Southern Illinois prison begins video visitation
ULLIN -- Inmates at the Tri County Detention Center in Pulaski County will be able to video chat with friends and family — for a fee.
The prison began using the HomeWAV system this month to let inmates virtually visit with people, without having the visitors travel to the facility in Ullin (UHL’-lihn), about 30 miles south of Carbondale.
Warden Damon Acuff says video visitations are “the wave of the future.”
The Southern Illinoisan reports (http://bit.ly/14FEIuc ) the video chats will soon be available 24 hours a day. Computer “visitation stations” with a PC, video monitor and webcam have been set up in the facility’s day rooms.
The HomeWAV system costs 50 cents a minute, plus an additional 50 cents for each video chat. That means a five-minute visit would cost $5.50.