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

[thatswrong0]

Terrible policy. In-person visitation is known [0][1] to reduce recidivism rates. Video visitation should be included as an addition, not a replacement, to in-person visitation.

Lots more information about the subject (costs, providers, etc.) can be found at Prison Policy Initiative:

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/visitation/report.html

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/prisonvisits.html

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/state_of_phone_justice.h...

[0]: https://law.yale.edu/system/files/area/center/liman/document...

[1]: https://mn.gov/doc/assets/11-11MNPrisonVisitationStudy_tcm10...

[T800M101]

Video chat wouldn't be so bad if the friends or relatives can't physically be there.

But not as a 1:1 replacement. And certainly not for a fee. It's asinine for someone to have to pay for this and I hope someone drops a lawsuit on them for this obvious travesty.

[WrtCdEvrydy]

> reduce recidivism rates

But that's the point.

[rwmj]

The principal agent problem - higher recidivism rates cost society indirectly over the long term, but jails make more money in the here and now.

[serf]

Terrible policy. In-person visitation is known [0][1] to reduce recidivism rates.

I don't agree with the policy change; but is it known that video-chat and equivalents don't have a similar effect?

[JustSomeNobody]

> ... reduce recidivism rates.

That's no longer the goal. Prison contracts are usually billed flat rate. If JD locks up more prisoners, they get a better deal.

[saagarjha]

> Of course, jails could offer video calling without shutting down in-person visits. But the fact that jails get a share of the proceeds from these services creates a perverse incentive for them to end in-person visits. As long as in-person visits are available, many family members will take the time to drive to prison and see their loved one. But if only video visits are available on site, more family members will opt for the convenience and privacy they get by calling from home.

You're not "opting for convenience and privacy" here; you're making the only choice you have in the face of prisons looking to make a couple of dollars.

[ada1981]

What they mean is that once they stop in person visits you can opt for “privacy and conscience” of calling in from home for a fee vs. using the video terminal at the jail for free.

I had to reread this part to figure out that is what they meant.

This is a horrible additional punishment for the prisoners. Unless this punishment is reflected in shorter sentences (which it won’t be) this must stop.

What would a prison look like that is designed with the right incentives?

Can we give bonuses for recidivism rate declines?

[wonderwonder]

There is a reason America leads the world in percentage of population in prison. Our prison population represents ~22% of the worlds prison population. Our corporations discovered that if you treat prisoners like a renewable resource as opposed to a human being, you can make more money. They literally thrive on human suffering.

They house prisoners for the least amount of money they can while charging as much as they can. Prisoner safety means nothing with sexual assault, murders and drug use running rampant. Removing in person visits is just another way to wring funds from the incarcerated and now their families. They want released prisoners to return to prison as they can continue to earn off of them.

The way we allow prisoners to be treated in this country is a black mark on the soul of the nation.

[everybodyknows]

>corporations discovered that if you treat prisoners like a renewable resource ...

The problem is bigger than that -- public authorities have made the same discovery, and are extorting families in the same way.

[andrewla]

I think you're under the impression that the prisons mentioned here are privately run. All three mentioned in the article, like 90% of prisons in the US, are run by governments (in this case municipal authorities).

[Not_a_pizza]

Do you honestly think that slave owners simply gave up after slavery became illegal in the US? No, they simply found new and ingenuitive ways of exploiting people. Winning a battle is seldom ever winning the war.

[m-p-3]

Imagine the implications if technology like realtime deepfakes becomes possible. You could basically fake a relatives or a prisoner and act on their behalf to extract information or cover up that something happened to them.

Terrible idea all around.

[Balgair]

The emoji unicorn 'masks' on the iPhone are pretty close as is. Such a thing can't be more than 5 years away, if not already here.

[ada1981]

Jesus.

[chmod775]

As if US jails weren't already reprehensible and embarrassingly bad enough.

This is not just punishing the inmate, this is punishing their extended family and anyone who cares about them as well.

Some people just don't appear to care about being labeled "morally bankrupt". By the time they're done, police, judges and jails will be superfluous because society will have no values left to protect.

The latter is somewhat tongue-in-cheek of course, but this is definitely narrowing the moral gap between jailers and inmates even further.

Absolutely embarrassing for any modern society.

[computerphage]

That's the thing about bankruptcy, there's no further to fall.

[bobydonahue]

This is truly disturbing. Whoever is selling these products is an ethical case study waiting to happen. I'm sure these solutions use open source software, perhaps it's time we wrote restrictions into licenses to prevent this tech from being used for such evil purposes.

[olivermarks]

https://www.mytechfriends.com/contact.html

Disgraceful people. The name of the company is particularly insulting...

[wonderwonder]

From their site: "Has an upgrade ever made your system worse? Each time new features are added to Lockdown, automated transaction testing is used to verify that the financials remain rock solid."

There it is, its all about squeezing money from the prisons resources. In this case unfortunately those resources are human beings that have been downgraded to less than human. I could not imagine the mind set it takes to willfully profit on human suffering.

[briffle]

They actually brag [0] in their youtube video on how they can censor the video feed to improve control over 'behaviour', 'clothing', and 'messaging'. wow. that is just crazy.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/embed/NUIQIDDXN_o

[saagarjha]

Notice how the advertisement has "no cost to your facility" as the highlighted part–there's no word about how much it costs inmates and their families.

[dgjrhgi]

Really inhumane. Don't the people implementing these projects have any feelings? Why don't they think for a second from the perspectives of prisoner/family? Human greed is growing day by day.

[piker]

> 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.

> inmates were disappointed they wouldn't get to see family members anymore

[chr1]

Access to internet must be recognized as a constitutional right, and people in prison should be able to freely use normal video calls and other messaging apps, independently from in person meetings.

[currymj]

If you have literally any other option, don't work for these companies.

[mnm1]

This is the answer to the question, "How can we make inmates' lives more miserable while at the same time profiting even more off of them?"

[kirykl]

On a related note, appearing in front of a judge by video is becomming more common. Personally I think this is a violation of the 6th amendment.

[ceejayoz]

Out of curiosity, why? The right to face your accuser doesn't require you to be able to hug them.

[eeeeeeeeeeeee]

This is disgusting. I work remotely so I know what is lost even over video conferencing. I have no issue if this allows more face time between physical visits, but to block physical visits entirely I would say is downright cruel and unusual.

These wardens should be required to chat with their wives and children over video chat only for at least a month and see how it feels.

[maerF0x0]

Soon they can replace the visitors with a terrible AI and we can go the full distance to dehumanizing these people.

[usrusr]

AIs don't pay. The dystopia would be replacing the inmates with AI, either so that they don't have to be fed anymore (dark horror future) or to simply maximise lucrative visitor engagement (subtle black mirror style dark future).

[hellodave555]

What is wrong with America, makes me despair

[malikNF]

*world

[chungleong]

I don't know why people are demonizing this. By ending in-person visits, one jail is able to redirect manpower towards its GED program. That's somehow evil? No doubt video calls are inferior compared with face-to-face meetings, but the trade off seem entirely reasonable. Inmates will have more opportunities to talk to their family and they'll get more educational help. It's a decidedly positive development.

[gfs78]

You have to take into account the loss due to the lack of in-person contact with their cared ones.

[MandieD]

You understood why video-only appearances in court by the accused are problematic. Extend that reasoning to why video-only contact with people who love and support them is not an adequate replacement for face-to-face meetings.

[RickJWagner]

Surprisingly, the author doesn't mention that contraband (knives, phones, drugs, etc.) can't be passed via video.

I'm not saying the video visits are a good thing, just that I'd rather have a more balanced article.

[anbop]

Most prisons do visits through glass now, so no contraband that way either.

[Havoc]

That's pretty messed up no matter how you look at it.