There are several guard-tour systems that will ensure that no detail is left unchecked. Not only do they provide an automated checklist of items to be inspected, they can provide a permanent record of items checked, details missed, or other discrepancies. The reports are the key to assessing facility maintenance cost, inmate behavior, and security problems that can to undetected, except by the carefully trained eye. Typically, guard-tour systems use some type of identification tag, such as a button or bar code that is attached to doors, windows, locks, and other items that have to be checked. The corrections officer is provided a reader, which is a display device that lists each item to be checked. Then it is used to read the ID tag, recording information for later downloading into a computer or printing out. The brains of these systems are in the software that generates the checklists, stores the information, controls downloading, and performs subsequent analysis. This article describes the various reading instruments manufactured by various companies. The article also describes a "man down" system that facilitates a quick response to a corrections officer in trouble. Also described is a communications system that allows user authentication, escalation, and two-way acknowledgment response capabilities via mobile devices.