication identifies a user who was last using the inmate device.
10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the electronic communication identifies a user who last removed the inmate device from the charging station.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the inmate device is a tablet.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the condition is that remaining battery power available is less than a threshold.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the localization function is part of a mobile device management (MDM) system that provides communication information tracked on the inmate device to a separate localization device.