No family visits to new jail
Inmates will have to use video to talk with spouses at remote site
Laura Drake
Edmonton Journal
Monday, October 19, 2009
CREDIT: Terry Bourque Photography
Aerial view taken in August of remand centre under construction in northwest Edmonton.
Family and friends will not be allowed to visit inmates at the new $620-million Edmonton Remand Centre when it opens in early 2012.
Instead, all contact with loved ones will be conducted via video from an off-site location--a first for any jail in Canada.
The province says the switch will be more efficient, eliminating screening for visitors and allowing as many as 1,400 more contacts with prisoners each day.
But those close to inmates are decrying the change, fearful the setup will rob visits of real emotional connection.
"It wouldn't be the same. At least (in person) they'd get to see your face, but over a screen it's not real. I wouldn't find it to be real," says Carrie, whose husband recently finished a two-month stint in the current downtown remand centre.
Under the new system, visitors will travel to a yet-to-be built off-site centre equipped with video booths linked to kiosks set up in the inmates' living area. At a prearranged time, the two sides will sit down at their respective booths and talk electronically.
Visitors must now show up at remand 15 minutes early and go through security screening. They are then escorted to a row of 12 booths, where they are separated from the inmate by glass and speak through a phone.
It was a process Carrie, who asked not to have her last name used, and her husband did at least once a week, something she calls critical to their wellbeing and doesn't think can be replicated on video.
"I don't think there would be that satisfaction of having that one-on-one. A video screen is not that person in front of you. A video screen is just TV. The feeling wouldn't be there. I think it would cause too much emotion and stress on inmates, because there's not that eye contact."
Defence lawyers are shocked by the new arrangement.
"The biggest concern for the inmates is going to be the lack of human contact with their family," says Brian Hurley, past president of Edmonton's Criminal Trial Lawyers Association.
Lawyers will be able to use a separate, secure court video system to talk to their clients, or go in person to the remand centre, where there will be space for them, says Kevin O'Brien, programming director for the new facility.
Friends or family would only be allowed to use that same space in extreme circumstances, such as a death in the family, he says.
Maureen Collins, executive director of the Edmonton John Howard Society, a charity that works with prisoners and their families, says visits are vital for inmates.
"The connection to family and friends and people in the community is incredibly important," she says. "We know for a fact if people feel socially isolated, or there isn't the opportunity to stay connected, that it's very difficult when people come back to society."
The average stay in remand, which primarily houses people awaiting trial, is slightly more than 18 days, according to the Solicitor General's office. However, there are cases where people are held for years before their charges are dealt with, Collins says.
"There's a lot of tension inherent inside the remand centre situation because nobody knows what their circumstance is," she says.
"There is a comfort about seeing a person in person, even though there's glass, and that's the loss (with video)."
While she imagines there will be a lot of resistance to video visitation at first from inmates and their families, she also sees a lot of benefits to the new system.
For one thing, the centre's remote location at 18415 127th St. means many people can't get there because it is not on a bus route.
The province is looking for about 450 square metres of space served by transit for the video centre, O'Brien says.
Visitors will undergo less scrutiny there than they do now. Collins hopes there will be access to information and services for family and friends who go to the video centre.
As well, O'Brien says the new system will make many more visits possible. "We're looking at having 60 kiosks, and if we're running visits every half-hour, we're looking at the ability of having 1,600 visits a day."
Although the new remand centre will be the first in Canada to have such video visiting, O'Brien says that as other correctional institutions introduce similar systems, it will be possible to harmonize them, so visitors could go to the video centre nearest them and talk to an inmate anywhere in the province.
Collins says that would be a real benefit, but it isn't in the cards right away.
Ultimately, the system will have to be judged once users decide how well it mimics seeing a loved one in the flesh, she says.
"It's the family and those who are visiting who will have the real answer."
© The Edmonton Journal 2009
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