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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  3687 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Texas Jails Adopting Profitable, Video-Only

I designed my first and only video visitation system in 2004. Back then, VoIP was in its infancy. Ours was intended to increase security; there was no pathway out of the prison so if you wanted a "video visit" with an inmate, you had to schlep down to the cell block anyway. We did it with a 256x128 Autopatch Epica, at the time, the largest ever built, bigger than the NYSE's. Fun fact: we had to buy two of them because the fire contractor decided to pressure test over the weekend and the only place it leaked was over our half-million-dollar switcher, which turned into a big purple aquarium.

Less fun fact: it costs a prisoner a dollar a minute to call out anyway. Less fun fact: they're making 13 cents an hour anyway. Less fun fact: they can't call collect, which means to call you the money is coming from you, which you have to send Western Union, which they're getting a cut of anyway. And less fun fact: they're eliminating video visitation anyway.

This is all that with some video visitation thrown in.