The 1,000-plus inmates in Hinds County’s three jails will soon talk to friends, family and attorneys through web based video conferencing rather than eyeing each other through a Plexiglas screen in the jail’s visiting area.
Members of the Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved the new visitation system, which could reap hundreds of thousands of dollars in fee income for the county. Mobile, Ala.-based Global Tel Link Corp. will provide the service.
It’s touted not just as a revenue source but also as a safety move. Guards and deputies now must move inmates from secure cells to facilitate visitation, potentially placing inmates and staff at risk. And, using cloud-based video conferencing will keep down the number of visitors to the jail, including those who try to sneak in contraband.
Today, inmates wanting to visit with someone outside the jail can either call them for a flat $3.50 in-state fee, or their visitors can come to see them at either the Adult Detention Center in Raymond, the women’s facility in downtown Jackson, or the Penal Farm located adjacent to the main Raymond jail. Inmates do not have to pay for visits at the jail, in which there is no physical contact. The inmate and the visitor are separated by a clear screen and talk to each other through a telephone hookup.
“When I have full-fledged visitation going on at the Raymond jail, it’s exhausting to the staff,” said Hinds County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Chris Picou. Inmates must be moved to designated visiting areas, and their guests often come unannounced and unscheduled, he said.
The new system allows visits to be scheduled online. Those wanting to visit inmates can use their own computer or cell phone to multipoint video conferencing with them, and attorneys can save time and money by conferring with inmates from their offices instead of driving to Raymond.
“Where I would now use 10-12 people to staff visitation, I wouldn’t have to use any,” Picou said. “The technology is something we have badly needed.”
Said Jackson attorney Mike Espy, who is representing GTL in the endeavor: “It’s a tremendous upgrade to the current services.”
There will be no fee for a video visit in which the visitor comes to one of the three jails. And, in certain circumstances, inmates and visitors could still see each other through the glass screen, Picou said.
A typical video conferencing server visit lasting about 20 minutes would cost $12. That’s a lot less than it might cost someone to drive to and from the Raymond jail, take time off work or factor in inconvenience, said Robert Orso, an account manager for GTL. “This is especially good for attorneys who spend a lot of time just coming to the jail. They can now sit in their offices and talk to their clients.”
Inmates and potential visitors will be given instructions on how to use the new system. They can still place phone calls instead of choosing to visit by video.
In 2012, the county reaped about $175,000 in fees from inmates placing phone calls at $3.50 a call. In constrast, Orso said, Rankin County earned about $369,000 from inmate video and phone fees in 2012, even though that jail system has less than half the inmate population of Hinds County.
Orso estimates the county could gross about $700,000 from fees generated for phone and video visits in the system’s first year. Of that amount, the county would keep 60 percent, and GTL would get 40 percent. The county would pay no money up front for the new system.
Although all supervisors approved moving to the new system, District 5 Supervisor Kenneth Stokes worried that some visitors would rather use the old procedures. “This is a county jail. It’s not a prison. A lot of the people are innocent,” he said. “You have mamas who call us and their son is in jail, and he hasn’t done nothing. I hope we will support them visiting face to face.”
Article Source: Hinds Co. inmate visitation to be through video conferencing
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