Corrections Department to use videoconferencing for inmate visits

BANGKOK: -- The Department of Corrections will apply information technology (IT) to facilitate family visits by using video conferencing instead of in-person visits to inmates, Director General Nathee Chitsawang said Monday.

Mr. Nathee today demonstrated the use of videoconferencing technology, saying the new visiting mode will facilitate relatives of prisoners meeting their loved-ones via the computer screen.

In some cases the new technology could reduce the cost of family transportation -- especially if inmate families are living in provinces far from the correctional facility.

Prison guards can also reduce their burden of checking and body-searching visitors to prisoners before their visits.

The director general said that the Department would also use video conferences to contact judges to request extensions of the detention period of defendants pending on trial.

The system could help reduce risks as it would no longer be necessary to take the defendants to court, he said.

The Department plans to official start the new service on Dec 29, he said, with 37 prisons at first offering the service, and that another 20 prisons would soon have videoconferencing.

Under the new service, the inmates' families had to book visits at least 10 days in advance to check the qualifications of both inmates and families.

They would be allow to meet the inmates for 15 minutes and the prisoners' families had to be responsible for the cost of long distance call of each visit, he said.

The director general adds that the visiting gave moral support to the inmates and could help prepare inmates before they return to society.

--TNA 2005-12-19

Corrections Department to use videoconferencing for inmate visits

BANGKOK: -- The Department of Corrections will apply information technology (IT) to facilitate family visits by using video conferencing instead of in-person visits to inmates, Director General Nathee Chitsawang said Monday.

Mr. Nathee today demonstrated the use of videoconferencing technology, saying the new visiting mode will facilitate relatives of prisoners meeting their loved-ones via the computer screen.

They would be allow to meet the inmates for 15 minutes and the prisoners' families had to be responsible for the cost of long distance call of each visit, he said.

The director general adds that the visiting gave moral support to the inmates and could help prepare inmates before they return to society.

--TNA 2005-12-19

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Ah yes theres nothing like hugging a monitor during those conjugal visits