Videoconferencing:
A Win-Win for Corrections
The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world hard and fast. Seemingly overnight, businesses and schools across the country were shut down, social-distancing guidelines were established, and many people started working from home. Every industry around the world was impacted by the pandemic, and the corrections industry was no exception. To protect inmates and staff, facilities had to go into total lockdown, suspend in-person visitations, and limit inmates’ movement throughout the facility.
What made this already isolating experience even more difficult was the limited ability of the inmates to communicate with their loved ones. With in-person visits on hold, inmates were left with phone calls and letter writing to maintain communication. But limited phone availability at most facilities meant that inmates had very minimal or no contact with family and friends for extended periods of time. On top of that, in-person court hearings came to a halt and non-emergent medical consultations had to be postponed.
But was eliminating these visits entirely the only option? At the time, it might have felt that way, and the immediate and serious nature of the pandemic didn’t help the situation. But one solution could have kept inmates connected to family, friends, doctors, and lawyers, even during a global pandemic. That solution is videoconferencing.
Inside the video conferencing booth
Video Conferencing Booth
Serving an Entire Population To be fair, many correctional facilities across the country either had existing videoconferencing solutions in place prior to COVID or did their best to quickly implement these services in the midst of the pandemic. But what we unfortunately found was that most facilities didn’t have the capacity to adequately serve the entire population of inmates. The standard videoconferencing solution involved correctional systems purchasing a limited number of tablets that inmates could check out and use to video chat with their family in the facility’s designated common area.
Scheduling issues were a common problem that caused time constraints for the calls, which made it even more difficult to correlate with the availability of the inmates’ family members on the other end. Additionally, with no designated area for videoconferencing within the facility, inmates were unable to have private or privileged conversations with their legal team or conduct telehealth appointments. So, while correctional systems tried to implement videoconferencing, there were still severe limitations that hindered the success of the program.
These problems could have been avoided with the placement of a designated area within the facility for videoconferencing. By creating a block of secure booths with mounted screens and videoconferencing software, correctional jurisdictions can create better opportunities for videoconferencing for offenders. The private booth makes calls to medical professionals and legal teams possible, and the security of the booth makes it easier for correctional officers to oversee the offenders and still maintain safety.
Even when the world isn’t dealing with the repercussions of a global pandemic, videoconferencing can be extremely beneficial to offenders and correctional jurisdictions. Most facilities will, at some point, deal with the fallout of limited visitation capacity, an issue that restricts the number of in-person visits that can be scheduled each day. Whether a facility offers no-barrier visits, no-contact visits, or anything in between, everyone has their own process and there are almost always limitations.
Outside the pandemic, videoconferencing can also help inmates who don’t have family or friends nearby to visit frequently. We know that many correctional facilities are often forced to implement interstate compacts and move inmates to out-of-state facilities due to capacity limitations. Videoconferencing can help to keep those inmates connected to family who may not be able to travel to the facility for an in-person visit.
Beyond Family Visits Videoconferencing isn’t just for family visits. It can improve access to healthcare for inmates by providing the opportunity for telehealth appointments. These can range from basic preventive checkups to telemental health appointments, specialty provider visits, telepsychiatry appointments, and more. Through telemedicine, correctional systems are no longer limited by the providers who are willing and able to visit on-site for patient visits.
Additionally, the number of off-premise outcounts will be reduced, since many off-site medical appointments can be replaced with telehealth appointments. This saves time and money for the correctional facility and increases security for the facility, the medical provider, and the surrounding community.
Another major benefit of videoconferencing over standard telephone calls is the addition of foreign language translations and sign language interpretation. Translations can be extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to have over the phone, while still maintaining the level of privacy required for telehealth appointments and virtual lawyer meetings. And when you are no longer limited by distance, you have more options for finding medical providers, specialists, and lawyers who can provide the necessary language services required.
Imagine the benefit of having a healthcare provider who speaks your language over a videocall or having a sign language interpreter on the screen to assist the conversation, which is required by the American Disabilities Act. It’s a huge benefit for inmates. And in some cases, it’s required by law.
Virtual Hearings and Attorney-Client Privilege During the pandemic, in-person legal hearings were suspended and eventually replaced with virtual hearings. This was a great solution as long as correctional systems had the infrastructure in place required for this type of hearing.
Along the same lines, lawyers and legal teams still needed the opportunity to meet and discuss cases with their clients. Many lawyers prefer to meet face-to-face, but when that isn’t possible—because of a global pandemic, scheduling conflicts, or distance—teleconferencing is an excellent replacement. Facilities still need to provide a private space for these calls due to attorney-client privilege, so a designated block of videoconferencing booths would be a great solution.
Videoconferencing has been implemented in many correctional facilities across the country, but with severe restrictions. Privacy, security, and capacity are just a few of the major issues that we’ve seen, but those can be avoided, or at least limited, with a designated area of videoconferencing booths.
Not only is video-conferencing beneficial for inmates, but it can also help correctional jurisdictions reduce transport costs and increase security by reducing the number of inmates leaving the facility. Correctional systems would be remiss to wait for the next global crisis—health or otherwise—to establish their videoconferencing process. It’s not a matter of if jails should implement videoconferencing, it’s a matter of when.
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Joe Norwood is a retired Federal Bureau of Prisons Regional Director and former Kansas Secretary of Corrections. This article was written in partnership with Tate®, the creator of the Secure Video Visitation Booth.