Miami jail inmates get free video calls with family as COVID-19 keeps visits off limits

With Miami-Dade jails still off limits because of the coronavirus, relatives will soon be able to visit inmates behind bars via free video chats.

The county corrections department announced Tuesday that it will unveil a program that allows anyone, including defense lawyers, to schedule free 15-minute video chats with inmates. Reservations will be taken on a first-come, first-serve basis through this county-run website.

Visits will run 7 days a week, between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., and between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. Each inmate gets one free video visit each week from friends or family, chats that are recorded and monitored.

Lawyers, however, get unlimited video calls with inmates and those are not recorded to protect attorney-client privilege.

The program is being run by GTL, a private company that also manages the phone system Miami-Dade jail inmates use to call family.

“Attorneys and the general public will be able to schedule visits from the comfort of their own home, office or anywhere equipped with a computer, camera and high-speed internet access,” Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a press release.

The program is being launched nearly two months after the Miami-Dade jail system suspended in-person inmate visitation because of the threat of the highly contagious virus spreading behind bars. As arrests have fallen across South Florida, lawyers and judges have worked to thin the ranks of the jail, from about 4,000 before the pandemic to about 3,200.

Still, the virus has spread behind bars — with over 300 inmates catching it as testing has expanded behind bars. One inmate, Charles Hobbs, has since died of the coronavirus and other medical complications.

The conditions at the Metro West Detention Center have been alarming enough that a group of “medically vulnerable” inmates filed a federal lawsuit seeking their release. A federal judge ordered the county to give inmates soap, masks and cleaning supplies; an appeals court overturned her and the litigation is ongoing.

Miami-Dade County says it has been providing supplies to inmates and doing its best to make inmates socially distance in what are generally close quarters.

Coronavirus-positive inmates who have been quarantined will still be able to use the video-visitation program because kiosks are being set up in each “unit,” or dorm, according to the jails.

“We believe that visitation is important in maintaining and strengthening family especially during obvious periods of stress, and to assist in maintaining appropriate ties to the community,” Miami-Dade Corrections Director Daniel Junior said in a statement.

This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 6:00 AM.