Video-Conferencing Use Growing In Prisons
Faced with the high costs of transporting and escorting sick inmates to the doctor, states are expanding their use of videoconferencing to provide health consultations to prisoners without resorting to costly — and sometimes dangerous — off-site trips. Report from Stateline.Org.
Illinois is considering joining at least 26 other states that use “telemedicine” to help sick prisoners get advice from doctors, according to Derek Schnapp, a spokesman with the state Department of Corrections. State prison officials recently met with their counterparts from Texas — which has been using telemedicine for years and is considered a national leader — to discuss whether it should be introduced in Illinois, Schnapp said …
Supporters say the technology saves money when few states have funds to spare; Arizona, for instance, saved $237,000 in 2008 by using telemedicine at nine correctional facilities, according to the state Department of Corrections … Cost savings can be especially significant when inmates are located in rural prisons that can be hundreds of miles away from specialists. A 2006 California legislative audit, meanwhile, noted that telemedicine also can save taxpayer money because it allows a larger pool of medical providers — not just those in the vicinity of a state prison — to compete for state contracts.
In Georgia, about 700 of the state prison system’s 1,000 monthly videoconference consultations between doctors and inmates are for psychiatric — not physical — problems, said Alan Adams, director of the Office of Health Services for the Georgia Department of Corrections. Adams said he is surprised at how popular “telepsychiatry” — as the practice is called — has proven among doctors and inmates alike. Prisoners who might otherwise have reservations about face-to-face psychiatric evaluations, Adams said, tend to speak more openly when they are connected to doctors through a video link. “It takes some of the personal nature of the contact away and allows the inmate to be more open and free,” Adams said, predicting that more states will use telepsychiatry …
Many states also are using videoconferencing to avoid transporting prisoners to court for arraignments and other initial appearances, according to Greg Hurley, an analyst with the National Center for State Courts, which researches court trends across the nation. Parole hearings also can be conducted by videoconference. Connecticut last year finished installing videoconferencing equipment at all 18 of its state correctional facilities and the state’s court system is studying ways to expand the practice. The state’s corrections commissioner, Theresa Lantz, noted that videoconferencing saves the state money it would otherwise have to spend on vehicles, gasoline, correctional officers and overtime …
The Pennsylvania Prison Society, a nonprofit advocacy group, has partnered with the state Department of Corrections since 2001 to allow inmates’ families to come to the organization’s offices and speak on a video link with their loved ones serving time. A 55-minute session costs the family $20, according to the group’s Web site. While virtual visitation has primarily been hailed for making visitations between inmates and their families easier, some state officials see savings for the taxpayer as well. When family members don’t come to visit inmates in prison, “that’s one less person that has to be searched. That’s one less person you need to use full-time staff to keep an eye on during visitation,” said Michael Nail, deputy director of the corrections division for the Georgia Department of Corrections. In addition, Nail said, videoconferencing reduces the possibility that contraband material — such as drugs or weapons — will find its way into prison.
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