By Elizabeth Johanson
Copyright hoodline
In a move aimed at modernizing the experience of connecting with incarcerated individuals, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has announced that Pinellas County Jail will transition to fully remote visitations. This significant shift in protocol is set to begin on September 30, as detailed in a recent social media post from the sheriff’s office.
The shift to remote visitation offers a level of flexibility previously unattainable for friends and family of inmates. With the new system in place, visitation hours will be extended from 8 AM to 10 PM daily. Participants can now schedule visits in advance, or inmates can initiate “on-demand” visits, eliminating the need for travel and addressing what once were significant transportation barriers. Instead of the previous arrangement which required individuals to visit the jail’s visitation center, they can now connect via computer or smartphone from virtually anywhere.
Enhancements also include the ability to send email messages containing up to 30,000 characters, and the sharing of photos, provided they are deemed appropriate. In a significant increase in access, each inmate will now be allowed four free 30-minute video visits per week. This upgrade is a marked contrast to the former system which allowed for only a limited number of visits at the jail’s physical visitation center due to staffing and space constraints.
Prior to this change, in-person visitation at Pinellas County Jail was restricted to limited daylight hours and the visitation center could support a maximum of 40 visits at any given time. However, due to staff and monitoring requirements, the number of simultaneous visits was habitually capped at 23. The full details of these changes can be found in the latest edition of “Inside the Star,” available at a link provided by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page.
