Jails are increasingly offering video visitations for
inmates, and some facilities are citing the new, sometimes pricey service as a
reason to restrict or ban in-person visitations, reported the ABA Journal.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat reports
on the upcoming launch of a remote video visitation system in Benton
County, Arkansas, that will cost 50 cents a minute in 15-minute increments. The
jail will no longer allow in-person visits, the only free way to visit inmates
for those who are not attorneys.
People who want to visit the inmates can use their home
computer to access smartjailmail.com.
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told the Democrat
that eliminating in-person visits will decrease contraband and free up
employees who had to monitor such visits. It will also be easier for friends
and family members who had to travel long distances to visit inmates.
Video visitation is increasing in popularity, and jails
often get “a hefty percentage” of the fees, Ars Technica reported
in May. The Guardian also
noted the trend, as did the Los Angeles Times in
an editorial last year against elimination of in-person visitation.
Lucius Couloute, an expert at the Prison Policy Initiative,
told Ars Technica and the Guardian that an estimated 600-plus correctional
facilities across the country have implemented some form of video calling.
About three-quarters of the jails that implement the technology “end up
eliminating or scaling back in-person visits,” Couloute, told Ars Technica.
The fees paid to jails provide an incentive to restrict
in-person visiting, prisoner-rights advocate Alex Friedmann told Ars Technica.
The price for the service is sometimes as high as a dollar a minute, Friedmann
said. Typical commissions paid to jails are in the 20 to 25 percent range, he
said.
The American Correctional Association said in a
2016 policy statement that emerging technologies should be used as
supplements to in-person visitation, and they should not create an unreasonable
financial burden on inmates and their families and friends.
The ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Standards
on the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by the House of Delegates in 2010,
also warn about eliminating in-person visitation. According to Standard 23-8.5,
prisoners confined more than 30 days should generally be allowed contact
visits. Corrections officials should promote communication between prisoners
and their families, including video visitation, “provided that such options are
not a replacement for in-person contact,” the standard says.
The Guardian asks whether in-person visitation is a legal
right. The U.S. Supreme Court has not considered the question, although the
court ruled
in 2003 that visitation restrictions with a rational relation to
prison management don’t violate a constitutional right of association,
according to the Guardian.
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