Dec 11, 2017 4 min read

Keeping contraband out of jails has been an age-old problem, but one way to combat it is to eliminate inmates’ contact with visitors.

Title 37 of state law, however, says county jail inmates should have a minimum of one hour of visitation per week. It doesn’t, however, mandate the sessions include what are known as face-to-face or “contact visits.”

Enter Inmate Calling Solutions of San Antonio, Texas, founded in 2002, according to its website. The company deals with more than 260,000 inmates in 230 correctional facilities in six states that offer video visitation.

For the past five weeks, the Washington County jail has offered video visitation as an option for inmates. Face-to-face visits are still being offered, but the video option provides inmates’ families and friends with more convenience.

As with inmate telephone calls, the cost of the video visitation – $12.50 per half hour – is borne by the friend or family member on the “outside.”

Not only does video visitation keep contraband from being smuggled into the jail, it offers flexibility for scheduling visits. Visits by walk-ins, for example, end at Washington County jail at 8 p.m. Video visitation lasts an hour longer.

Due to staffing schedules, the jail does not permit face-to-face visits during weekends or holidays, but video visitation is permitted during those times.

“I was able to expand visitation without having to hire,” said Warden Edward Strawn. “It was very much cost-effective, if you look at it that way.

“This past Thanksgiving we had quite a rush on it,” the warden said.

He expects similar usage on Christmas and Jan. 1.

That’s a plus, he said, because inmates’ isolation and depression around the holidays is believed to spur suicide.

An inmate with family members in Florida was one of the first ones scheduled when the jail initiated video visitation in the beginning of November.

“They’re not going to drive up or fly here for an hour visit,” Strawn said.

Family members and friends must be at least 18 years old and listed on an inmate’s approved visitors’ list for contact visits, but even the family dog can participate when a cellphone camera is pointed in the pet’s direction.

As to those who pooh-pooh the concept as a luxury that prisoners don’t deserve, Strawn said of those with no previous history of a family member behind bars, “Everyone thinks they won’t need it until they do.”

Washington County Correctional Facility is 20 years old, but people still refer to it as the “new jail.” Video conference calling technology through web-based cameras has been available even longer, but outside of business settings, many first became acquainted with it in the early 2000s.

Strawn plans to discuss the feature with members of Washington County Bar Association at the organization’s quarterly meeting today. He expects to address the topic of surveillance.

Unlike discussions and visual displays with family members and friends that are recorded, inmates’ talks with their legal representatives are confidential due to lawyer-client privilege. Discussions with other professionals are also considered confidential.

The largest percentage of inmates’ cases are handled by the Washington County public defenders’ office, which is already using the video visitation system.

“They were my guinea pigs,” Strawn said.

Public Defender Glenn Alterio said his assistants and investigator have been using video sessions for about three weeks and they’ll discuss it with fellow members of the bar.

An advantage to jail staff is inmates conferring with an public defender can remain in their housing area – known as a pod – rather than being moved to the part of the jail used for contact visits.

The device’s recording feature is to be turned off when inmates are meeting via video with their attorneys. The assistant public defenders don’t have to cart files to and from the jail and have the materials clear security.

“For the public defenders’ office, there is no cost,” Alterio said. “They set up so we don’t have to pay. I would think for conflict attorneys it would be the same.”

“Conflict attorneys” are lawyers appointed by the court in cases with more than one defendant in which one person charged with a crime is represented by the public defender.