CRESTVIEW — North Okaloosa residents who want to visit loved ones in the Okaloosa County Jail won't have to set foot in the facility.
Instead of communicating through a telephone receiver and glass partition, the Crestview jail now allows inmates to communicate with friends and family using a computer with Internet access and a web camera.
Since July, visitors have been able to speak face-to-face with inmates using the Securus Technologies Video Visitation system. For a fee, residents could log virtual visits from home, or for free at the East James Lee Boulevard jail.
Now, Crestview Public Library staffers are offering a third option: visit, for a fee to Securus, at the library.
The library now allows residents with no internet access or web camera to use the video visitation service from an enclosed webcam reservation tutor room, giving visitors some privacy from the rest of the library.
Library Director Jean Lewis said this is just another service the library provides to the community.
“The library meets the needs of all our customers and we are happy to provide this service for them,” she said.
Okaloosa County Jail's conversion from personal to virtual visits has resulted in an increase in on-site visits, according to Chief Correctional Officer Paul Lawson.
“We average about 50 paid, off-site (remote) visits per week and about 250 on-site visits per week,” he said in an email. “Presently, the cost is $5 for a 20-minute visit. Inmates can have up (to) six 20-minute visits per week.”
“We no longer have to move the inmate from housing to the visitation area; they visit from their housing area,” Lawson said.
Previously, the correctional staff had a set schedule, based on where the inmate was housed within the facility, he said.
ONLINE
See www.securustech.net/videovisitation to learn more about virtual visitation with Okaloosa County Jail inmates
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Matthew Brown, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Library now offers virtual visitation with inmates