Mass incarceration is a term most Americans have become familiar with thanks in part to books like The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander and documentaries like 13th by Ava DuVernay. These resources helped identify and spotlight the savage inequalities of the prison industrial complex and criminal justice system. While the prison population is still grossly unfair, with African-Americans being incarcerated in state prisons at a rate of at least five times compared to Whites. In States such as New Jersey, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, that rate has doubled at 10 times.
Small solace can be taken with the slight decrease of the federal prison population under the presidency of Barack Obama. Under President Obama the overall reduction rate exceeded 5%, which prior to Obama had increased under every president since 1981.What has not changed is how profitable incarceration is in America. Video visitation has now been introduced under the guise of cutting cost to prisons at the expense of those incarcerated and their families. Jails across the country are now implementing video visitation in place of face to face visitation. Justifications of efficiency, safety and cost effectiveness are being used to rationalize the psychological stress that is imposed on inmates and their families and could increase violence among inmates.
As of October 10th, Jefferson Parish Correction Center in Gretna, Louisiana, will no longer allow in-person visits. Instead video visitation will be the only option. Sheriff Joseph Lopinto of Jefferson Parish believes that eliminating in-person visits will end the ability of visitors to give contraband to inmates. Also, noting that fewer staff would be needed to monitor video feed versus in person visits. While free video visitation will be available once a week at the facilities new visitation center located at 1425 Walkertown Way in Marrero, inmates will also be allowed to arrange three additional remote visits at a cost of $13 for 20 minutes. Such a high cost could discourage loved ones from communicating with their families.
In San Antonio, Texas, in-person visits at Bexar County Jail will be fully eliminated by mid-November. Video visits will take place at the county’s new video visitation facility located a block south of the jail. In July 2015, Bexar County Commissioners contracted ICSolutions to install video-visitation technology at a cost of $6 million. The company is the jail’s current phone service provider. The proposed annual cost of operating the program is $760,000. In addition to Bexar county; Dallas, Travis and Lubbock counties have also joined the ranks of video visitation.
This new wave of technology is sweeping across the jails and prison of America. While there are those that believe these are the expected inconveniences one may experience when choosing to break the law, it should be noted that facilities are full of citizens that have not been convicted of a crime, only accused. Unable to make bail they often languish for months and even years awaiting trial. In the meantime, they are subjected to the same indignities of those that have been convicted. This affects the guilty and the innocent. Judgement should not replace our humanity.