By C1 Staff
CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, using equipment and support supplied by Strike Industries, launched the world’s first mobile inmate video visitation bus.
Strike Industries reports that the county pulled the bus together for residents with inmates at the county jail to use when they might otherwise not be able to make the trip to the jail’s current visitation center.
The bus was purchased and equipped with a grant from the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) and outfitted with five laptop computers/workstations. Strike Industries also provided five codec gateways to allow visitors on the bus to visit any inmate throughout the jail facility in the same manner as those at the visitor’s center.
When rolled out, the bus will travel through various communities and be available on location to residents. Two initial sites have been approved for a pilot program.
It’s hoped that the bus will facilitate visitations for residents who face transportation challenges or other hardships in getting to the jail’s visitation center, which is also currently operating at full capacity.
The Pinellas County Jail’s visitation center currently operates with 67 video visitation booths, which conduct 8,000 inmate visits per month. Demand is so high, visitors can be forced to wait two or three weeks to get an appointment.
The bus will help alleviate some of that demand, and if it’s a success, more such vehicles could follow in its wake.