INSTITUTE OF .JUSTICE

A New Role for Technology?
Implementing Video Visitation in Prison
FEBRUARY 2016

Leon Digard • Margaret diZerega • Allon Yaroni • Joshua Rinaldi

Bureau chiefs, program coordinators, staff from DOC budget departments, and research and
planning officers completed the survey.
The survey tool for incarcerated people also collected contact information for respondents’
loved ones in the community. Vera researchers will contact a sample of this group for phone
interviews regarding their experiences of video visitation and report the results at a later date.
At the time of survey, women accounted for 7.6 percent of the population in WADOC’s
custody. Sampling at this same rate would have included too few female participants for
their experiences to be represented meaningfully. The researchers therefore intentionally
oversampled incarcerated women, who comprised 26 percent of the sample. The survey
sample slightly under-represents incarcerated Hispanic and Latino people at 9.8 percent,
compared to the state DOC's reported figure of 12.7 percent. However, the sample was
broadly representative of the WADOC incarcerated population for the same year in terms of
race and age. All demographic information is taken from the Washington State Department of
Corrections Fact Card, December 31, 2014.

Figure 1: Prevalence of video visitation by state DOCs

Unreported

No intention

Undecided

Intend to implement

Securing/Implementing

Low availability

Medium availability

High availability

* Alaska uses video visitation only for state prisoners held by the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Tennessee uses video visitation only for visits with people held in maximum security housing units.

Incarcerated people
con r ed t at
distance was a
substantial barrier
to face-to-face
contact.

or so e ideo
isitation is t e onl
wa t e can see
t eir fa il .

e i ple entation
of ideo isitation
ad irtuall no
i pact on t e states
budget because
WADOC used a fullser ice pro ider.

Note: Alaska and Ohio did not provide information on the fees.

Video Visiting in Corrections: Benefits, Limitations, and Implementation Considerations

In its internal
re iew WADOC
found inappropriate
be a ior in fewer
t an percent of t e
ideo isits.

VIDEO VISIT RATE PER 1000 PRISO N ERS

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

FEB

2013

APR

JUN

AUG

OCT

DEC

FEB

APR

JUN

2014

AUG

OCT

DEC

2014

DOCs need to
consider w et er
adding co
issions
onto t e price
of a ideo isit
will reinforce or
under ine t eir
goal of keeping
fa ilies connected.

Criminal Justice and
Behavior
The Prison Journal

Criminal Justice Policy Review

The Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

The American Psychologist

Journal of
Contemporary Criminal Justice
Video Visiting in Corrections:
Benefits, Limitations, and Implementation Considerations
Screening Out Family Time: The for-profit video
visitation industry in prisons and jails

Star Tribune

American Community Survey Reports

Mobile Technology Fact Sheet
Census of State
and Federal Correctional Facilities

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A New Role for
Technology? Implement ing Video Visitat ion in Prison.