NORTHAMPTON , Mass., March 9 (UPI) -- Face-to-face prison visitations, regarded as a factor in keeping inmates from returning to prison, are being replaced by video interviews.
Jails and prisons in 43 of the United States have recently reduced or ended traditional visitation procedures, typically involving an inmate and a visitor speaking by telephone while seeing each other through a clear but impenetrable window. The new "video visitation systems" involve cameras and monitors, and no interaction between participants.
Vendors of the systems, like the Dallas-based Securus Technologies, advertise their products as a way to "save time and money visiting your incarcerated friends and family from the comfort of your home office," but a contract to install the system in a prison generally demands that the traditional, face-to-face method of visitation is eliminated.
A recent study by the nonprofit activist organization Prison Policy Initiative, based in Northampton, Mass., notes considerable research that indicates visits lead to fewer returns to prison by inmates once they return to society. Critics say the new model, essentially a closed-circuit version of the computer-to-computer chat service Skype, replaces in-the-flesh visit with an online interview.
"It's not something you can quantify," said Lauren Jonson, a former inmate and now a prison reform activist. "Eye contact is a huge deal. It's blowing them kisses and putting your hand to the glass. The kids get lost with the video terminals. It's just not the same experience. It's a disconnected feeling."
The Prison Policy Initiative report, written by Bernadette Rabuy and Peter Wagner, notes video visitation technology is often hampered by technical problems, and never approximates the eye contact and familiarity of a face-to-face visit.
Serving the United States' inmate population of over 2 million has become a lucrative business. Securus Technologies has annual revenues of over $300 million, and Corrections Corporation of America, which operates over 60 U.S. prisons, has revenues of over $1 billion. A Securus competitor, GTL, also offers video visitation but insists eliminating traditional visitation has never been a part of its contracts with jails.
Visitors voice the most dissatisfaction with the video arrangements.
Susan Gregory, whose husband spent six months in an Arizona jail camp, said "Even if it's through Plexiglas, at least you can have some kind of live interaction with your loved one. That would have made it better for me and him to maintain that human contact. Just because someone committed a crime doesn't stop the love you have with them."
