Before April 27, visitors to the Santa Rosa County Jail gathered in a long, tight room with 17 telephones separated by about a yard to meet with an incarcerated relation on the other side of a plate of glass. Now, friends and family of inmates have an option to offer their loved ones a glimpse of home, according to Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Rich Aloy, with web-access visitation by HomeWAV.
The system allows family members with a computer, webcam, and a microphone to visit with their loved ones via the internet. Visitors also may do so with a smart phone. The service costs .50 cents a minute and must be paid through PayPal. According to the SRSO website, monitors are live from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. The system also offers a one-minute video message for inmates and families. Aloy added visiting from home saves on gas.
Visitation at the jail now occurs in the lobby at one of three monitor and phone stations. Inmates, Aloy said, have access to the same system without the need to be transported to the visitation room. Front lobby visitation is free to the public Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Any visits outside of this time cost 50 cents a minute.
Aloy said the pros to the new system vastly outweigh the cons. He said children and the elderly no longer have to be directly exposed to the jail. Family members will be able to share more of their home life. “It opens up a new world,” he said.
HomeWAV also increases safety, Aloy said. Web visitation he said reduces the chances of contraband coming into the jail and anything happening while bringing inmates to the visitation room. “Any time you’re transporting an inmate, you put deputies at risk.”
Aloy said the system also comes at zero cost to taxpayers. He said HomeWAV installed the system for free and receives a portion of the visitation charges. The rest of the money goes into the inmate welfare fund.
The only con to web visitation, Aloy could find, was the inability to be directly in front of an inmate. Those who don’t have a computer with a webcam, he said, still have lobby access.
Still, not everyone is happy with the new system. Linda Dion said she’s all but lost contact with her loved one at the jail. She said she didn’t like her “business out in front of everybody” waiting for their turn in the lobby.
Aloy said he had not heard of any negative calls to the jail about web visitation. However, the newness of the system he said allowed little time for feedback.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Modern age jail visitation