Mercer County prisoners may soon be getting new, high-tech identification badges.

The county has received a grant for prisoner and suspect tracking databases from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. As an add-on grant, the state Chiefs of Police Association made $14,500 available to the county for a special printer and other equipment that will make bar-coded badges to tie in with the system.

The badges, when run through a special, grant-provided scanner, will allow county workers to move from computer to computer, rather than being tied to one workstation on the criminal tracking system, said Don Fedorczyk, coordinator of the Intermediate Punishment Program. He spoke at Monday's meeting of the county prison board.

The statewide systems IPP uses to make prisoner information -- including photographs, palm prints and offenses -- will all be accesible via the bar-coded cards, he said.