Plan bars jails from restricting in-person visits
Budget bill would ban facilities from offering video-only meetings.
SACRAMENTO — California county jails will not be able to restrict faceto-face family visits for inmates under a budget plan approved Thursday by state lawmakers.
The measure prohibits local detention facilities that offered in-person visits as of Jan. 1 from converting to video-only visitation.
Over the last five years, an increasing number of jails and prisons across California and nationwide have moved to offer Skypelike video visits through phone and computer screens. But some jails have used the video systems to replace on-site meetings that have traditionally occurred through a glass window.
Under the budget bill approved Thursday, counties would not be allowed to charge for the first hour of video visitation or to charge at all when that video visitation takes place at the jail.
Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed similar efforts in a bipartisan bill last year, pointing to the development of new state agency regulations underway. But at a joint legislative oversight hearing in February, public safety subcommittee members scrutinized the new rules, saying they went against the governor’s directive and the state’s rehabilitation goals.
An initial budget proposal would have required all but eight jails to provide space for in-person visitations.