The DeKalb County Jail will soon be upgrading its video inmate visitation system to a new web-based program that will allow families to visit with a prisoner from any location using a PC connected to the Internet.
The county commission Monday night approved Sheriff Patrick Ray’s request to transition to the new inmate Video Visitation solution by Securus Technologies. In the upgrade, some $80,000 in new equipment will be installed at no additional costs but the county will have to forfeit all its commissions from surcharges collected on inmate phone calls for the duration of the five year term of the agreement.
Families currently are permitted to schedule weekly in-house video visits with their relatives incarcerated at the jail. The visits are arranged through the sheriff’s department. Under the new system, all weekly video visitation, either on-line or in-house at the jail will be scheduled by Securus Technologies, the system provider.
The web-based method allows remote visitors, such as friends and family, and attorneys to communicate with inmates from outside the facility via a broad band Internet connection. According to Sheriff Ray, the sheriff’s department will still have the ability to monitor and record all video communication between families and inmates. The only exception will be communication between inmates and lawyers, due to attorney-client privilege.
As a means of recouping costs of lost commissions from inmate phone service with the new system, Sheriff Ray plans to cut costs in his food service budget by serving inmates Kool-Aid instead of milk with their meals, twice a day. “Last year we collected $8,730 off inmate phone service from our provider Securus. I’ve tried to find a way to save some money. In our food budget we’ve been buying milk three times a day for our inmates A carton or milk costs 28 cents. I’ve found a vendor that does Kool Aid packs. We can serve that two times a day which will be for lunch and supper at nine cents a pack. On ninety five inmates that will save us about $36.10 a day or a little over $13,000 in a year’s time. That will pay for the commissions we lose from Securus while still getting our video visitation upgraded,” said Sheriff Ray to the county commission.