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This year sees a big change in the Pinellas County Jail that is reducing contraband, lowering the number of violent incidents, and overall making the jail safer for both deputies and inmates. It all starts with a tablet.
Now, every inmate booked into the jail is assigned a tablet and headphones. Protected by a sturdy case, inmates can use it to receive mail, have video visitations, access the law library, and more.
Before the tablets, visitations were in designated time slots, with a limited number of inmates allowed per slot. Once, visitors had to physically go to the Visitation Center and sit in front of a monitor. More recently they introduced remote visitation. But the number of visits was always limited because inmates had to use a visitation station within the jail. Now that inmates can conduct visits on their tablets, there is virtually no limit to the number of visits they can have with family and friends.
The number of visitations quickly tripled. “Now we’re having about 30,000 visits a month, which is about what we would have done in three months with the old system,” said Melissa Tolan, the Inmate Communications Unit (ICU) Supervisor. Visits can be impromptu or scheduled up to a week in advance. “Now, inmates have the option of visitation on demand. If they are already connected with someone, they can send them a message, and the visitor has three minutes to pick up.”
All of the visits are recorded, and can also be reviewed in real time. However, they don’t normally listen in unless they have reason to be suspicious. The only things that aren’t monitored and recorded are privileged visits with approved professionals, such as lawyers.
Incoming mail used to put the jail at risk for introduced contraband. People would infuse paper with liquid forms of drugs, and mail them to inmates. Once in the jail, a single piece of drug-soaked paper could be torn into small pieces and consumed or smoked by the inmate, or sold to other inmates. Although jail staff were very good at screening the mail and identifying contraband, it put the facility at constant risk. Now, thanks to the tablets, almost no physical mail goes into the jail. Instead, it gets sent to a separate facility and scanned, so the inmates can open the mail on their tablet. Only legal mail enters the jail. It is opened and scanned in the inmate’s presence, all on camera, and then sent directly to the inmate’s tablet while the original is shredded.
“This whole thing has been a game-changer for us,” said Lieutenant Bronson Taylor. “It has reduced contraband in the facility, and it reduces movement in the facility – both of which make the whole jail safer.” Every time they move an inmate it requires personnel, and introduces an opportunity for conflict or for passing contraband. But now, inmates don’t have to be escorted to visitation stations. Eventually, programs like AA or NA could be run through the tablets instead of in person.
“They have access to religious services and a variety of things to keep them busy,” said Corporal Hardwick. Keeping inmates occupied tends to reduce problematic incidents in the jail, and minimizes conflicts. One of the main causes of conflict used to be when one inmate hogged the phone. Now, there aren’t any traditional phones except at Intake Processing. “There’s no longer a line to use the phones, everyone has equal access. They make all calls on their tablet.”
The tablets also give inmates more access to staff. “If an inmate has an issue they want to address privately they can do it through the tablet,” Corporal Hardwick said. “Before, everyone would see them approach a deputy. Now inmates can report things discreetly, and we have a paper trail.”
There aren’t any games or movies on the tablets. They aren’t about entertainment, but about keeping inmates productively occupied and allowing them to maintain connections with the outside world – both of which reduce problems in the jail and ease their transition back to the outside world after release.
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