teleSUR English | 9/25/2016
County jails are substituting in-person visitations with expensive video calls, and a bill has made it to California Governor Jerry Brown’s desk to stop that from happening—but he might not sign it. After sitting almost a month on his desk, he has less than a week left to sign.
The video technology has mostly made inroads into county jails—others may catch on but had to be written out of the bill because of politics around public funds—and is already a hit nationwide. This week, Cleveland, Ohio announced it would gain US$3 million a year after introducing the video option, almost four times as much as it currently pockets from Global Tel Link from phone bills.
Mothers, sons and daughters of inmates skipped school and work Tuesday to drive to Sacramento and deliver their petitions for the bill to pass, but they were stood up by Brown without warning. No rescheduling, no referral to anyone in his office, no explanation.
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Naomi Cohen | journalist 