Toolkit: Does your county ban visits?

Is your county violating children’s right to hug their incarcerated parents? This guide will help you determine the status of family visits for children and parents in your county and investigate how your county government got to this point.

What you need to know before you get started  

Who is in charge of the jail visitation policies in your county?

Typically, after an arrest, people are released as their case proceeds and it is either dismissed, they plead guilty, or go to trial. When people are not released pretrial, they are detained in the county jail. The majority of people in county jails are being detained pretrial even though they are supposed to be presumed innocent. And the majority of people detained prior to trial are detained solely because their families lack enough cash to pay money bail.  

In general, jails are run by the county government and are managed by a county sheriff department. So, to change the visitation policy and telecom contract at your county jail the target government will usually be your county government and county sheriff. 

If there is a campaign in your state to make jail and prison phone calls free, to create legislation requiring in-person visits, or to make jailing presumed innocent people prior to trial more difficult, the state legislature may also be a target for your organizing. 

Can you request information about this from the government?

Every state has a law that entitles people to read government documents. However, these “freedom of information” or “sunshine” or “open records” laws vary slightly from state to state. In this guide, we’ve included template language for the substance (what you are asking for) of an information request. We suggest copy-pasting this substance into a template for your state created by the National Freedom of Information Coalition available here. To learn more about information requests in general, see the Center for Constitutional Rights Guide: FOIA Basics for Activists. And for tips on requests in the legal system, see this Prison Policy Initiative resource.

Who is already working on this issue in my area?

Before you get started check if there are community members and organizations in your area who are already working on this issue. They may already have this information and you can join forces!

Now it’s time to investigate!

Note: Step 1 of this toolkit will help you figure out whether your county is banning visits. Steps 2-4 will help you get more information on whether your county is putting profit over people by banning visits to make money.

Step 1: How can people connect with their jailed loved ones?

First, let’s figure out how families can visit and/or call people in your county jail. 

  • Look up the jail website in your area. Find any relevant information on how you can visit someone held there. 

  • Call the jail and ask how to visit as well. It is important to confirm the website information is accurate! 

💡Tip: Don’t get tricked by telecom advertising! Many telecom companies use deceptive, sweet-sounding advertising to obscure the cruelty of their technology facilitating visitation bans. For example, telecom companies call talking to a loved one through a tablet a “video visit”—we call this a “video call.” These calls are typically recorded, monitored, grainy, and glitchy.  We reject their language and strongly suggest only using “visit” to refer to spending time together in person.

Step 2: What is in the jail telecom contract?

Second, find the contract that defines the relationship between your county and the telecom provider. 

  • Start here to see if the Prison Policy Initiative has already saved the contract for your county

  • IF the contract is missing THEN you need to submit an information request. 

Example request: Contract Request to King’s County California

Substantive language for information request:

  1. Any contracts or other agreements executed since January 1, 2000 between COUNTY NAME County and any provider of telephone and/or video communication services utilized at the COUNTY NAME County Jail

  2. Any and all attachments, exhibits, and addendums to the documents described in section 1 of this request.

Option to learn more: Investigate the contract options and contract selection process. Did the county follow the law during the selection process? What were the agreed upon rates for phone and video calls?

Contracts are agreements between a government agency (county sheriff) and a service provider (telecom company). Almost all government contracts are signed after a competitive bidding process. First, governments share a request for proposals (RFP). Then, companies submit proposals. Based on the proposals, companies and the government can negotiate. Finally, the government chooses a proposal and the contract is signed.

Example request: Contract and RFP Process Request to Cuyahoga County Ohio

Substantive language for information request:

  1. Any Requests for Proposals (RFPs) issued by COUNTY NAME County since January 1, 2000 relating to the provision of phone, video calling, and visitation services at the COUNTY NAME County Jail;

  2. Any responses to the RFPs described in section 1 of this request; 

  3. Any addenda to the RFPs described in section 1 of this request (i.e. questions or answers made as part of any formal procurement/bidding process since January 1, 2000 relating to the provision of phone, video calling, and visitation services at the COUNTY NAME County Jail);

  4. Any contracts or other agreements executed since January 1, 2000, between COUNTY NAME County and any provider of telephone and/or video communication services utilized at the COUNTY NAME County Jail;

  5. Any documents used or generated to evaluate RFP responses described in section 2 of this request; and

  6. Any contracts or other agreements executed since January 1, 2000, between COUNTY NAME County and any provider of telephone and/or video communication services utilized at the COUNTY NAME County Jail

  7. Any and all attachments, exhibits, and addendums to the documents described in sections 1-6 of this request.

💡Tip: If the agency says you need to narrow your request, we suggest re-submitting separate requests for each bullet point. The most important bullet is #4: “Any contracts or other agreements executed since January 1, 2000, between COUNTY NAME County and any provider of telephone and/or video communication services utilized at the COUNTY NAME County Jail;” because this is the request that will lead to the contract determining current video and phone call rates.

Step 3: Which individuals are responsible for that contract?

Third, you can investigate which specific politicians and bureaucrats were responsible for that contract. This means getting emails and meeting notes before, during, and after the bidding process. 

  • First, google around to find the meeting where the contract was approved and any news stories from the time. Suggested places to start: the county website, local news sites, press releases from elected officials.

    • For example, in Flint, we found the county commissioner’s meeting and a newspaper article discussing intentional profiteering when the telecom contract was signed

  • Second, submit an information request for emails, meeting notes, and communications about the contract

Example request: Emails and Revenue Projection Request to Washington County Minnesota

Substantive language for information request:

  1. Any communications since January 1, 2000, including but not limited to emails, minutes, notes, text messages, recommendations, reports, made or received by an agent of COUNTY NAME that contains one or more of the key terms below:

    1. Jail visit

    2. Inmate visit

    3. Video visit

    4. Inmate video

    5. Video call

    6. Inmate call

    7. TELECOM PROVIDER NAME (for example, “Securus”)

    8. RFP NUMBER (see step two)

💡Tip: if the county insists your request is “overbroad” or “too burdensome” you can 1) cut down on keywords, especially words that may appear in multiple contracts (for example, “visitation” in family court case files) then 2) ask for a narrower time range. Or, if the county’s positions seem unreasonable or are having the effect of blocking you from getting basic information to which you are entitled, you can consult with an attorney specializing in freedom of information litigation.

Step 4: How much does the county profit?

Fourth, you can figure out how much money the county is making off these price-gouging practices. 

  • First, look for the county budgets. These are usually publicly available. The Sheriff’s department may have a line item for phone, video, tablet, and messaging profits.

  • Second, submit an information request for the profits from this telecom contract.

Example request: Emails and Revenue Projection Request to Washington County Minnesota

Substantive language for information request:

  1. Any records made since January 1, 2000, projecting future revenue that could be generated from the provision of phone, video calling, and visitation services in jails in COUNTY NAME;

  2. Any records documenting the revenue generated by the provision of phone, video calling, and visitation services at jails in COUNTY NAME since January 1, 2000;

  3. Any reports created since January 1, 2000, documenting the number of phone calls and/or video visits that people incarcerated in COUNTY NAME make or made per day, week, month, or year.

Step 5: Fight Back!

First, see if your state has a pending campaign to lower phone and video call costs statewide here.

Second, reach out to your county government and pressure them to pass a law 1) requiring in-person contact visitation and 2) cancel their for-profit contract.

Experiencing pushback or need help? Reach out to Worth Rises, Prison Policy Initiative, Public Justice, and/or Civil Rights Corps and we can help you think about next steps or put you in touch with local people working for the right to hug. Please feel free to share any information and documents you find with us too!

…and don’t stop asking questions! Visitation bans are one of many, MANY ways your local jail may be cruelly and/or illegally jailing people.

Case Study

In Kalamazoo, Michigan, we asked…

How can people connect with their jailed loved ones? We googled “Kalamazoo County Jail” and found the website for the jail. We called the number listed on the website and learned from a desk officer there is no in-person visitation, only on-site video calls.

  • 💡Tip: if you’re interested in a lawsuit or pitching to journalists, make sure to ask the first and last name of the desk officer and write down the date and time of your call.

What is the jail telecom contract? We checked the Prison Policy Initiative database and found a current Kalamazoo County contract.

Which individuals are responsible? We submitted an information request and got internal notes and bidding documents. These documents showed basing the decision of which company to contract with on county profits.

How much does the county profit? We submitted an information request and got the monthly revenue for phone and video calls paid to Kalamazoo by telecom company GTL.