Can Inmates Have Video Visitation With Family?

Video visitation has become increasingly common in correctional facilities over the past decade, driven largely by private companies that secure exclusive contracts with individual jails and prisons to provide the service. Whether it is available to your inmate depends entirely on whether the specific facility has signed one of those contracts.

County jails have been among the earliest and most aggressive adopters of video visitation, in part because the technology allows facilities to reduce the staffing and security costs associated with in-person visits. Companies like Securus, GTL, and others have integrated video visitation into their broader telecommunications packages and pitch it to facilities as an add-on to their existing phone contracts. When a facility adopts the service, visits can be conducted remotely through a computer, tablet, or smartphone rather than requiring a trip to the facility.

For families, video visitation offers a real convenience benefit, particularly for those who live far from the facility or have difficulty making in-person visits due to work schedules, transportation, or childcare. Seeing the inmate's face and having a real-time visual conversation is meaningfully different from a phone call.

There is a cost to the service, typically charged per session, and critics have noted that in some facilities the introduction of video visitation has come alongside a reduction or elimination of free in-person visits, which can actually reduce access for families who cannot afford the video fees. Whether in-person visits remain available alongside video should be confirmed with the specific facility.

To find out if video visitation is available for your inmate, check the facility's website or call their inmate services department and ask specifically whether video visits are offered and which platform they use.