The end of American prison visits: jails end face-to-face contact – and families suffer

toxic-spill:

isaacsapphire:

desdeotromar:

Under the new system, in-person visits are no longer allowed.
Instead, all visits now must be done by video, either from a smartphone,
computer, or at an offsite location.

The pamphlet, published by Securus Technology, makes using a video feed to talk to your loved one seem appealing. It says:

“Do you want to see your loved one more often? Stop missing out on:

• Watching your favorite TV show.
• Singing Happy Birthday.
• Reading a bedtime story … Never miss another moment.”

Under the new system, each video visit made from home costs $12.99 for 20 minutes. In-person visits used to be free.

This shift also raises a legal question: is in-person visitation an inmate’s legal right?

Video technology run by Securus and other companies is now used in hundreds of correctional facilities across the country…

Gary York, a retired Florida prison inspector who writes about video
visitation, says his experience supports those findings. He says that
over the past five years, most jails in his state have turned to using
only video visitation and stopped in-person visitation.

Indeed, according to the Prison Policy Initiative’s data, 74% of US
correctional facilities that implement video calling end up either
reducing in-person visits, or eliminating them altogether.

So, first the fact that contact costs money at all is concerning, and $13/20 minutes is crazy expensive. Like, I grew up in the era of long distance charges and such, and that’s at old school overseas call level expensive, even rich people will hesitate level expensive. Contact with family by incarcerated people is very important for maintaining the relationships the future excons are going to need to reintegrate with society, not to mention the importance for the children to stay in touch with their parents.

Horrible idea, will increase recidivism and hurt kids and families too. I’d suggest hammering on the “hurts families” angle when trying to get Republicans to go against this, as that’s the on-paper thing about this they most object to.

Republicans don’t care about recidivism or the effect that their actions will have on families.  To them, it’s all about monetizing every last aspect of society, and recidivist prisoners are seen as repeat customers.

The end of American prison visits: jails end face-to-face contact – and families suffer