David CookIt sounds so promising – video visitation for Hamilton County Jail inmates.
Not unlike Skype, prisoners and visitors could chat over Internet screens rather than face-to-face, with only shatterproof glass between them. Video monitors in the jail would link the incarcerated with family and friends on the outside who could reserve times to talk with inmates from laptops or phones anywhere.
No more long lines in the jail lobby. No more transporting dangerous inmates from one cell block, down the elevator, into the visitation room and back again.
It’s also a money-maker: Folks would pay 60 cents for each minute of video visitation, a rate that would generate an estimated $60,000 in the first year and double that in the second and third. (Anyone who comes to the jail could video-chat for free; the 60-cent rate is charged for visits from places outside the building).
Sounds good, doesn’t it?