Feb 21 Legislative Hearing on Video Visitation in Jails

VIDEO of the Hearing!  Powerful testimony from family and formerly incarcerated perspectives: Zoe Willmott and Anita Wills of Essie Justice Group, Michael Cortez of Project WHAT! (alumni), and compelling public comment.

The below post was updated Feb 16, 2017

On Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 10am in Sacramento, there will be a Joint Legislative Hearing on video visitation in county jails. It will be hosted by the Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittees on Public Safety.

JOINT HEARING
PUBLIC SAFETY AND BUDGET AND FISCAL REVIEW

CA Senate Subcommittee No. 5 on Corrections, Public Safety and the Judiciary and CA Assembly Subcommittee No. 5 on Public Safety

• Hearing Subject: Looking Through the Screen: The Effects of Video Visitation on County Jail Inmates and their Families

• 10:00 a.m. — John L. Burton Hearing Room (Rm 4203), CA State Capitol, Sacramento 95814

• Chairs: Senator Nancy Skinner and Assembly Member Shirley Weber

• FINAL AGENDA (pdf) for the Hearing

Help protect in-person visitation! We believe that there will be an opportunity for public comment. Please consider speaking or providing a written statement if you have experience with in-person or video visitation.

We are in a period when many counties are building or seeking to build new jails.  Some counties are building jails without facilities for in-person visiting.  Instead, they are setting up video-visitation as the only visiting method.  There are many problems with video visitation. In-person visitation is crucial to the well-being of incarcerated people and their families.

Last year, the legislature passed SB 1157 (introduced by Senator Holly Mitchell), to require in-person visiting in county jails, but unfortunately Gov. Brown vetoed the bill. SB 1157 would have allowed counties to install and use video visitation as a supplemental option, but would have protected in-person jail visits from being eliminated and sacrificed to the video visitation industry.

It is important to protect in-person visits for incarcerated people and their loved ones in California jails. We are glad that the CA legislature remains concerned about this issue.

• Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity members will be carpooling to Sacramento on Feb 21st.  Contact: 510.426.5322

• Also, Bernadette Rabuy of the Prison Policy Initiative invites you to contact her if you would like to provide public comment at the hearing  brabuy@prisonpolicy.org.

Below is an extensive list of articles and reports about video visitation from the Prison Policy Institute.

Screening Out Family Time:
The for-profit video visitation industry in prisons and jails
by Bernadette Rabuy and Peter Wagner
January 2015

Report (Print/PDF version)

Executive Summary
Exhibits
Press Release

Prison Policy Institute collaboration with NYC comedians to challenge the video visitation industry’s offensive claim that video visitation is “just like Skype” with 4 short videos:
https://youtu.be/36kBFafyx-4?list=PLGg11-cQgYcgglxkdJLXAhtBkY7FX5k3Y

Press coverage and editorial support

• Loss of in-person visits at jail raises concerns, by Daniel J. Gross, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, January 27, 2017
• Editorial: Videoconferencing is no replacement for in-person visits for jail inmates, Bangor Daily News, January 13, 2017
• Prison visits crucial, but miles and money separate families, The Times-Picayune, January 10, 2017
• In Maine county jails, video visits deny vital connection between inmates and their families, by Joelle Bouchard, Bangor Daily News, January 9, 2017
• Durham County jail moving to video visitation for inmates, by Virginia Bridges, The News & Observer, January 6, 2017
• With fate of program uncertain, BCSO defends video visitations (Bexar County, Texas), KSAT, December 22, 2016
• In One N.H. Jail, Inmate Visits Don’t Look How You Might Think They Look, by Natasha Haverty, NHPR, December 5, 2016
• Worlds Apart, by Sarah Beller, Real Life, November 14, 2016
• A Virtual Visit to a Relative in Jail, by Maya Schenwar, New York Times, September 29, 2016
• Not So Liberal: California Denies Prisoners Visitation Rights, Telesur, September 27, 2016
• California May Deny Families Right to See Locked-Up Loved Ones, Telesur, September 25, 2016
• California wants to stop county jails from banning visitors, by Hanna Kozlowska, Quartz, September 19, 2016
• TV visitation would allow more visits with inmates, by Guiseppe Ricapito, The Union Democrat, September 5, 2016
• Preserving The Right To In-Person Visitation, by Yi Chen, The Women’s Foundation of California, September 2, 2016
• Inmates in county jails can’t be denied visits from family, under bill now on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown, by John Myers, Los Angeles Time, August 29, 2016
• No Way to Call Home: Incarcerated Deaf People Are Locked in a Prison Inside a Prison, by Mike Ludwig, Truthout, August 22, 2016
• Banning real jail visits punishes inmates’ families, by Lynn Wu, The Sacramento Bee, August 15, 2016
• Sangamon County Jail to allow more inmate visits, but over video screens, by Bernard Schoenburg, The State Journal-Register, June 4, 2016
• Jail Video Visitation Falls Short on Usage, Revenue Expectations, by Selah Maya Zighelboim, Texas Observer, June 1, 2016
• Inside The Fight To Protect Face-To-Face Visitation For Prisoners, by Kit O’Connell, The Establishment, May 24, 2016
• Punishing Families: How the Prison Communication Industry Weakens Family Ties, by Emily Pollom, Truthout, May 11, 2016
• Video Calls Are Replacing In-Person Visits at Some Prisons, by Danny Lewis, Smithsonian.com, May 9, 2016
• Raphael Sperry: San Mateo’s new jail has no place to visit inmates, by Raphael Sperry, The Mercury News, May 6, 2016
• The End of Prison Visitation, by Jack Smith IV, Mic, May 5, 2016
• Prison ‘Skype’ Replaces Visitation, by Eric Ethington, Salt Lake City Weekly, April 27, 2016
• Sheriff to discontinue video visitation at jail, by Vershal Hogan, The Natchez Democrat, April 22, 2016
• Prison visits helped prepare me for life after release. Why are they under threat?, by Chandra Bozelko, The Guardian, April 20, 2016
• Video visiting, though costly, now available at SLO County Jail, by Matt Fountain, The Tribune, April 2, 2016
• How Prison Phone Calls Became A Tax On The Poor, by Eric Markowtiz, International Business Times, March 30, 2016
• As one jail’s video visitation technology breaks, a larger battle continues, by Max Lewontin, The Christian Science Monitor, March 16, 2016
• Maine State Prison Ending Most Night Visitation, Requiring Visitors to Call Ahead, by Susan Sharon, MPBN News, February 9, 2016
• Editorial: Video prison visits — done right, by YDR Editorial Board, York Daily Record, January 29, 2016
• FCC Lowers Cost of Inmate Calls, by Chase Hoffberger, The Austin Chronicle, October 30, 2015
• F.C.C. Makes Telephone Calls for Inmates Cheaper, by The Editorial Board, The New York Times, October 26, 2015
• Minnesota prisons add video visitation, by Beatrice Dupuy, Star Tribune, October 19, 2015
• VICTORY! In-person visits will return to Travis County Jail, Grassroots Leadership, September 29, 2015
• Why jails’ embrace of video visiting technology can harm inmates, families, by Max Lewontin, The Christian Science Monitor, September 25, 2015
• Ruling on county’s video-based jail visits questioned, by Sean Collins Walsh, Austin American-Statesman, September 21, 2015
• Prison email improves communications for Vermont inmates, Times Argus, September 20, 2015
• New law forces two counties — Wood and Hays — to restart in-person jail visits, by Tom Benning, The Dallas Morning News, September 9, 2015
• Legislation protecting in-person county jail visits goes into effect, Grassroots Leadership, September 1, 2015
• Fight continues over whether to preserve in-person jail visits, by Tom Benning, Dallas Morning News, August 30, 2015
• Skype for jails?, by Katie Vane, The Sheet, August 28, 2015
• Private companies profit from pay-to-play phone calls in US prisons, Lindsay France, RT, August 13, 2015
• Westmoreland County libraries help inmates keep in touch with loved ones, by Renatta Signorini, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 11, 2015
• Screen to Screen: Bexar County Jail, by Mark Reagan, San Antonio Current, July 28, 2015
• Inside the Shadowy Business of Prison Phone Calls, by Eric Markowitz, International Business Times, July 2, 2015
• D.C. Jail is bringing back intimacy – in a way, by Abigail Hauslohner, The Washington Post, June 24, 2015
• Bernadette Rabuy on Marketplace Tech, Jailbreak series, June 23, 2015
• County Jail Visitation Bill Filed Without Signature, Becomes Law, Grassroots Leadership, June 18, 2015
• Video jail visits / Technology has advantages, but keep the in-person option, by Press of Atlantic City Editorial Board, Press of Atlantic City, June 4, 2015
• Texas lawmakers approve in-person visits for jail inmates, KTXS and The Associated Press, May 25, 2015
• Use of Video Visits for Inmates Grows, Along With Concerns, by Juan A. Lozano of The Associated Press, The Detroit News, May 25, 2015
• Lawmakers Could Slow Spread of Video-Only Jail Visitations, by Kelsey Jukam, Texas Observer, May 13, 2015
• Texas House Passes County Jail Visitation Bill, Grassroots Leadership, May 11, 2015
• Prison communications company Securus will no longer require jails to ban in-person visits, by Hanna Kozlowska, Quartz, May 9, 2015
• Prison-Tech Giant Securus Will No Longer Require Jails To Remove In-Person Visits, by Eric Markowitz, International Business Times, May 6, 2015
• Why Prisons Should Have Video Visitation, by Kevin A. Wright, Slate, May 6, 2015
• Are video visits a smart innovation for jails — or yet another way to exploit families?, by Hanna Kozlowska, Quartz, April 30, 2015
• Phone rates for prison inmates exploitative, counterproductive, Editorial Board, The Boston Globe, April 28, 2015
• Expensive ‘Prison Skype’ Is Squeezing Out In-Person Visitation, by Matt Stroud and Joshua Brustein, Bloomberg Businessweek, April 27, 2015
• Organizations Fight the For-Profit Video Visitation Industry, The Real News Network, April 19, 2015
• Arkansas Jumps on the Prison Video Visitation Bandwagon, by Rebecca McCray, TakePart, April 14, 2015
• The For-Profit Video Visitation Industry Quietly Sweeps the Nation’s Prisons and Jails, The Real News Network, April 13, 2015
• Video Chats Are Replacing In-Person Jail Visits, While One Tech Company Profits, by Eric Markowitz, International Business Times, April 8, 2015
• ‘Video visitation’ expanding in Arkansas jails, by David Koon, Arkansas Times, April 2, 2015
• Inmates’ video chats might be too costly, by Dean Narciso, The Columbus Dispatch, March 23, 2015
• Video visitation threatens to put more distance between inmates and family, by Tom Bartlett, Al Jazeera America, March 9, 2015
• Prisons Increase Profits by Replacing In-Person Family Visits with Video Screens, by Steve Straehley, AllGov, March 2, 2015
• As Jail Visits Go High-Tech, Isolation Grows, by Lisa Riordan Seville, NBC News, February 27, 2015
• Bernadette Rabuy on #FreeSpeechZone with Alyona Mink, HuffPost Live, February 25, 2015
• Why Prison Video Visitation Isn’t “Just Like Skype“, by Alan Prendergast, Denver Westword, February 25, 2015
• Inmates May Soon be Able to Video Chat With Friends and Family From Cook County Jail, by Jim Dallke, ChicagoInno, February 24, 2015
• Video chats replace in-person visits in US jails and prisons, by Tim Gaynor, Al Jazeera America, February 24, 2015
• Want to visit an inmate? Increasingly, you’ll have to log on, by Hamed Aleaziz, San Francisco Chronicle, February 22, 2015
• Jail Video Visits Are No Substitute for the Real Thing, by Maya Schenwar, Truthout, February 18, 2015
• Is Video Visitation Sufficient For Inmates and Families?, Bernadette Rabuy on OPB’s Think Out Loud, February 5, 2015
• Can technology and prisons get along?, by Kevin Roose and Pendarvis Harshaw, Fusion, February 5, 2015
• Video visits at Deschutes County jail, by Claire Withycombe, The Bulletin, February 4, 2015
• Mult. Co. Sheriff to preserve in-person visitations, by Street Roots Staff, Street Roots, January 27, 2015
• Sheriff Dan Staton Won’t Do Away With Face-To-Face Inmate Visits, After All, by Dirk Vanderhart, Portland Mercury, January 27, 2015
• Prison Video Visitation Biz Cashing In on Misery, Report Claims, by Alen Prendergast, Denver Westword, January 27, 2015
• Jails Introduce Glitchy, Pricey Video Visitation Systems – and Get Families to Use Them By Banning In-Person Visits, by Jesse Walker, Reason, January 26, 2015
• Video Chats Replace Face To Face Visits In Oregon’s Largest County Jail System, by Amelia Templeton, OPB, January 25, 2015
• Conditions behind bars: Screening visitors, by Miranda Johnson, The Economist, January 24, 2015
• County should preserve in-person visitation, by Street Roots editorial board, Street Roots, January 23, 2015
• Report raises concern over MCSO’s inmate video-visitation system, by Mark Remillard, KTAR, January 23, 2015
• Critics slam Sheriff Joe’s video visitation system, by C1 Staff, Corrections One, January 22, 2015
• Jail Video-Visitation Systems, Like Those in Maricopa County, Blasted in Report, by Matthew Hendley, Phoenix New Times, January 21, 2015
• Technical difficulty: Sheriff Staton’s move to replace in-person visits at Multnomah County jails with video visiting raises questions, by Emily Green, Street Roots, January 21, 2015
• Captive consumers: Corporations reap big profits on inmate finances, video visitations in Multnomah County, by Emily Green, Street Roots, January 6, 2015
• A new way to visit inmates at Collier jails: video conferencing, by Jessica Lipscomb, Naples Daily News, December 11, 2014
• Captive Audience: Counties and Private Businesses Cash in on Video Visits at Jails, by Amy Silverstein, Dallas Observer, November 26, 2014
• In-person visitation should be an option at Travis, Bastrop jails, by Editorial Board, Austin American-Statesman, November 13, 2014
• Editorial: A price too high for calls from jail, by Editorial Board, The Dallas Morning News, November 10, 2014
• Tarrant County sheriff speaks to for-profit companies taking advantage of inmates, families, by Dee Anderson, Star Telegram, September 27, 2014
• Orange Is the New Green: Is Knox County’s New Video-Only Visitation Policy for Inmates Really About Safety — or Is it About Money?, by Cari Wade Gervin, Metro Pulse (Knoxville, Tenn.), July 2, 2014
• Video Visitation Could Exploit Prisoners, or Help Families, by Peter Wagner, “Room for Debate” The New York Times, February 24, 2014
• Unfair Phone Charges for Inmates, The New York Times editorial, January 6, 2014
• D.C. prisoners deserve better than flawed video-only visitation policy, by Editorial Board, The Washington Post, August 12, 2013

Blog posts

• In-person visits return to jails in Travis County, Texas!, by Alison Walsh, April 19, 2016
• Travis County, Texas: A Case Study on Video Visitation, by Emily Widra, April 18, 2016
• Seeing eye to eye: understanding the limits of video visitation, by Emily Widra, April 11, 2016
• In-person family visits will return to Austin, Texas, by Bernadette Rabuy, September 30, 2015
• Securus ends its ban on in-person visits, shifts responsibility to sheriffs, by Bernadette Rabuy, May 6, 2015
• Arkansas DOC to implement Securus video visits, by Bernadette Rabuy, April 15, 2015
• New videos: Video visitation is not “just like Skype”, by Bernadette Rabuy, February 18, 2015
• Multnomah County Sheriff reverses ban on in-person visits in Portland jails, by Bernadette Rabuy, January 29, 2015
• Dallas County approves video visitation contract, by Peter Wagner, November 11, 2014
• Dallas County rejects Securus video visitation contract!, by Peter Wagner, September 9, 2014

See also, the Prison Policy Initiatiive:

Our page about bringing fairness to the prison and jail telephone industry and other reports about video visitation

• A New Role for Technology? Implementing Video Visitation in Prison, Vera Institute of Justice, February 2016
• Video Visiting in Corrections: Benefits, Limitations, and Implementation Considerations, by The Osborne Association, National Institute of Corrections, December 2014
• Video Visitation: How Private Companies Push for Visits by Video and Families Pay the Price, by Jorge Renaud, Grassroots Leadership and Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, October 2014
• Prison Visitation: A Fifty State Survey, by Chesa Boudin, Trevor Stutz, and Aaron Littman, Prison Legal News, May 2013
• The Double Edged Sword of Prison Video Visitation: Claiming to Keep Families Together While Furthering the Aims of the Prison Industrial Complex, by Patrice A. Fulcher, Florida A&M University Law Review, April 2014
• Video Visitation a Growing Trend, but Concerns Remain, Prison Legal News, March 2014
• Prison Visitation Policies: A Fifty State Survey, by Chesa Boudin, Trevor Stutz, and Aaron Littman, Yale Law & Policy Review, February 17, 2014
• Some Jails Turning to Video Visitation Only, by Matthew Clarke, Prison Legal News, July 2013
• Video Visits for Children Whose Parents Are Incarcerated: In Whose Best Interest?, by Susan D. Phillips, Ph.D., The Sentencing Project, October 2012
• Prisoners and Families Connect with Video Visitation, for a Price, Prison Legal News, September 2012
• Prison Video Conferencing, by Patrick Doyle, Camille Fordy, and Aaron Haight, The University of Vermont James M. Jeffords Center’s Vermont Legislative Research Service, May 2011