{"id":7679,"date":"2011-07-27T12:04:11","date_gmt":"2011-07-27T19:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=7679"},"modified":"2011-07-27T12:04:11","modified_gmt":"2011-07-27T19:04:11","slug":"online-visits-for-jail-inmates-coming-to-lewis-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=7679","title":{"rendered":"Online visits for jail inmates coming to Lewis County"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter
\n<\/strong>
\nCHEHALIS – The Lewis County Jail is moving forward to install an Internet-based system for visitation with inmates that some are hoping will be expanded to offer a form of telecommuting in other parts of the local criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

Inmates have not enjoyed face-to-face visits for years, since the new jail was built and a video screen visitation system was installed in the Chehalis facility.<\/p>\n

But Jail Chief Kevin Hanson says that equipment is antiquated and hard-wired into the building; and he’s found a program he says is more versatile.<\/p>\n

If inmates have family who live far away, they would not have to drive to Chehalis for a visit, according to Hanson. They could just log in from home, he said.<\/p>\n

It could still only happen during the inmate’s scheduled visitation time and would cost the user about $9 for a 30 minute session, according to Hanson.<\/p>\n

And, while children are not allowed into the the jail for visits under the current setup, they could visit through the Internet system, he said.<\/p>\n

Another advantage is the session would be archived for a period of time, and will be a good tool for detectives investigating certain crimes by watching the visits.<\/p>\n

The system could potentially be used by others, according to Hanson. For example, defense attorneys could have meetings with their incarcerated clients over the Internet.<\/p>\n

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer could perhaps avoid the expense of flying in expert witnesses for trials, by putting them “virtually” on the witness stand, according to Hanson.<\/p>\n

Hanson said they hope to have the new visitation system in place by this fall, and move on to phase two of the plan; using it for video arraignments in court.<\/p>\n

Centralia Municipal Court and Chehalis Municipal Court are on board with the idea, according to Hanson.<\/p>\n

Hanson and Sheriff Steve Mansfield have touted the cost savings and increased security from not having to transport inmates to the courts to actually see judges.<\/p>\n

Centralia Police Chief Bob Berg said last week he likes the idea of his officers not having to drive over to jail to bring inmates back to Centralia for court.<\/p>\n

“It would save us a lot of money, but what really sold me on it is increased security of the court,” Berg said.<\/p>\n

The judges in Lewis County Superior Court and Lewis County District Court are opposed to video arraignments\u00a0 in their courtrooms however.<\/p>\n

District Court Judge Michael Roewe cites a number of factors including their belief it violates court rules and would impose unnecessary work on other participants working in the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Jail is moving forward to install an Internet-based system for visitation with inmates that some are hoping will be expanded to offer a form of telecommuting in other parts of the local criminal justice system. Inmates have not enjoyed face-to-face visits […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-7679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7679"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7681,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7679\/revisions\/7681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}