If you have a loved one in jail, you now may see him or her on the computer from the comfort of home.
The Alachua County jail has purchased technology from Renovo Software that allows people to visit inmates through at-home Internet video visits, similar to video chatting, said Lt. Todd Kelly, with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office.
Visitors may access the online video visits, which started Dec. 16, by logging onto http://jailvisitation.alachuasheriff.org.
Originally, the jail purchased Renovo Software in 2009 for video stations in the jail lobby that allowed visitors to look into a monitor and talk with the inmate they were visiting.
People still will be allowed to visit an inmate face to face or through the video stations at the lobby for free, Kelly said.
Each online visit costs 40 cents per minute with a minimum of $8 per session, which is the cost of a 20-minute visit, Kelly said.
The software, which cost approximately $450,000, was paid for through the Alachua County general fund and the inmate welfare fund, which is funded through commissary purchases by the inmates, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Even though the visits are online, officials still can monitor the behavior of the inmates and visitors. If a person is doing something inappropriate through the webcam, officials will end the visit, Kelly said.
Thirty pods are now equipped to handle online visitation with video kiosks inside inmate housing. The Sheriff’s Office is hopeful the online visits will lower the strain on the jail, where visitors schedule about 2,400 visits every month, Kelly said.
The jail also hopes the online visits will reduce the amount of contraband inmates sometimes acquire through face-to-face visits, Kelly said. He said the online video visitations also should help with inmate behavior.
“It makes it easier for them and lowers their stress and anxiety,” Kelly said. “Giving them more access to the outside world helps with managing them.”
Alachua County is the first one of Renovo’s 12 customers in Florida to have this software, Renovo Software spokesman Drew Barrette said. The company has more than 100 customers nationwide, he said.
Travis County Jail in Austin, Texas, installed a similar online visits software in May through the company Securus Technologies. However, Travis County officials have ended the face-to-face inmate visits that were previously available to the public, Travis County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Roger Wade said.
“The inmates stay in their units during the online visitation,” he said. “It’s safer for everybody involved, more secure and helps free staff.”
Wade said there have been no complaints from inmates because they can use the online visits more often than the previous face-to-face visits.
The Meherrin River Regional Jail in Alberta, Va., installed the Renovo Software for online video visits in November, Information Technology Director Guy Short said. One of the first online visitors to the jail was from Florida, he said.
“It’s a way that inmates can have more visits and at the same time generate a bit of money for the jail,” he said.
Art Forgey, with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, said that at this point, face-to-face visits and free video visitations in the jail lobby will remain available at the Alachua County jail. ..Source.. by CONUS TOC
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