OGDEN -- Nothing like technology to calm things down a bit inside a jail.
What two years ago were twice-weekly visits of family and friends for Weber County Jail inmates, talking through plexiglass with a phone, is now up to eight visits a week or more with the latest evolution of video visitation technology.
In October the jail upgraded the video software to allow extra visits -- for a nominal fee.
When the video system first replaced the "barrier visits" in the visiting room late in 2009, the weekly inmate half-hour visits went from two to four, said Sheriff Terry Thompson. That capacity now is much expanded since October -- probably doubling again -- limited pretty much by how often an inmate's visitor can afford the $10 fee, he said.
The impact of the video systems has been obvious from the start -- no more escorting groups of up to 18 inmates at a time to the visiting room.
Prisoners from maximum security had to be escorted in shackles individually, under guard with two or more correctional officers.
"That was a severe safety and security issue, very labor intensive," Thompson said. "The potential for assaults and those kinds of things on my staff was tremendous."
"Just the noise alone from walking 18 inmates through the jail to visitation was bad enough," said Corrections Sgt. Dustin Anthon, one of the direct beneficiaries of video visitation. A steel and concrete jail has no buffers, he explained, with no carpet or upholstery to absorb sound.
"It's been mutually beneficial, for staff and inmates," Thompson said.
Now inmates can sit down to one of the 50 terminals spread throughout the jail housing units to take their video phone call.
That extra contact with loved ones, enhanced since October, has made for more manageable inmates, officials said.
"It makes them far less of a problem," Thompson said. "We absolutely have far less complaints from inmates on visitation issues ... and overall, I believe inmate discipline problems in general are down, although I don't have exact statistics on that.
"I feel their overall demeanor is better, and no question the video system contributes to that."
Family and friends can schedule and pay for the visits from their home PCs, then go to the jail to connect via 25 terminals available to the public to place their video calls.
Renovo Software, the Minnesota-based company that installed the video system and handles the billing, in a recent news release estimated that adding the fee system allows for "3,500 additional personal paid visits per week without adding to (the jail's) existing infrastructure." The jail holds up to 900 inmates at any given time.
Officials didn't have exact numbers available on the increased visitation since the fee system came online late in October.
Renovo keeps about a third of the $10 fee, the rest going to the jail. Renovo estimates the jail will earn between $9,000 and $18,000 a year from its take. The old barrier visitation room, with 18 small cubicles, or "slots" as they are called, is now reserved for special circumstances, or visits from inmates' lawyers.
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