Video Visitation and Online Scheduling
Updated October 19
The Michigan Department of Corrections has launched a new video visitation pilot to offer an avenue for those incarcerated and their families to safely connect during the pandemic.
Video visitation successfully began on Oct. 12 at Parnall Correctional Facility, on Oct. 16 at G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility, and on Oct. 19 at Duane Waters Health Center/Charles Egeler Reception & Guidance Center’s C-Unit.
Video visiting will be rolled out to the other pilot facilities in the next month. Those facilities include Chippewa, Ionia, Richard A. Handlon and Women’s Huron Valley correctional facilities.
“Contact with friends and family is so important to the prison population, that’s why we worked hard to explore new technologies that could allow them to connect with their loved ones during this time,” said Michigan Department of Corrections Director Heidi Washington. “This is one step we are taking to safely restore contact between prisoners and their families, while protecting the health and well-being of everyone at our facilities. Video visitation will not replace contact visiting in the future, but it is a safe option we can proceed with during the pandemic.”
Here are the basic steps that an Approved Visitor should follow:
Step 1: The Approved Visitor should navigate to the GTL Visitor Web site: https://midoc.gtlvisitme.com/app
Step 2: The Approved Visitor will need to create an account on the GTL Visitor Web Site and request to visit the prisoner at SMT.
Step 3: Once approved on the GTL site, the Approved Visitor will then be able to request a scheduled video visit for prisoners at SMT.
Length of video visits: 20 minutes (with 10 minutes between).
Cost of video visits: The cost of a scheduled twenty (20) minute video visit is $3.20. The video visit must be paid for in advance by the person scheduling the visit.
Scheduling window: Video Visits may be scheduled no less than 72 hours in advance of the scheduled visit and not after 48 hours.
What about video visits at other pilot facilities? Additional updates will be made to the chart below as they become available.
If you see a date that is listed To Be Determined (TBD), please note that the vendors are on-track as they move toward each Installation Start Date. A firm date for when scheduling can begin cannot be determined until the infrastructure installation is completed.
Concurrent with the video visitation deployment, the MDOC is also working on Visitation Management (scheduling) Software. This software allows approved visitors to schedule their in-person and video visits in advance.
At this time, friends and family will have the opportunity to schedule a video visit at Parnall and G. Robert Cotton correctional facilities, Duane Waters Health Center and at Charles E. Egeler Reception & Guidance Center’s C-Unit. They will soon have the opportunity at the other pilot sites once scheduling software has been installed there. Those incarcerated at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility will submit requests and schedule video visits through a separate vendor.
Once this pilot is complete, the department plans to offer video visitation and online scheduling at all correctional facilities statewide. Online scheduling will also be available for in-person visiting once it has been determined those visits can safely begin again. At this time, a date has not been set for when in-person visiting will resume, and the department continues to monitor the status of the virus around the state to determine when it might be safe to do so.
To protect the health of staff, prisoners, and the public, the MDOC suspended visitation at correctional facilities statewide on March 13. Following that suspension, Director Washington convened a visiting operations committee to explore options for safely re-instituting prisoner visits, which resulted in the recommendation for this video visitation pilot.
Members of the MDOC’s Visiting Operations Committee are meeting multiple times per week with pilot vendors GTL and ATG to ensure continued forward progress is being achieved.
Video visiting is just one step towards safely restoring contact between prisoners and their loved ones. It is not the intent to replace contact visiting in the future, but a safe option while we are facing this pandemic.
As we move forward, we will continue to share updates including information about the pricing/payment model, compatible technology and special procedures related to video visitation.
