More jails replace in-person visits with awful video chat products

Ryan Rickert, jail administrator at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center, acknowledged to The Commercial Dispatch that inmates were disappointed they wouldn’t get to see family members anymore. Video calls cost 40¢ per minute in Newton County, 50¢ per minute in Lowndes County, and $10 per call in Allen County. The companies behind the video calling products typically install equipment inside jails at no cost to taxpayers, charge high fees to family members, and then pay a large share of those fees back to the jail.

Source: arstechnica.com