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posted by martyb on Tuesday April 09 2019, @06:13AM   Printer-friendly
from the per-minute-rates-for-a-captive-audience dept.

More jails replace in-person visits with awful video chat products

After April 15, inmates at the Adult Detention Center in Lowndes County, Mississippi will no longer be allowed to visit with family members face to face. Newton County, Missouri, implemented an in-person visitor ban last month. The Allen County Jail in Indiana phased out in-person visits earlier this year.

All three changes are part of a nationwide trend toward "video visitation" services. Instead of seeing their loved ones face to face, inmates are increasingly limited to talking to them through video terminals. Most jails give family members a choice between using video terminals at the jail—which are free—or paying fees to make calls from home using a PC or mobile device.

Even some advocates of the change admit that it has downsides for inmates and their families. Ryan Rickert, jail administrator at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center, acknowledged to The Commercial Dispatch that inmates were disappointed they wouldn't get to see family members anymore. Advocates of this approach point to an upside for families: they can now make video calls to loved ones from home instead of having to physically travel to the jail.

These services are ludicrously expensive. Video calls cost 40¢ per minute in Newton County, 50¢ per minute in Lowndes County, and $10 per call in Allen County. Outside of prison, of course, video calls on Skype or FaceTime are free.

A previous story on Ars Technica noted "grainy and jerky" video quality that periodically froze up altogether.

Related: Company That Handles Prison Phone Calls is Surveilling People Who Aren't in Prison


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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday April 09 2019, @07:11AM (1 child)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 09 2019, @07:11AM (#826588) Journal

    Visitation has been a huge problem. Ditching it is one of the many steps needed for security. It's a start. We have a long way to go.

    Long way to go... because... problem...
    Hmmm... when do you think you'll get to the "keeping them in prison cost money, which is a huge problem. Killing them at the gate and asking the family for the bullet money is a start"?

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday April 09 2019, @05:48PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday April 09 2019, @05:48PM (#826941)

    Private prisons would still charge over 40 grand a year to keep the body for the remainder of the sentence, but they could save a lot of guards, food and real estate ...
    That's definitely the future!

    What ? You think I'm cynical ? What do you think is next after you remove visits to people who got life-without-parole ? Facebook family data, grainy screens, and actors. Much higher profits !