Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 1.55.59 PM By Donna Rogers, editor-in-chief

Like Skype and FaceTime, video calls continue to go mainstream globally. Benefits in saving inmate transport costs and reducing contraband lead the reasons more agencies employ video every year.

There are some drawbacks, however, including the premise that in-person visits can be more meaningful to the inmate and family. In fact, many counties are starting to eliminate in-person visits and building new jails with no space for them.

 This is not always desirable and it is being reversed in some instances. This past May, the Texas Senate passed and sent to Gov. Greg Abbott a bill that requires county jail inmates be allowed a minimum of two in-person non-contact visitation periods per week, reported a May 25 news story on KTXS/abc news with contribution from the Associated Press. (The bill exempts21 Texas counties that have built new jails or are already planning buildings that don’t include visitation space.) Advocates say it’s important to allow inmates to be able to visit family in person while incarcerated. And they complain that one company that supplies video equipment requires counties to eliminate in-person contact as part of the contract.

That company, the communications giant, Securus, has had  three separate lawsuits filed against it since mid-2014, directly pertaining to its practice of requiring jails to eliminate in-person visits in favor of video visits. That complaint was in fact recently reversed. In a statement published May 6 by International Business Time, Securus chief executive Richard Smith said the company has amended its contract language so that it will no longer obligate jails to remove “person-to-person contact” in favor of its video technology.

That company, the communications giant, Securus, has had  three separate lawsuits filed against it since mid-2014, directly pertaining to its practice of requiring jails to eliminate in-person visits in favor of video visits. That complaint was in fact recently reversed. In a statement published May 6 by International Business Time, Securus chief executive Richard Smith said the company has amended its contract language so that it will no longer obligate jails to remove “person-to-person contact” in favor of its video technology.


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