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New videos: Video visitation is not “just like Skype”

4 short comedy videos reject that video visits are "just like Skype"

by Bernadette Rabuy, February 18, 2015

Last month, we released a new report, Screening Out Family Time: The for-profit video visitation industry in prisons and jails. Despite exciting press coverage and a victory in Portland, Oregon, where that sheriff agreed to bring back in-person visits, county jails and private companies are still conspiring to ban traditional family visits.

In response, we collaborated with NYC comedians to challenge the industry’s offensive claim that video visitation is “just like Skype” with 4 short videos. The comedians take on banning in-person visits, the high cost, how hard the systems are to use, and that these services make eye contact difficult.

Watch all 4 videos:

Thank you Siobhan Beasley, Phebe Szatmari, Haldane McFall, Luke Delahanty, Ben Rosen, Ted Alexandro, and Dewey Caddell for showing us that it’s possible to make people laugh while raising awareness about one of the most upsetting “innovations” to hit criminal justice in years.

Bernadette Rabuy is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Prison Policy Initiative. (Other articles | Full bio | Contact)

3 responses:

  1. […] new comedy videos taking on the video visitation industry’s outrageous claims that charging $29.95 for a crappy […]

  2. […] be looking for writers, actors, editors, camera people, graphic designers, etc. In February, some amazing comedians produced a series of videos that successfully shamed the video visitation industry into dropping its ban on in-person visits. […]

  3. […] While the Texas law is a major step forward in rejecting the use of video as a replacement to in-person visits, more than 30 counties have applied to be exempted. We hope that these counties will follow in the footsteps of Travis County and listen to families who have long been saying video chats are simply not the same as in-person visits. […]



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