Jail Ready To Debut Visitation By Video
The Orange County Jail is about to begin conducting inmate visits via video using a $4.8 million complex that connects visitors through 76 video-equipped cubicles with inmates in the jail using matching cubicles.
Cubicles also are portable in order to reach inmates in maximum security and mental wards while avoiding the security risks of transporting them.
Florida Justice Institute of Miami prisoner advocate Peter Siegel believes depriving inmates of physical exposure is “atrocious,” while Orange County Jail spokesperson Sgt. Dana Edmondson says the video facility will help reduce waiting time and the likelihood that some visitors will be turned away due to long visitor lines, the jail’s two most common complaints.
The jail processes almost 55,000 inmates per year and handles between 65 and 456 daily visits. The video center’s daily visit capacity is around 1,000 per day.
Jail facilities currently using similar video systems report the near elimination of weapons and drug smuggling through inmate visits, says Edmondson.
In 1993, female visitors smuggled a handgun and a sledgehammer into the Orange County visitation area.
The jail complex is also increasing maximum visiting sessions from one-hour sessions twice per week, to 45-minute sessions three times per week.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Orlando Sentinel (01/05/03) P. B1; Bloodsworth, Doris .
